State of the Texty: Baby Germs Edition

[textualdeviance]

First off, what y'all really want: A crapload of pics of my kid. :)

And now, on to

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Said little human larva has been pretty much the entirety of my recent waking life--and quite a lot of the sleeping life, too, given some of the horrific parenting-related nightmares I've had. Not, of course that I've actually been sleeping all that much. We had a decent split-shift thing going on--M doing days, me doing the night shift, and all together in the evenings--but that kind of flew out the window Monday, when I had a bunch of daytime appointments and couldn't get my usual sleep then. Fortunately, we've managed to get the kid to sleep in a bassinet in our room, so we can both sleep at night to some degree as needed, and whichever one of us is perky enough can get up when he starts getting fussy.

Truly, though, he's not been all that fussy just yet. He dislikes diaper changes, but that's about the only hollering he really does. We're tracking his input and output, and thus can predict with some regularity when he's going to need to eat, and be ready when he is, so he rarely gets screamy about an empty belly. He's had a little gas and other digestive issues, but he mostly gets through them with some tummy rubs and such. Otherwise, he's been an incredibly quiet and good baby, who's happy as a clam to just fall asleep in our arms and/or look around curiously, seeing whatever he can see with his not-yet-developed pretty little eyes. The one speed bump we had was his breathing got weird for a couple of days, and we ended up taking him to the doc ... to find that he simply had some gooey snot stuck in his wee schnoz, which wasn't coming out with my inexpert siphoning attempts. A bit of flushing out was all that took, and he's perfectly fine again.

What I understand from more-experienced parents is that Sheer Hell doesn't start until post-two weeks, when things like colic and existential angst start creeping in and contributing to moments of howling. Crossing my fingers we don't get too much of that. We'll see, I guess!

The other big project we've been working on as we have a bit of bandwidth is finishing putting together his nursery. We've had a changing table in there for a while, which has proven incredibly useful. A nice closet system and some shades got installed Monday, yesterday, M put the crib together, and today he installed the monitor system. Waiting for a glider, bedding, and a few other little bits, and then it'll be ready for occupation. Not that he'll be sleeping in there right away--he'll still be in the bassinet in our room for a while, yet--but having a proper place to sit with him will be nice.

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Related to all this, of course, is that we've slowly been building a relationship with the birthparents, who are awesome people. We've been keeping in touch via FB and other electronic means, and they'll be here for dinner on Saturday. Looking forward to it. It really has been amazing how much we have in common and how well we've gotten along so far. I really identify with with the birthmama a lot, actually. She reminds me so much of myself in my 20s. I hope this experience goes smoothly for her.

The bug also met a few new people on Sunday, at his first quasi-public outing at a friend's superbowl party. Mostly, we hung out in the corner and tried to play human germ shield, since his little immune system is so delicate and we're in the middle of the worst flu season in years. We'll likely have a few more visitors here and there, but we probably won't have a proper welcome-to-the-world party or take him out anywhere except doctor appointments and other critical things until he's had his shots. Just don't want to risk it. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I'd rather be paranoid and have people think I'm being ridiculous than try to be all cool and nonchalant and end up with a very sick kid. I'm perfectly fine with him getting germy and building his immune system after he's had a proper round of vaccines, but not until he's safe from the truly deadly stuff. I expect to kind of have a "hello, world" debut for him around the start of Spring. Kind of like the idea of introducing my fresh kid to a freshly-growing outside world. :)

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In the parts of my life that aren't directly related to my son: I'm tracking sales for my book, which seem to be doing fairly well, for a self-pub effort with next to no proper marketing. I had a two-day free sale a couple weekends ago, and it "sold" almost 200 copies that way, which is awesome. More people reading = more word of mouth and more proper sales. It really does seem amazing to me that I made two huge things happen so far this year: a word baby and a human baby. And if my son lets me have more than 10 minutes at a time to do something other than sleep, eat and care for him, I'll get going on the edit for the second one, too. Hoping to have that out by spring. I'm also hoping to start building a proper GoodReads profile, which should help with getting out the word that my stuff exists.

Whether/how any of this happens, I have no idea. M still has the rest of this week off, but he'll be going back for reviews next week, then taking his proper four weeks of family leave at some point after that. How I handle things without him being around for day shift, I have no idea. I'm guessing time to sit and write or do much of anything else won't really be an option right away. Still, I think I'll manage at some point. I do plan to eventually work from home, such as it is, however I can manage that. Might be we get a nanny or something at some point to give me some clear afternoons to work. Good thing I'm flexible with all this.

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Other than those two big things, there hasn't been much else going on. I'm hoping to start some seeds soon, and get my back yard ready for the spring bird influx, but those are way low on the priority list. We're also way behind on TV, and I'm practically nonexistent in fandom circles at the moment, which is as it should be, I imagine. Really, I only got into this fandom initially to keep myself from going bonkers while we saved up for, and then waited for the adoption. Now that that's happening, well ... fandom just isn't a big deal anymore. Keeping up with my fandom friends on a personal level is still a big deal, of course, but the objects of my fannish affection just don't hold remotely the same level of fascination for me as my beautiful son at the moment. :)

Comments

[thefirstalicat.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear things are going well so far, and keeping my fingers crossed on the future! Terran is of course adorable (even someone who doesn't like babies like me can see that), and I hope you're savouring every minute of your new life with him....

On the book-baby front, it occurred to me that you might want to send a review copy of Thunderstone to the book reviewer at F&SF, Charles de Lint (if you don't know his work, check him out - he's one of the pioneers of what's now known as "urban fantasy," an absolutely wonderful writer). You can send it to him at P.O. Box 9480, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1G 3V2. I thought of this because the new issue arrived here today, but it's a good idea. He's an excellent reviewer, very encouraging of new voices in sf/f, and if he likes your book, he'll likely review it in the magazine (okay, it doesn't have huge subscription numbers, but it's still the single most influential fantasy magazine in the world). Even if he doesn't like it, he's the sort of thoughtful person who'd likely send you a letter about his reasons for not liking it.... Worth a try, eh? And it'd only take a few moments to package and post the book!

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

Oh, great suggestion. Thanks!