Maybe the real lesson here is that everything really is OK, and I just need to accept that sometimes shitty weeks happen. This doesn't undo the last two weeks, and in the long run it'll balance out.

I've had to make this the mantra of my life.

Maybe the real lesson here is that everything really is OK, and I just need to accept that sometimes shitty weeks happen. This doesn't undo the last two weeks, and in the long run it'll balance out.

There you go! That's much less stress-causing.

Really, I'm not trying to be a bitch; I just hate seeing you so stressed. You deserve to be un-stressed and enjoying your baby, your hubby, and your work.

Maybe the real lesson here is that everything really is OK, and I just need to accept that sometimes shitty weeks happen. This doesn't undo the last two weeks, and in the long run it'll balance out.

I've had to make this the mantra of my life.

Dude, that's a pretty decent mantra. Sometimes the bear blahblah.

It will probably be the same for you -- this year will be better, but still difficult. Which is maybe not so good info for keeping the stress down, but hopefully is enough to keep you from letting yourself feel unjustified as a self-employed person, even if you don't achieve all your personal business goals for the year. It's good to set goals, but don't judge yourself harshly if you don't achieve those. Just ask yourself if you improved from the year before.

Thanks, Sean. That helps.

I just hate seeing you so stressed, but it seems like you've created a situation where the options are stress or world-ending. And I don't think it's that black-and-white.

I know. It's just that I finally, FINALLY, know what I want to do, and I don't want to say it's OK if I get a regular job, or even it's OK if I can't finish the novel on or around the goal date I've set for myself (which is tied to the next time I'll have a good opportunity to schmooze with editors and agents), because, dammit, it took me so long to get to this point. I don't want to turn my back on it now.

Maybe the real lesson here is that everything really is OK, and I just need to accept that sometimes shitty weeks happen. This doesn't undo the last two weeks, and in the long run it'll balance out.

That sounds right to me. (eta: incessant baby crying is of the crazy making. between the noise and the wanting desperately to make it better but not being able to, oit really sucks)

Dude, that's a pretty decent mantra. Sometimes the bear blahblah.

"I like your style, Dude, but do you have to curse so much?"

"What the fuck are you talking about, man?"

Part of living with an infant is admitting that you no longer control your schedule. If the child doesn't sleep, you don't sleep. If the child is sick, you don't get work done. If the child is screaming, you don't get work done. Sometimes simple events, like changing clothes or bathing, take nine times as long as you imagined possible.

That's the way it is. Don't punish yourself for events that are completely outside your control.

Maybe the real lesson here is that everything really is OK, and I just need to accept that sometimes shitty weeks happen. This doesn't undo the last two weeks, and in the long run it'll balance out.

This is so what I found with Jake, who was my first. I would adjust to whatever schedule he had grooved into -- and he would immediately change it. And I was writing at home then, too, even though it was on a smaller scale.

The thing is, the paying work probably has to come first, right? Because you've decided you'd rather work at home. So make that your priority, and then take the writing time as you can. It's great to have goals and self-imposed deadlines, but as long as you're making *some* kind of progress over the long term, one day not writing isn't going to screw it up for good. And the older Annabel gets, the easier it will be to get her interested in a video for half an hour, or trade some baby-sitting with another mom.

La Tep is wise, though. I hate to see you so stressed all the time. You have wonderful goals, but not meeting each and every one of them every day is *not* a failure. It's just life, and you doing the very best you can.

"I like your style, Dude, but do you have to curse so much?"

"What the fuck are you talking about, man?"

Ahahahahaha!

after more than five minutes really starts getting to you, especially if you've been spoiled by what was previously an easygoing, non-fussy baby

I am so with you here. Owen along with developing a personality, has his own ideas of what he should be doing. This has resulted in more fits and crying than I was previously used to. I felt very inadequate in dealing with it, since I thought I had dodged a bullet with a very malleable infant. I'm learning, though.

Just when you think you have the baby figured out--they go and pull a switch on you. Keeps life interesting.