Baby on My Mind

​A couple of months ago I posted here about waiting for our new baby to arrive any day now, and then about a week later I disappeared off the face of the Earth, with only regular The Bloodlet Sun updates being posted through Weebly’s handy queuing system. I suppose everyone could have guessed what happened, but long story short, at 6 am on a Tuesday, my wife’s water broke, and a couple of hours past midnight on Wednesday, we welcomed into the world our new baby boy.

For those of you keeping count, that’s now three boys in our family. The temptation might be to think that we had this one because we were going for a girl, but there’s no truth to that. Sure, it would have been nice to add a splash of variety, but we know boys, we’re good (knock on wood) with boys, and so we’re happy with boys. I guess the only one who experienced any kind of disappointment is our eldest, who already had a little brother and was really hoping for a little sister. The rhetoric for the first couple of weeks was “I wish he was a girl but I still love him” and even now that’s gone out the window.

The bottom line is, both kids absolutely adore their new baby brother. Gabriel, who is now the middle child and who, I swear, was born a middle child, is thrilled any time he has to throw out a used diaper, and both brothers rush at the opportunity to keep the little one company whenever their mom or I need a few moments in the kitchen.

With the difficulty of the pandemic pregnancy, it’s nice to be on the other side and happy. This wasn’t a year that anybody had planned so having this sunshine in our life is a welcome relief.

For my own part, I’m doing what I can to support my wife and our family. I was fortunate enough to be able to get four weeks off work as vacation time to help with the transition, and had some generous coworkers fill in for my files during that time. I know lots of men aren’t given the same opportunities, something I decry whenever I can, but if you are at least presented with an option that makes sense financially, do take it. Not only does that set a good example for other dads and puts the pressure on governments and employers to extend better leave benefits to fathers, you will benefit immensely from it by being able to provide support to your spouse and to spend so much quality bonding time with your newborn.

Another undeniable silver lining of the pandemic is that with remote work, I’m able to be there more and to continue to spend my time with those that are most important to me. I hope that’s one lesson that the world can learn from this unfortunate situation is that the majority of people would sooner be spending time with, or at least being closer to, their family then ploughing away at an office.

I’ve been back at work for almost a month now, and judging by the tardiness of my blog entry on our baby you can tell I’m not quite fully into the swing of things. Sleep is currently a fickle concept but some nights are better than others. In any case, even when I’m up with him it allows me to keep current on the Mandalorian and allows me to catch up with all sorts of shows I’ve been behind on. While I do look forward to getting some rest, I will enjoy my current ability to be reckless with my sleeping habits.
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As for the rest of the writing outside my blog, the creative juices are sluggish but not entirely dormant, so I am producing a little bit here and there but nowhere near what I was immediately before the baby came. Good thing I’m currently sitting on a The Bloodlet Sun buffer that stretches into March. That said, no complaints from me – they’re this little only for so long, and I have the rest of my life to write.