What do you do when you're sick???

Ren · Aug 17, 2007

Someone please tell me the secret to getting work done while sick! I'm pregnant, 6 weeks away from having a screaming baby in the house..... I want to get as much done in these last six weeks as I can, but I feel like shit 98% of the time and I can't concentrate.

Today, I caught myself writing a paragraph I had just written.... like copying sentences in detention or something. I cried, and then I stared at the page a while, and nothing happened, so I went back to bed.

Whats a girl to do????

Bufty · Aug 17, 2007

Oh Ren - I'd love to wave a magic wand and it will all be resolved.

I'm a male, but pop your head on my shoulder and hang on - someone else will pop in very soon and help you, I'm sure.

Soccer Mom · Aug 17, 2007

The only thing you can do is accept that there are times in your life in which you will be unproductive. Don't feel guilty and don't beat yourself up.

Somethings are worth it. Your child is worth it. Enjoy being a mommy. The writing will still be there.

Kate Thornton · Aug 17, 2007

Get the rest you need - back-burner the writing for a while. You need to take care of yourself right now. Go on back to bed!

Soccer Mom · Aug 17, 2007

Being a mommy (especially a new one) IS a full time job. Don't let anyone make you feel guilty or like less of a person for making that your job. It's a wonderful thing.

Pamster · Aug 17, 2007

I agree with Soccer Mom 100%.

scarletpeaches · Aug 17, 2007

What do I do when I'm sick?

Well, I...open my mouth and chunky stuff comes out.

Rich · Aug 17, 2007

Ren, you just got advice that no writer, obstetrician, psychologist or philosopher could better.

Rich · Aug 17, 2007

Other than Scarletpeaches has offered.

maestrowork · Aug 17, 2007

Rich said:
Other than Scarletpeaches has offered.

Although a picture of her upchucking could be worth the price... or inspiration to write a story...

Ray, looking for inspiration in the most unlikely places

Rich · Aug 17, 2007

You pregnant, Ray?

Birol · Aug 17, 2007

Ren, I know this isn't the answer you want, but sometimes, you've just got to be sick. Your body and your life are going through some pretty massive changes right now. You've got to set your priorities and, if writing can't be one of them for the next few months, then it can't be. Take care of yourself, take care of the new little one. Work through the changes and adaptions that you're going to have to go through, and then, after everything has smoothed out again, reintegrate writing back into your life.

Carrie in PA · Aug 17, 2007

Ditto (almost) everyone above. Sometimes you just have to listen to your body.

Congrats on the upcoming arrival!

kristie911 · Aug 17, 2007

Not much I can add because you've gotten great advice. But I wanted to say when I was pregnant, I couldn't write at all. For the first 6 months it made me dizzy and sick to look at the computer screen and for the last 3 months, I was so scatterbrained, I couldn't write.

After I had my son, I didn't care if I wrote or not, I just wanted to be with him. So I took a year and a half off from writing...I didn't beat myself up about it. I just had things in my life that were bigger than writing. Once I started sleeping again and my brain was back to about 75% of what it was before getting pregnant, I went back to writing.

CaroGirl · Aug 17, 2007

Barf and then go to bed. The writing will wait for me.

Siddow · Aug 17, 2007

Well, as long as you're sick in the normal way of being sick while pregnant, just relax. In about five weeks you'll be frantically scrubbing the house anyway, so take your rest while you can get it. If you start painting the kitchen, know that labor is but a few hours away.

(True story: with my second child, I decided that my kitchen MUST be yellow. A nice butter yellow. So I painted it MYSELF November 29th, and he was born on the 30th. A week late.)

Babies sleep about 18 hours a day. You'll need to sleep about 10, so that will leave you 8 hours a day--if you'll be home--to tend to other matters, at least for the next 9 months. After that, you're screwed. They start walking and talking and demanding more than just food and dry diapers. Unless you get a good one. I've got four, and only 25% of them are non-demanding.

Good luck, congrats, and I hope you get an easy baby.

Williebee · Aug 17, 2007

You mean sick, like I am now? I whine and whimper and the world becomes all about me. Anything not life and death can wait.

And I try to keep that in mind when someone else at work is sick. not always successfully, mind you.

Stijn Hommes · Aug 18, 2007

Sorry, I won't be any help. When I'm sick I don't do much of anything, including the stuff I like doing like performing magic or writing.

reigningcatsndogs · Aug 18, 2007

You can't fight Mother Nature!!! My doctor told me that it was Her way of making me slow down and rest before the fun really began. At the time, I thought he was an idiot and I was invincible. Take it easy. The writing and the work never runs away, and in hindsight, you'll probably see that some of the stuff you worried about really wasn't so critical after all.
If you really miss the writing but you're body doesn't want to co-operate (because God knows it has enough to deal with right now without that), perhaps just keep a few notebooks handy and when you think of something, jot it down for future reference -- feelings you have, worries, story ideas, the feelings about the baby...it might all be golden when pooled together for your next WIP, it might just fill the gap where the actual writing may be, and it isn't something that you need to concentrate on or work at. Maybe its worth a try.
Take care, rest lots, and get ready for a whole lot of different in a couple of weeks. Keep us posted (and congrats!!).

Ren · Aug 19, 2007

Thanks all for the advice, and the congrats!

I've found that I can get a little work done at night. Only an hour or two, but that's enough to make me feel better anyway.

A lot of the wall in my kitchen is tile, Siddow, so I hopefully won't get the urge to paint that, but I already clean much more thoroughly than I did before. I mopped two days in a row this week!

Ravenlocks · Aug 19, 2007

Congrats on the upcoming arrival! It sounds to me like part of the problem may be that you're stressing about the writing and telling yourself you've got to get a lot done now before the baby gets here. My suggestion would be to try to stop thinking that way. Sure, it will be hard to write with a new baby in the house (or so I assume; I don't have kids myself), but the writing will still be there when the kid is asleep or being babysat by somebody else.

You could also try setting a manageable daily goal for yourself. That worked wonders for me while I was juggling an exhausting overtime-every-day day job and the first draft of my current WIP. In my case the goal was about 500 words, something small that I could do no matter what, even if it sucked. Once I'd cranked that out, I was golden for the day even if I didn't write another word. A lot of days I ended up going over the goal, but some days I didn't, and on those days I didn't beat myself up about it because I knew I'd hit my goal. I think beating yourself up about not writing enough can be death to creativity.

As far as the physical aspects, do you own a laptop you could take with you to bed and write there? That might be a solution. If the screen bothers you, you can get an antiglare screen. And if you end up writing the same paragraph twice, well, that's just part of the weird mental things being pregnant is doing to you. No reason to beat yourself up about that either. The writing will get done in time.

Bartholomew · Aug 19, 2007

Ren said:
Someone please tell me the secret to getting work done while sick! I'm pregnant, 6 weeks away from having a screaming baby in the house..... I want to get as much done in these last six weeks as I can, but I feel like shit 98% of the time and I can't concentrate.

Today, I caught myself writing a paragraph I had just written.... like copying sentences in detention or something. I cried, and then I stared at the page a while, and nothing happened, so I went back to bed.

Whats a girl to do????

Weird. I get more writing done when I'm sick. It doesn't always make a lot of sense, mind you, but all that time under covers in bed is a prime opportunity to get some long-hand down.

That said, I think vitamin B helps concentration; maybe that'd help?

Ravenlocks · Aug 19, 2007

My favorite writing-while-sick episode involved a vicious cold/flu (never figured out which), lots of chicken soup, no work, and a hell of a lot of writing (although I had to stop whenever the cold/flu headache kicked in). But I don't think that applies to being pregnant.

wee · Aug 20, 2007

Hon, I have a six-year-old and a four-year-old, and am just now getting back a little bit of time to write each day. I haven't written seriously in ... about six years.

Well, I did finish a college degree & then move 5 times with my husband's job in that same period, so it wasn't ALL about the babies.

Once baby is born, remember that he/she will sleep about 18 hours per day for the first few weeks. If you schedule well, you can still get some writing time in. It will get harder after baby is about 2 months old, but then will ease off again around 6-9 months or whenever baby falls into a regular napping routine (they are all SO different in this regard).

Get a sling/carrier so baby can go with you while you do the stuff you HAVE to do (cooking, dishes, scrubbing the potty) so that while baby is napping, you can sit down & do what you WANT to do.

Two key notes:
--your viewpoint on the world is about to change very dramatically, and this will change your writing, too
--the key to getting things done with children around is learning to do things a few minutes at a time, be patient with constant interruptions, and be able to drop it & come back to it at a moment's notice. Right now I'm having to work on actually stretching my attention span back OUT because it has been around 3 minutes long

emsuniverse · Aug 20, 2007

When you're sick and you still want to write, you have to make yourself comfortable. That's the key, at least to me. And also, you have to be working on something that completely holds your attention. Something that will make you forget you want to throw up everywhere. Some story where you just get so lost in it you don't even remember that you're six weeks away from a new baby, you feel like crap and you don't know what to do next.

It'll be okay, don't worry!

What do you do when you're sick???

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