'FaceTime Mommy:' UNC doctor, working mom says there's no 'balance,' just love and grace in popular Instagram post

Jasmine Johnson, an OB-GYN resident at UNC Health Care in Chapel Hill, has had an exhausting few weeks. As she finishes up her residency, the mom of two came clean on Instagram about how absolutely tired she is and just how much she was missing at home.

Posted 4:55 p.m. May 30, 2018 — Updated 6:28 p.m. May 30, 2018

Sarah Lindenfeld Hall

, Go Ask Mom editor

Jasmine Johnson, an OB-GYN resident at UNC Health Care in Chapel Hill, has had an exhausting few weeks.

As she finishes up her residency, the mom of two came clean on Instagram about how absolutely tired she is and just how much she was missing at home.

"I can’t sleep," she wrote in the emotional Instagram post that's garnered more than 2,000 likes in the past few days. "And it’s probably because, for the last seven weeks I’ve belonged to the night...I have slept through morning routines watching video replays later as I hurried to the OR as my family prepared for dinner."

Johnson, who has her own blog called The Mrs. The Mommy. The M.D., goes on to say she's celebrated - and supported - other families during important milestones and devastating moments in recent days, but she hasn't been there for her family.

"I have been there to help some families grow in the most intimate way, and to grieve with other families for loss unimaginable - while missing my own family’s birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays," she wrote. "I have been an 80 hour a week leader to my mid-level and intern, while being an absent, FaceTime mommy."

Lots of working moms aren't busy doctors wrapping up their residencies, but I'm sure they can relate to being a "FaceTime mommy" as they set out on business trips or stay late at work to wrap up a project. But, there are upsides, Johnson writes, like spending time with supportive colleagues and pursuing her dream.

"I have laughed until my face hurt with resident and nurse friends who have become family, but later crying in an empty house for the kids I haven’t seen in days," Johnson writes. "I have felt so much love for the work that I do, while so much yearning for the stark contrast of the life that duty calls me, time and time again, to leave behind."

But, despite the upheaval in her life, Johnson shares there are plenty of reasons to celebrate.

"As I look forward to the short three weeks I have left of residency, I can’t help but thank God for the husband, the kids, the parents, the brothers, the friends who kept me going. Who lifted (and continue to lift) me up," she writes. "Who didn’t let me feel like I was choosing a lifelong dream over them. Who let me be both."

And, as lots of us working moms struggle for so-called balance in our careers and family lives, Johnson lays it all out.

"There is no balance," she writes. "There is only love. And grace. And doing the best you can. This is medicine. This is motherhood. This is the pendulum that swings every day."

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