I’m a list person. I can’t even begin to tell you how long and dynamic my to-do list is.  I’m trapped in a giant game of whack-a-mole.  Brad has traveled out of state twice in the past week for work. Our cat almost died this weekend, and while ferrying him around town this morning I saved a turtle off the road, all before clocking in to the day job. The kids and I are recovering from a weekend trip to my parents’ house. Meanwhile, today I’m trying to launch a new a chore/scripture memory/meal/activity planning system for the kids, and a new daily Bible study program for myself. Not to mention the thousands of home maintenance & improvement tasks, social obligations, health matters, financial items, and other general issues to address. Whew!

Brad and I are stressed.  I was telling him this weekend that I think if we put first things first – namely, emptying our jar of all but the large spiritual rocks for starters, I imagine that God can leverage some supernatural efficiencies for us, and things will fall into place. I just need to prioritize correctly and let the rest go.  So what an encouraging verse this is. All I must do is BE a certain way while holding God’s hand through my life. Easier said than done, however… what I take away from this verse is all that is specifically NOT required: a perfect house, organization plans and lists, a quota of play dates and social events, etc. Thank You, Lord, for the encouragement today, as I was struggling to keep my head above water! Thanks for reminding me that all the “stuff” that I make so important, is really not all that important. Not that I’m ditching my lists, but it’s just nice to put them back into perspective.

I feel the need to explain this sabbatical.  Primarily, we’ve been a little busy.  To put it into perspective, let me offer the following list of events that have occurred since I last wrote:

• Subsequent children birthed: 2
• Possibility of terminal diagnoses for said children: 2
• Doctor and therapist appointments: my guess is over 100
• Nannies interviewed: 8
• Nannies employed: 3
• Homes bid upon: 8
• Homes bought: 2
• Homes refinanced: 2
• Homes rented out: 2
• Home renovation/repair projects: 15? 20?
• Multi-day power outages: 2
• Hail storms that required new roofing and skylights: 1
• Dogs lost: 1
• Dogs gained: 1
• Dogs housebroken: 1
• Children “housebroken”: 2
• Wild animals found in yard/garage/pool: ~150 hummingbirds, 2 ducks, 1 jaguarundi, 3 red tail hawk nests, 5 kite nests, 2 wren nests, numerous squirrel nests, 4 bunny nests, 2 possum nests, 1 fox, 1 turtle, 1 frog
• Trips taken: NYC, Saint Louis, Austin, California (Brad’s work), next week: Seattle (Brad’s work), next month: Yellowstone
• Social events hosted: my guess is 3-4 dozen
• Churches visited: 5-6
• Siblings married: 1
• Nieces born: 1
• Close friends and family having major life events: couple dozen
• Reorganizations/layoffs/job changes for Jessica: countless (all with Bank of America though)
• Home businesses started: 1
• Law school graduations and career changes for Brad: 1 each
• People thoroughly exhausted: 2 (plus more if you count our parents & other sitters)

Furthermore, I’ve been in a state I like to call “analysis paralysis.”  Many previous posts that I’ve written but not published have been waylaid due to technical difficulties, such as hacking of our website, computer problems, spam attacks, video/photo issues, mysteriously vanishing posts, etc.  So then my conundrum was whether to wait until I could sequentially revive and post the rapidly aging drafts, or whether just to pick up from now and move forward.  Well, I decided to hybridize my approach.  I can’t resist the urge to write what’s on my mind, so I’m going to write current stuff as time allows.

So to both of you faithful readers, thanks for holding out hope!  I’ve been a bit overwhelmed on all fronts.  However I hope to ameliorate the growing backlog and catch up with posting them over time.  I’ll have to toy with when/where/how to post updates, so bear with me.  But it feels good to be back on the map, and I hope you’ll stay tuned!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours. The Birchfields.

He now has 8 teeth, 4 on bottom and 4 on top.  He loves to grind them together and make this horrific sound, although he doesn’t do it as much as he did at first.  I guess the novelty is wearing off.

He is sleeping really well.  He sleeps about 11 hours at night (7 to 6), and usually takes 3 naps during the day – a morning nap that is anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, his main nap in the early afternoon that lasts usually an hour and a half (up to 2.5 hours), and an optional late afternoon nap for another 30 minutes to hour.  Almost immediately upon being put in his crib, he will roll himself onto his tummy and gently coo for about 15 minutes until he falls asleep, occasionally crying out once or twice.  The only challenge now is that he can scoot himself backwards and jam his legs through the crib slats, which awakens him on the wrong side of the crib, so to speak.

I really feared, um I mean thought, that he’d be crawling by now, but he’s not (yay!).  He still scoots backwards and in circles.  He rocks himself forward on his tummy like he’s doing “the worm” breakdance.  He gets up onto his knees like a dog and rocks back and forth, and has even brought his left knee forward to get him closer to his toys, but he has not officially crawled yet.   I would say it’s around the corner, but since I’ve thought that for awhile, maybe not! Who knows.

He can pull himself to standing when you take him by the hands.  In fact, he LOVES to do this.  When you try to sit him down on his bottom, he fights long and hard to stay standing.  He also loves to “bouncy bouncy,” when you hold him under his arms and he immediately starts jumping up in elation.  He thinks this is really funny.

He’s able to feed himself a few puffs of Gerber cereal, though this has really been a challenge.  He’s had a great little pincher grasp (thumb and forefinger together) with both hands for several weeks now – he even impressed the developmental ped with his dexterous finger skills.  So this coupled with his hefty appetite and plethora of teeth made me think he was ready for solids. Yet for weeks, when we’d try to give him any solid food (e.g. mashed banana, broken apart Cheerios) he would get it in the middle of his tongue and begin to dry heave quite dramatically.  Alas, now he can get a few bites down without incident.  We’ll have to work on table manners (not smacking) on down the road.

He has also learned to feed himself his own bottle.  For the first few days, when he figured out that we were trying to get him to hold it himself, he would put up a fuss and start crying at the beginning of meal time.  He would even dig his little elbows back into his carseat, making it almost impossible for you to force his hands around the bottle.  But he has now embraced the concept and gladly tries to hold it himself.  Sometimes after he’s been drinking for a few minutes and the formula runs kinda low, you have to help him tump his bottle upward.  But overall he’s great at it – now when he’s hungry and his bottle comes within his reach, he immediately grabs it and stuffs it in his mouth like it may be his last opportunity to eat for a week.

He is such a sweet and happy baby.  When he’s sitting in his high chair and I’m across the kitchen, every time I look over, I see the silhouette of his fuzzy little head and these two bright blue eyes as he cranes his neck to watch me. Once we make eye contact, he smiles really big and starts making his “excited sound” (where he breathes in and out really fast through his nose like he’s huffing).  When he is sitting on the floor playing with his toys and I walk by and say hi, he gets really excited and happy then too.  ALL the ladies at church (random strangers, people we know)… they all are fascinated with watching him because he is such a bright-eyed little charmer.  He melts their hearts.  Yesterday, a row of ladies told us that Sunday after Sunday, they can’t take their eyes off of him because he is so attentive and cute.  They even told us where we sat each week.  And when he smiled at one of them, well, it was over.  She bragged to the other ladies for the next 15 minutes.

He has started going to the church nursery, but actually this is not going so well.  There are too many new things and people to see, and too many sounds and lights, for him to sleep (which is usually what he needs during church time). So, he stays awake long past his naptime, until he reaches his breaking point and starts screaming inconsolably.  But each morning we leave him, he makes it a little longer.  In fact yesterday, he was ready for a nap at 8 so we dropped him off before we even made it to communion.  Once in the nursery, he made it all the way through the rest of service, fellowship time after service, and 80% of class (all without a nap of course) before I got “buzzed” to come console him.  That’s a new record!

He seems to have a gentle spirit (except with the cat, whose hair he yanks hard as soon as he can get a pinch of it).  But… he gingerly twirls my and the nanny’s hair through his fingers when we pick him up.  He also loves to reach out and gently touch our faces with his chubby little fingers while we hold him.  He will contentedly play with his toys on the floor for quite a long
time.  Even if he’s getting bored, hungry, needs a change, etc., he will generally just make these quiet little sigh or hmmmm sounds for a good 15 minutes before getting louder.  He can sit all the way through, attentively touching the pictures and turning the pages, while we read “There’s a Wocket in my Pocket” to him at night.

To illustrate his patient, uncomplaining spirit, here’s a little anecdote for you: one morning about a week ago when I went to get him up for the day, he was swimming in his own poop in the crib (our first MAJOR blowout – soiling all the way through his diaper, onesie, sheet protector, sheet, and crib pad), without making a peep.  He was face-down in it when I arrived, and he just looked up at me and smiled.  Not only did he have it in almost every orifice of his body, but he had spread it over a majority of the surface of his crib.  No telling how long he had been awake and rolling in it.  I stripped him, put him in a clean
diaper, and set him in the jumper so I could wash his sheets and draw a bath. Well, when I went to pick him up for his bath, I realized he had again pooped all over himself and the jumper.  I don’t know how his little body could’ve physically contained so much poop!!!  He must’ve excreted half his body weight. He had again completely saturated the inside and outside of his diaper, as well as the jumper seat, and was happily jumping up and down in it, getting it all over the place.  I learned my lesson – no more prunes for Levi!

Basically his developmental pediatrician visits consist of them taking a few measurements, and otherwise asking me questions and watching him play to see what his skills are.  They set out various toys and see what he can and can’t
do.  Well, they set out one toy, a little phone with a long pull-string… I don’t even know what this test was for.  Anyway, he grasped for the string instead of the bright dialpad or other larger aspects of the phone (apparently this means he passed the test).  So, the nurse put out the next toy for the next test.  Well, Levi was not ready to move on from the phone.  He really
liked that thing, and was not done playing with it.  So he ignored the new toy and kept reaching for the phone.  The nurse then moved the phone behind her back and started trying to distract Levi with the new toy.  However he just leaned over on his side and craned his neck so he could see where she had stuck that phone!  It was so cute!  She immediately said, “Wow, what great object permanence!”  He kept looking for that phone for quite a while.  So when I got home, I ordered him that same little phone from eBay.  In his own little baby way, he earned it.  :)

1) His body has now caught up with his head. Previously, you may remember that his body was somewhere around the 45th percentile, while his head was in the 75th percentile. That’s quite a large noggin’, comparatively speaking (perhaps a future chess champion?). However, we’re proud to report that now his head circumference, body length and weight now all proportionately fall somewhere in the 60th-65th percentiles.

2) Speaking of weight, he now clocks in at just over 20 pounds. At least he did a couple of weeks ago. Five more pounds, and no more baby jumper! Anyone know of a high capacity bouncy device? We did eventually kick the swing, but we might be asking too much to kick this toy too.

3) He has a new “thing” – it’s grinding his upper and lower teeth together. It makes this horrible nails-down-the-chalkboard sound, but actually seems to calm him down. Everything I’ve read said it’s no big deal – they’ll grow out of it. If not, judging from the huge gap between his two front teeth, we inevitably have substantial orthodontic bills in our future anyway.

4) He seems to be developing a slight case of separation anxiety. The sad thing? It’s in relation to the nanny. On the weekend, he’s like “Who are you, and what did you do with my Susy?” Saturdays are now not so fun in the Birchfield household. I sure hope this doesn’t last. Seriously, this might be the single most depressing development in his brief little life so far.

I’m a little more tired and sickly this time around, but otherwise things seem to be good. I do think it’s true that you show earlier your second time around. I’m only a little over 2 months along and am already wearing maternity gear. Even last time I started showing early, but not quite like this.

This time they’re treating me as high risk because of our history, so that means I’m guaranteed lots of sonos and specialists. Bring it on – I’m all about it. Hopefully we won’t have any placenta previa, NICU, stroke, blood clotting disorders, apnea etc., although I’d be totally okay going into labor a little early again. That was kinda nice.

Next update: as I’ve lamented in previous blogs, bedtime seems to bring a myriad of ailments for Levi. I truly believed he didn’t feel well b/c he’s still experiencing various digestive difficulties that I probably shouldn’t describe in detail. Plus, we know he’s teething, which purportedly creates a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde effect on even the most placid young one. And at the end of the day, babies are tired and don’t have much fuse (especially when they’re poor nappers, like Levi). He’s not much of a fusser so it’s totally out of character for him to cry simply because he’s upset.

Well, one night about a week ago, it got really bad. We had already dosed the poor kid up with Mylicon, Tylenol, and were about to give him a chaser of infant Orajel when Brad finally made a breakthrough discovery. He could completely resolve all of Levi’s tumult by simply leaving the nursery. In the den or media room with us, Levi’s misery was completely and mysteriously eradicated. Upon returning to the nursery, apparent pain and suffering ensued. While holding Levi in perfect calm, Brad astutely observed, “You know what I think? I think he’s mad because he doesn’t want to go to bed.” Yep. Turns out that little booger has been taking us for a ride, for no telling how long.

As Brad later commented, Levi might be sophisticated enough to manipulate his parents like the saps that we are, but he isn’t cunning enough (yet) to fake it once he gets his way, to ensure we don’t catch on. The little guy couldn’t hide his elation and contentment at the fact that he “won.” Da ha. The tide has shifted, and the score went from Levi: 427, Parents:0 to Levi: 427, Parents: 1. How pathetic that a simple victory against an infant took so long, yet yields such a sense of pride. Let me tell you – this has officially spawned a new phase in the Birchfield bedtime routine. Our precious little almost-6-month-old got his first “stern talking-to,” which actually yielded a stop to his little tantrum, at least that night.

Things are getting a little better… slowly. We haven’t fully embraced any cry-it-out methods yet, but the no-cry recommendations (and/or the passing of time) seem to be helping a bit. Like a few nights ago – he fell asleep at 9 after 30 minutes of resistance, and slept until a 4 am feeding. Then, he awoke around 6-something (which is when we always move him to his swing…. I know, you don’t even have to tell me…), but after that he slept until 8:45! That’s been his best night yet. We’ll get there.

Okay – I’m entering Levi and myself into a photo contest for Similac. The instructions were to send a photo showing my favorite “mom job,” along with a brief caption that explains why it’s the one job you wouldn’t trade for anything. The deadline to enter is tomorrow, so please write me back ASAP if you want me to consider your vote.

So here’s the caption:

Our 4-month-old son had an intrauterine stroke, so my favorite and most important mom job is to feed his growing brain, whether by making his environment stimulating, reading and chatting with him, or feeding him lots of DHA and ARA. As you can see, he likes it too!

Now, please help me decide which photo to use. I’m trying to choose between the two that are attached. Trade-off: Levi’s cute smile vs. better angle of the nursery. Don’t worry – my original photos aren’t as blurry as these – I just shrunk them down pretty far for emailing to you.

Thanks to all of you for the great response! The results are in, and the winner is…… number one (with Levi smiling really big). So that’s the one I entered. Obviously the odds are slim that I will ever hear back from them, but if I do, you guys will be the first to know!

Let’s start with the past few days, which have been a big weekend for our little man. What is it about holiday weekends that makes them even more busy than usual? It’s only one extra day, but for some reason we hear “long weekend” and think we can cram in four days’ worth of extra activities or something. I got half the day off on Friday, so my mom came up and we dragged Levi around on our errands all afternoon, capping off with his maiden voyage to Wal-Mart. He did great. He didn’t really take naps like I hoped he would, but he just sat there silently watching all the goings-on the whole time.

Saturday Levi officially turned four months old. To celebrate, we shoe-horned the whole gang (including both dogs, their crates, the pack & play, and about 15 bags of miscellaneous gear and supplies) into the van and took him on his first road trip to Cleburne, complete with Beatles background music. We were heading to the annual Birchfield family reunion, originally intended to be an outdoor event at Hulen Park. Since the previous days had brought a deluge of rain, they moved it to “the annex” of Brad’s hometown church as backup. Tragically, Marilyn walked into the annex that morning to discover that the roof had completely collapsed under the weight of all that rain. It literally looked like a tornado had hit it. So, we relocated to a family-owned restaurant in Godley instead, where we ate barbecue and did some serious Bingo-playing. I won some dominoes.

After the reunion, we went back to Nonna’s where Levi and his cousin Jordan (Brad’s sister’s daughter who’s 3 1/2) had some bonding time. Levi really loves her. He’s always fascinated when he sees someone his size, but he was especially interested in Jordan. He was smiling to beat the band and just having a good old time.

Saturday was Levi’s first time to spend the night at Nonna’s. She and our friend Lora watched him for awhile while his daddy and I went to a wedding (one of the Stewart family weddings, which are always fabulous). Apparently he was at the end of his rope. Not only was he wiped out, but he also had one of those awful tummy aches. Poor Nonna and Lora did a great job soothing him but apparently he made them really work for it. We came home just in time to give him a bath and put him down for the night.

Sunday was Levi’s first visit to Brad’s hometown church. By this point in the weekend, he was understandably tired and a little cranky, but he did pretty well overall. We always measure how well Levi does in terms of minutes he can stay in the auditorium. I’m proud to report he went for about 45 minutes – a rare feat! Lots of dear friends got to meet him for the first time after service let out. The finale was lunch at Buffet City followed by a visit to our friends the Browns (whose son Parker was 1 month old yesterday), after which we started packing and headed back home.

This morning, we went on a charity tour of homes in Frisco. Levi did great again – he watched intently as though he was every bit as interested in the homes as we were. We successfully avoided any rain – the day’s downpour started literally as we were driving off to leave in the van. So now, that leaves us with just enough time to get started on some long-overdue cleaning on our own abode.

This has been a big weekend for us. Friday night, Brad finished his last final of the semester, thus also his second year of law school. It’s hard to believe he’s already 2/3 done! I hired somebody to mow the lawn, as congratulations for this milestone and so he wouldn’t have anything hanging over his head this weekend. He starts his first of two summer clerkships at Baker Botts tomorrow.

Yesterday, I hosted my annual tea party and luncheon for the family ladies, which was my first post-Levi event. It was a blast, as always. We sat around, ate like queens, shared family tales, laughed a lot, and everyone got a chance to coo over Levi (and Brad and I got a little break!). Plus I got to use my mother’s day gift, a cool new camera that fits perfectly in my purse.

My mom cleaned all the dishes for us (thanks Mom!) and then she and my dad took us to dinner to celebrate the ending of Brad’s second year of law school. It was great. And Levi slept the whole time, which is totally unlike him since he usually resists sleep for fear of missing one iota of fun.

Then today was my first mother’s day. It still hasn’t sunk in that the label “mother” applies to me. It probably won’t until I have at least a couple of ankle-biters who refer to me as “Mom.” Nonetheless, today was a very indulgent day, which my thoughtful husband made utterly ideal. Brad usually takes the lion’s share of middle of the night tasks anyway, but he took full duty last night so I could have an uninterrupted night of sleep. He got me a donut & sausage roll on the way to church this morning. Church was great. Levi behaved better than ever – we were in the auditorium for a full 20 minutes! Then as we always do, we went to the store on the way home from church. (It’s always best to take advantage of opportunities like that when Levi is already dressed, out of the house, and groggy.)

Upon returning home, Brad sent me to bed for a nap (which I didn’t resist) while he cooked us a lunch of steak & lobster tail – yum! Afterward, we had chocolate-covered strawberries for dessert, and I got to take ANOTHER nap!!! What a wonderful day. I can’t imagine how it could’ve possibly been any better. Thanks for the royal treatment, Babe!