I don't think I have had any masculinity crisis because I stayed at home. On the contrary, I would have been ashamed if I had been closer to the stereotype of the absent father. I was proud being with my son, I liked taking pictures with him in the babycarrier, those kind of things.

 

The biggest difficulty was getting up so many times at night. I have always been very methodical and disciplined in my sleep, and this has really messed me up. There was a period when I just stopped sleeping at all. I spent about five or six days without sleeping, even when I had the time because I just couldn't fall asleep. I had to be medicated. It was something that messed up my life.

 

My relationship with work has improved since I became a father. I've always been very anxious. I used to check emails at home as soon as I woke up, stayed connected afterwards, thinking about the next day. Now I get home and forget about it.

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The leave, besides being a period of personal growth, is a welcome break in the routine. In a sense, it's like a transformative journey, in which you take some time off and spend a sabbatical on a project. It's a very intense period, when you're going to do something completely different and transforming.