Today’s post

…is over at the Pink Heart Society. I’m talking about writing for Harlequin Historicals, so stop by and visit!

Right now I have a sleeping baby on my lap, a roaring fireplace to keep me warm, and a manuscript to edit. We will not discuss the state of my house and the plethora of burp cloths, receiving blankets, and miscellaneous baby paraphenalia cluttering the downstairs. God help me if the neighbors stop by to visit. They’ll run screaming from the mess.

My grandmother, bless her, just sent me several pounds of Georgia pecans. I’m thinking bourbon balls would be a good use for them… Maybe if I double the bourbon, no one will notice that I haven’t vacuumed…

Adjusting to Newborns

I want to thank everyone once again for your good wishes and thoughts. We are re-adjusting to life with a newborn, but there was a little wrench thrown in. The baby’s bilirubin levels were a bit elevated (the pediatrician was worried about jaundice), and since everyone was off for the holidays, they sent an in-home nurse to have a look at him. The bilirubin still wasn’t going down, and so we had to put the baby in a photo blanket. The poor kid appeared radioactive, with this greenish light shining on his skin 24-7. Thankfully they don’t think it’s that bad now, but it sure was a pain because the blanket was plugged in, and it made diaper changes, naps, and nursing more challenging by having to juggle electronic equipment.

There were a few rough days when my husband and I got around 2-3 hours of sleep the whole night, and those were in fifteen and ten minute intervals. The only way to get him to sleep consecutive hours was to let him sleep on top of my chest while he was wearing the photo blanket. But the past two nights were great. I found this handy-dandy little sleeping outfit that is basically a velcro-swaddling device. You wrap your kid like a mummy, and they loooove it. My little man only woke up once last night at 1 a.m. for a feeding and he slept the rest of the time. Gotta love it.

We decorated the house for Christmas over the weekend, and so I thought I’d share a few photos of our Santa baby and his siblings. Now if I can only get over my post-pregnancy hormones that make me want to bawl myself senseless every time I hear about a new baby boy being born.

Have you started your holiday decorating yet? Or better yet, holiday baking? I’m in the mood to make some Christmas cookies already. Mmm….

Giving Thanks for Blessings

I wanted to thank everyone for their wonderful good wishes for a safe birth. The delivery went smoothly, and they even managed to give me an epidural, which was nice. They induced me at 8:00 a.m. and my son was born at 10:45 a.m. on November 21, 2007. He was 8 lbs, 14 ounces! His length was 21.5 inches, and he seems to be very healthy. We named him James Patrick.

My children were amazed to meet their new little brother, and both were clamoring to hold him. So far he has been a good baby, but he has his days and nights mixed up. He sleeps most of the day and wakes up every hour. There won’t be a lot of sleep in my future, but I feel very blessed to have him in our lives.

I realized that I missed Kim W.’s guess of the 21st when I went back to check the comments, so she is the winner! Kim, e-mail me your choice of book (Her Irish Warrior, The Warrior’s Touch, or Her Warrior King), and I’ll drop the signed book the mail.

Wishing all of you a wonderful holiday, and thanks so much for the prayers and good thoughts you sent our way.

Author Copies!

Today when I got home from my doctor’s appointment, I found my author copies of Her Warrior King waiting for me! Now that’s good timing.

I found out that I will be induced tomorrow morning at 7:30, since amniotic fluid was a bit on the low side. Yay for that! Ironically, no one guessed tomorrow as the due date (but there’s still a chance that it could be today, if the baby decides not to wait). If the child stays around until then, I will do a random drawing from those who guessed the 20th or the 22nd and see who our winner is (after I return from the hospital). Look for baby pictures probably on Friday or Saturday.

In the meantime, have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving and please keep me in your thoughts tomorrow. We are going to bump our family’s celebration to Friday since I will be in the hospital over the holiday.

Adventures in False Labor

So, Saturday night was somewhat exciting. After an hour and a half of contractions two minutes apart, we decided to go ahead and go to the hospital. They monitored me for another hour, but no progress. I walked the hospital hallways for a second hour…nothing. After three hours, they decided to send me home with a sleeping pill. Clearly this child is not coming out until it’s good and ready. I was quite disappointed that my doctor wasn’t on call because I swear, the man would have just given me a little Pitocin cocktail and we’d have been on the way. But, no. I am consoling myself with retail therapy (I need new pots and pans). Calphalon sounds good….

Here’s the current baby pool:

Monday 19th
Judy P. girl 12:30PM. 7lbs.
Tuesday 20th
Bonnie 6:30 a.m. boy 8 pounds 6 oz. 22 inches long
Crystal B. 1:38 pm girl 8 pounds 13 oz 21 inches long
Thursday 22nd
Beth M. 9:00 a.m. girl 7.14lbs
Friday 23rd
Julie C. 4:00 a.m. boy 8.2lbs
Saturday 24th
Holly noon boy 7.9 lbs 19.5 inches
Thursday 29th
Jeanne S. 11:29 boy 8.4 lbs 21 inches

Still working my way through revisions, right in the murky middle right now. I always hit a snag where I spend 2 days reworking a single scene and then I’ll blast my way through another 50 pages. Don’t know why, but that seems to be the way of it. Hopefully I can get this book sent off soon. In the meantime, maybe I’ll go bake some bread or plow a field.

Fun with Vocabulary

My husband directed me to this website which will donate rice to world hunger based on the vocabulary terms you get correct. Warning–it’s addictive!

What vocabulary level did you reach? I think the highest I managed was 42. My super genius husband got to level 45. Maybe he should be the one writing books…

Go Irish

No baby. However, the child is getting heavier by the minute, to the point when I sneezed this morning and blurted out, “OW!” at the top of my lungs. Geez, I thought I was going to shoot the baby across the room. My husband is not helping, because he laughs at me.

Anyway, the plan today is to keep revising the new book and watch Notre Dame football. I will pray that my beloved Fighting Irish don’t get killed by Duke. It’s been a long football season, and not a good one.

Kieran’s Home

I’ve been working on revisions for Slave to Her Desires and am about 1/3 of the way through. I was going through some of my research pictures, and I came across this photograph that I don’t think I’ve shared with you before. It’s a photograph of where my hero Kieran lives and the workspace he might use when it’s possible to do woodworking out of doors.

I’ve been talking with an archaeologist who teaches at the University College of Dublin and has written papers on medieval woodworking. I learned that they would carve wood while it was still green (freshly cut), and they used to use butter and animal fats to help prevent cracking. In the photograph here, the shelter to the left contains a hand-turned lathe where they could turn posts for furniture.

As for the stone hut itself, notice that there weren’t any windows! When I went inside, it was very dark, but I imagine it was also very cosy at night. My hero has to carve a wooden figure of the heroine, and I had a lot of fun with the scenes involving the “sittings” if that’s what you could call them.

At some point soon, I want to add more photographs to the For Readers page, because I have so many that relate to the books! I had such a good time in Ireland, I can’t wait to go back. For those of you who have read the books, are there any particular things you’d like to see? Scenery? Weapons? Just curious.

No baby yet. Clearly the child has plans to just stay in there forever. It’s a conspiracy. My friend Julie believes that anyone who asks a 9 months pregnant woman, “Hasn’t that baby come yet?” should be obligated to bring her a casserole after she gives birth. I’m beginning to see merit in the idea….

Stubborn children

It occurred to me last night that this child is mocking me.

Unborn baby: Ha. You think you can make me come out? I don’t think so. I get all my meals whenever I want, I’m warm and cosy, and I get the side benefit of snuggle time.

Me: (quoting Lady MacBeth) Out, d*mn’d spot! Out, I say!

Unborn baby: Mwuahahahaha….

If anyone wants to add to the baby pool, just post in either of the two blog entries below.

Still working on revisions, though it’s getting harder and harder to concentrate. My goal today is to go off the Internet for a few hours and line edit my little brain out. Maybe a trip to Starbucks would be in order…self-bribery, don’tcha know.

In other bits of randomness, I went to tuck in my son last night. I have a nightly habit of checking on the kids after they’re asleep, because I used to find them curled up under the bed, or in strange sleeping positions. Last night my boy was completely asleep, with socks on both hands. Whether he was hosting sock puppet shows before bedtime or just had cold hands, I’m not sure, but I found it rather amusing. Amazingly, he didn’t wake up when I peeled both of them off (and they were up to his elbows!). A proud motherhood moment, I tell you.

Do your kids do anything weird after they go to bed? Or if you don’t have kids, was there anything you did as a child once your parents were out of the room? I used to read in bed, using whatever light I could find. I KNOW. Big shocker there.

Baby Watch, Day two

So, no baby yesterday. Although, at 7:00 p.m. or so, I was having some pretty fierce contractions. I was very close to going to the hospital, but my gut told me it was false labor. And so it was. The biggest dilemma for me is, I tend to have contractions that START at two minutes apart. That’s what happened with my son, and I was convinced that I was delusional. After all, the childbearing books say that you are supposed to have them 15 minutes apart, then ten, then five, and that’s when you go to the hospital. I remember staring at the clock thinking, um…what do you do when they start at 2 minutes apart? Luckily we did go to the hospital, and I had my son within three hours. It was pretty scary for a first time birth because it was nothing like what I expected.

Last night, when things started kicking in at two minutes apart, I was debating on whether to call my neighbor to come watch the kids. It just seemed too surreal. But the contractions weren’t like the ones with my other two, so I was holding off. I hate that scenario of–Is this it? Or is it false labor? Ugh.

In any case, I’ll try to check in daily, now that I’m on maternity leave. If I go MIA, you’ll know that I’m probably in the hospital and will post munchkin pictures when I get back. In the meantime, I’ll be working on the second draft of my book, revising and polishing (Melissa Mc. had asked me if I was a draft writer). I was doing well yesterday up until the point when the painful contractions hit. But either way, I still have plenty of time to finish.

I’m writing down the guesses for everyone. Here’s what I have so far (I took off those who guessed yesterday):

Wednesday 14th
No one
Thursday 15th
Cheryl S. 3:22 a.m. girl 7.6 or 7.4lbs 20 inches
Michelle S. boy 8lbs
Friday 16th
Christy S.
Melissa Mc. 11:30 boy 8.12lbs 19.75 inches
Susie 6:00 p.m. boy 7.12lbs
Saturday 17th
Leanne 7:30 boy 7.9lbs 19inches
Sunday 18th
Teresa 2:30 girl 7.6lbs 18inches
Monday 19th
Kim A. 4:47 a.m. boy 8.1lbs 17.5inches
Belinda 6:20 a.m. girl 7.9lbs
Thursday 22nd
Beth M. 9:00 a.m. girl 7.14lbs
Friday 23rd
Julie C. 4:00 a.m. boy 8.2lbs
Saturday 24th
Holly noon boy 7.9 lbs 19.5 inches
Thursday 29th
Jeanne S. 11:29 boy 8.4 lbs 21 inches

If you want to add your guess to the comments, feel free! Or you can guess again if you tried yesterday’s date.