Brothers and Babies

Well we've been home for a few days now and things have been quite interesting around here with a new baby. The older two boys are having quite a time figuring out certain things around here. For one they just don't understand how mommy is able to make milk for the baby but not for them. My middle child still insists that if the baby can have mommy milk then he should too because he's not a cow and his milk shouldn't be from a cow. My oldest son doesn't much care who gets what milk but he's confused as to how I can make milk in general and that's one anatomy/health lesson that I just don't want to tackle at age 6.

The older boys are doing a great job of being careful around the baby, remembering to wash their hands before they touch the baby, and not touching his head. They love to lay next to him and talk to him and hold his hands, and baby boy loves the extra attention as he's been staying up a little longer than normal after he eats just so he can soak up a little extra attention. I've tried to include the older boys with as much of the baby's care as possible so they don't feel left out, but I think they are a little disappointed that they can't carry him around.

Babies are much smarter than we give them credit for I must say. Even while my little boy was in the NICU he was telling the doctors and nurses what he did and did not need. When he was tired of the CPAP he started pulling out the feeding tube that was used to keep the extra water from building up in his belly, after about the 4th time he flung that tube out the doctor decided that he didn't need it anymore. When the billi lights were to be slowly turned off he pulled the IV from his arm, again the doctor decided that there was no need to restart it since she was pulling the lights and dehydration would no longer be an issue. Baby Logan's intelligence goes beyond this though, while he and I slept last night he wiggled himself around until he was in just the perfect spot for nursing and then fussed to wake me so I would feed him, then when his daddy came home from work he curled up next to daddy and fell asleep. He knows when I am in the room, and he will not be fed by anyone but me even if I am feeding him from a bottle I have to feed him it's like he knows who the milk came from and it must not be fed to him by anyone else.

Having a new baby in the house is certainly interesting, and it's been a few years since I've had babies so I'm having to learn some things all over again but I wouldn't trade any of it for anything. I love the baby, and I love my older boys and each one of them has their own special personality and I can't wait to see my baby bloom into a little boy though I know this will happen all too fast and I'll be wishing for the baby days again.

So for now Birbitt thinks life is perfect, I have a beautiful and healthy family what more could I ask for? Perhaps a little girl would complete our family but I'm so used to raising boys now I'm not sure I'd know what to do with a girl, though I once thought that about my boys and now look at us I'm an old pro by now. Enjoy your families everyone, love them, cherish them, and be thankful for them, because life is precious and you just never know how lucky you are until something goes wrong. I know I appreciate my healthy family all the more after being in the NICU with baby for 5 days and seeing all the babies that were so much worse off than my little one. Thank you Lord for providing for the health of my son, and for giving me such a beautiful and loving family.

New Beginnings

He's here, He's here, He's here my oldest son shouted as I walked up the steps and Dear Hubby carried the new baby up in his car seat. It's been a long wait for the boys to see their new baby brother. He was born June 22nd at 6:53pm and all seemed well he came out fine and pink took a breath and cried and just after the nurse laid him on my chest he stopped crying and stopped breathing. His heart rate fell and the Neonatal staff was called in. Baby Logan was taken to the NICU to be cared for by the neonatal team.





He was put on a ventilator for 45 minutes though after about 15 he was breathing on his own, when the ventilator was removed he was put on a cpap machine to help keep his lungs inflated and be sure that he was stable. The cpap was removed after 8 hours and now he's just on IV fluids since he's not yet strong enough to feed.







Tuesday morning: The doctors evaluate him and decide that he's well enough to attempt feeding, so I am allowed to come and nurse him. He's a bit sluggish at nursing so it's suggested that the fastest way to get him home safely would be to nurse and then offer a supplement of expressed milk or formula. Daddy and I agree to supplement him as his health is the most important thing right now.






Wednesday: The doctors decide that he's taking in enough breast milk/formula that he can be slowly weaned off the iv fluids this happened very rapidly because he tolerated it so well. We were supposed to take him home Thursday morning. He was moved to another pod within the NICU, this new room has a bed for mom/dad and a reclining chair so that parents can be 100% involved in his care.

Thursday: We are all set to go home and just waiting on the results of his final lab work. Labs come back and his billirubin levels have spiked overnight to a level that's just too close to dangerous to allow him to go home. The doctor decides the best thing to do is to get him on phototherapy as fast as possible...he's put on a biliblanket and 5 billi lights. The hope is to get it down enough that he can safely go home on a bili blanket by Friday morning. This does not happen and by this time I've had enough of this doctor just telling me what she's going to do and leaving the room. So I request a different doctor and he's very nice and actually involved dh and I in the decisions for our son's care. This was the hardest day of them all because we were unable to hold our little boy at all not even to feed him...everything was done in his bassinet under the billi lights.

Friday: Am labs are back and baby Logan's billi count is falling so two of the lights are removed and we are now able to take him out of the bassinet on the biliblanket for 30 mins every 3 hours to feed him. 12 hours later he's taken off two more of the lights are removed leaving little Logan on just one billi light and a bili blanket. He's getting better little by little. The plan now is to wean him from the lights and blanket and send him home on Sunday morning.

Saturday: With the results from his am labs the doctor is ever hopeful that Logan will be going home soon! The remaining light and blanket are removed and the doctor says to check his billirubin in 6 hours. 6 hours go by and the results are back his bilirubin has stayed stable even without the phototherapy!!!!! The doctor comes in to talk to us and says Congratulations you get to take baby home today...So he goes home almost 18 hours before the planned discharge and he's healthy and happy!

It was a long road to getting him home, but finally he's here! Birbitt thinks that he just wanted to make a GRAND entrance into the World so that everyone would know he was the king of the house and not his big brothers! What a time we had with this one but now we are all home and so thankful for our healthy baby! Thank you Lord for carrying us through all these tough days and for bringing our beautiful baby boy home sooner than anyone expected. I also want to thank the mostly wonderful staff of the NICU where baby Logan was cared for during those first scary days!
Birbitt and her three sons finally home and together again. (Please excuse the mess we just came home from the hospital and hadn't put all the stuff away yet.)

I will never understand people

As you can probably guess from the title of this post this has been a most trying week for me. I am told that the problem is that I'm too nice and allow people to get away with too much, however I don't think the problem solely rests with my tolerance, I really think there is something wrong with a significant portion of the population. Now before anyone gets the wrong idea I do not dislike people, and really I don't dislike any one person in particular, it's their actions that tie me in knots and frankly right now I don't have the energy for it!

As a woman and a mother I understand the nature of women to feel the need to "help" others when we feel they are not doing things just the way they should be done, but as a person I also understand that it's one thing to help someone who's asked for your help and another entirely to offer unsolicited "advice". This is something that drives me nuts, why do people feel the need to criticize other people for their parenting choices, clothing choices, food choices, and everything else that they do. I have had this happen to me numerous times and it's irritating to say the very least, so I do my best to never do it to another. My only exception to this rule is if a person is in danger by doing as they are. Still people are intent to push their ideas onto others and if you are not doing just as they would you are wrong, what happened to freedom of choice, the right to raise your child as you see fit, and all the other rights we as Americans are entitled to under the constitution? I do not have the energy to deal with these people right now!

Another irritant of mine....people who choose to own animals and then refuse to care for them as they should be cared for. Why have a cat if you are going to throw it outside and never feed it? This I could understand if you lived on a farm and were using the cats to keep mice away from your livestock and home, but when you live in an apartment building why do you own a cat if you are going to leave it to your neighbors to feed it? Why get a dog if it's only going to spend it's entire life outside chained to a tree with nothing but a wooden box for shelter? What is the purpose of the dog? Again I understand having outside dogs, but can you not put up a fence so the dog has full roam of your property and can you not go out and play with the dog from time to time? I have seen people who own multiple animals and yet could not tell you a thing about the animals they own. I personally own two cats and some fish, I feed my cats, pet my cats, comb my cats (one has long hair), provide them with plenty of food and water and things to entertain themselves with when I am unavailable. My fish also get feed three times a day and I provide them with clean water, a clean tank, plenty of plants and even rearrange thing from time to time so they don't get bored (if fish can get bored). I drove by a horse the other day standing out in the sun with 100 + degree temperatures in an enclosure with no shade or shelter and only a bucket of water, this poor horse was thin, sway backed, and looked to have a sore back leg, so I reported this to animal control who came out and determined that the owner was following the minimum of the law so there was nothing they could do. Why does a person own a horse only to treat it that way?

Children are another hot button of mine, if you have children then you should have time for your children. Taking time for your children means more than just feeding them and clothing them and sending them to school! I know each of my children as the individual that they are, I put them in clean clothes at the beginning of each day (they do not always stay clean), I feed them, I provide them with toys and games, I do projects with them, I school them myself, I take them places with me, and I spend time talking to them and playing with them. It really bothers me when parents don't take the time to know their children, and spend time with them but it bothers me even more when parents don't even know that their child hasn't changed clothes in 3 days, or didn't have lunch today because the parents were too busy to stop and make them something to eat, and what makes me the most irritated is when those same parents who can't do the basics for their own children have the nerve to question MY abilities as a mother simply because I am too pregnant to be able to get on the floor with my children and push trucks around!

These are just some things I've encountered in the past week and honestly I don't understand people! I don't think I ever will understand people, and honestly I'm not sure I'd want to even if I could. I know part of my problem right now is that I'm pregnant and uncomfortable, but these things bother me even if I'm not pregnant. I just don't understand how people live with themselves sometimes, and I definitely don't understand why people feel they can comment on another persons shortcomings when they themselves have issues to work on.

Now for the being pregnant part, thankfully I am due in 26 days! I do not however wish to wait 26 days, for the past week I've been unable to sit up and breathe at the same time, and bending has become physically impossible (thankfully dresses go over my head and flip flops don't need tied). Today I found out why I'm having such a difficult time lately, either a) I'm carrying a huge baby b)there's an Olympic sized swimming pool in there for the baby or c)some combination of both, when the dr measured my stomach to ensure proper fetal growth I was told I'm measuring at 46 yes 46 WEEKS! Now as the dr and I both are sure that I am not in fact 46 weeks pregnant there is nothing to do but wait another week or two and see what happens but she says this should explain your discomfort. I do not have the energy for this!

Ok enough of my rambles, thanks for reading and in some way "listening" to my rants.

Memorial Day Memories

Well today was Memorial Day, a day we are supposed to take time to remember our service members past and present. The concept is a good one, but for me it's kind of a two edged sword. I feel like we shouldn't need a day to remember because this is something we should always be doing. I have never knowingly met a service member whom I did not thank for his or her service and I thank God each and every day for those who fight for the very freedom I enjoy each and every day, I also take time each day to pray for those who are away from their families and for those who have lost loved ones.

I suppose I understand the purpose of Memorial Day and as I said I think it's a great concept but really what does it say about the people of our nation that we have to be reminded of the sacrifice given to provide what we enjoy each day?

I spent most of the morning attempting to watch the NASCAR race on television however the weather was not cooperating in Charlotte, NC and twice the race had to be stopped because of rain, and ultimately it was ended early just over halfway because the officials decided that the weather just was not going to clear enough to finish this race. The race was actually supposed to be held yesterday but after delaying the start of the race for over 3 hours they decided to postpone it until today. This race is always held on Memorial Day Weekend each year, and always this race brings out our service members and honors them just as they did this year. Yesterday most of the remembrance took place, though today NASCAR did something touching. At 3pm when our president asked for a moment of silence to remember our fallen the officials actually stopped the cars where they were, asked that they be turned off, requested that the audience rise to their feet, and that the crew chiefs stand at the edge of their boxes, and the pit crews come out of the box and stand in the pit.

It was touching in that moment to hear the absoloute silence at Lowe's Motor Speedway. I have only heard that silence a few times in NASCAR. This is something that I truely love about NASCAR auto racing, it is truely an American organization, and it really is a family sport. NASCAR fans are very loyal, but they are also some of the most well behaved spectators I have ever seen! I personally can not recall a time where the spectators made the news because of a riot, or because they caused damage to a track or car or driver...they are just really some respectfull people.

Anyway, it was during this very moment of silence that my son surprised me. He came into the living room saw the TV on, heard no noise, saw daddy and I standing in the kitchen silent, and he simply waited. My son who is only 4 actually stood there for a full minute and said nothing until he heard the sound resume on the tv! When the sound did come back he looked at daddy and I and said why's everyone so quiet, and can I have a drink of water? So after giving him his drink I sat down and explained why we were so quiet. That same child prayed for our military this evening before going to bed.

I tell this to you only because it surprised me that at 4 he seemed to understand the necessity of the silence, and he chose to honor it without knowing why. Then when he was told why, he chose to remember it and to put the soldiers in his prayers after hours of playing, eating, swimming and other things he did today he could still remember that our soldiers needed prayer and he prayed. I do not take credit for his actions, because I believe that respect for our country and for those who defend her is not something that can be taught. Sure we can teach the Pledge of Allegiance, and we can teach proper care of the flag and other things that show respect, but these are just actions. I don't believe that one can be taught to feel respect for our country and our military, just as one can not be taught to feel respect for others, we teach the action of respect but the feeling that is something different, something that each person has to learn on their own. My 4yo chose today to learn that feeling of respect, for that I am thankful.

What Birbitt thinks about restaurants.

Generally my family and I enjoy going out to eat on occasion, or ordering food in just so I can have a break. Today was one of those days but it was not an easy task.

We first tried to order in so we didn't have to go back out into the heat to have dinner. So we called our favorite place down the street but they must have been very busy because the first time I called they hung up on me though I'm sure it wasn't deliberate. So I called back several times and was unable to get them to pick up. I figured if they were that busy we should just order elsewhere. So hubby and I decided to try a new place so I called to place our order. We will not be calling them back anytime soon! I can honestly say today was a first for me, when I called and placed the order I requested that they substitute mayonnaise for the dressing on my sandwich to which I was told we don't do that here you'll have to order the sandwich as it's listed on the menu. I could not believe my ears did this man really tell me that I could not customize my order? So I explained again what I wanted and again he told me that they didn't do "special" orders. OK, fine so I politely told him that he could cancel the entire order and I'd just order somewhere else. He tells me I can't do that because they've already started the order...really I haven't even been given a total yet and you've already started my order? Finally after speaking to the manager I am able to cancel my order since they can't prepare it the way I like it.

By this time we've spent nearly an hour trying to order dinner...OK I give up! Boys get on your shoes we're going out! So we went out to dinner and it was yummy! The food was just the way we like it and the service was good. Now everyone has full bellies and we head home.

So here is what Birbitt think about restaurants. I can not believe that such a restaurant exists that you may only order what is on the menu exactly as it's listed on the menu. What if someone has an allergy? Having gone to culinary school myself I understand quite a bit about the restaurant world and this particular place boggles my mind. Is it not hard enough for restaurants right now with our economy struggling? Do they really have so much money coming in that they can afford to turn customers away simply because they want their order customized? Seriously I can not even begin to understand what this restaurant owner was thinking. It would be interesting to know how many customers this place actually has, because I can tell you I don't know too many people who would order there if they can't customize. I suppose this is the nature of business though, if you don't like one place there is always another down the road. However when people are scraping by and someone comes to your place to spend money I would think you'd do all you can to make sure that person spends the money there and comes back again. We will not be going back there again, but I guess they can afford to turn people away.

How places like this one survive tough times like this and yet we've seen many of our favorite little places go out of business in the past year is beyond me. This place doesn't deserve to be in business if this is how they treat customers, and yet so many little ma and pa type places can't afford to continue on becuase of the economy and those are the places we will miss the most.

OK, I know I'm ranting but this particular event just got me all in a knot. I shouldn't let it bother me but it does perhaps that's because I know the restaurant world so well, perhaps it's just because I'm pregnant and moody, or perhaps it's just because I am human and I was inconvenienced. I don't know why it bothers me so much to see places like this stay in business while the little guy or gal is put out of business by the economy but it just really bothers me.

Growing up mom, daddy and me we'd get in the car and just drive and see where we ended up. I always enjoyed this and when it came time to stop for dinner daddy always looked for a place that was maybe a little off the beaten path, maybe a little shabby looking on the outside, but the parking lot was always full and I can honestly say we've never been served a bad meal in a place like that. Little family run businesses almost always have honest, hard working folks behind the counter and good, wholesome meals on the table. I've tried to follow daddy's example but more and more it's becoming harder and harder to find those little places and we are sometimes forced to take our business to the "big dogs".

I believe this country was built on the back of ma and pa shopkeeper, and for as long as they're around and as long as I can find them I will search for them and spend my money there. Yes sometimes it's necessary to shop the big chain stores, but when I want someone to do the cooking for me, I want it to be in a quiet, out of the way, little place. Not a big impersonal chain.

So ma and pa if you are out there reading this just know that I am looking for you, and I am sure there are others out there just like me. Don't give up, work hard, and know that we appreciate you!

That's what Birbitt thinks.

Who am I and Why am I called Birbitt?

Well this is my first attempt at blogging, so I will start by telling you who I am and where the name Birbitt came from.

I am a Christian, and for that I am unapologetic, I am also an Independent, Fundamental, Bible Believing Baptist and again for that I do not apologize. I am a wife, a mother, a teacher, and a friend. I have been married for almost 7 years to a man that I believe God sent me, we have had many ups and downs in our lives and our life together yet through it all we remain a family and we always come out stronger than we went in. My husband and I have two children who are 6 and 4 and we are expecting our third child next month. We also have pets two cats and some fish. We are currently a homeschooling family, and although our children may attend a Christian School this fall I believe that our homeschooling will not stop but rather take another form if we make this change.

Now where did Birbitt come from? I'm sure you would like the answer to that one. It's a funny name, and one that's uncommon I'm sure, well let me explain you see I grew up on a farm and in the country we have some funny names for rather common things. I don't know why we don't call things by their proper names we just don't. Well growing up I loved rabbits and I had several pet rabbits. Well growing up we always called a rabbit a birbitt which I think it a mix of bunny and rabbit, and so because I loved rabbits so much, and because I enjoyed spending time online I decided that when I was online I would become Birbitt since I do not like posting my real name for all the world to see.

I chose to start blogging tonight because I found myself looking for something to do as I adjust to my husband's new work schedule as he's now gone from working early morning to mid afternoon, to working overnights. I think this will be a better setup for our family, it's just going to take some getting used to. So here I sit at the computer looking for a way to pass some time until I am tired enough to go to bed. I found myself napping this afternoon with the children and my husband because it was so hot and so now I am unable to sleep.

This is one thing I do not enjoy about Arizona summers, it's too hot! Today it was 107, which is unusual this time of year so it was not expected. We went to the pool for a little while but even there it was too hot to stay long. Then as always happens when we swim in the afternoons we all came home and fell asleep, something about swimming makes us very tired.

I am getting very anxious for our new little one to arrive I can't wait to see him, and hold him. I suppose I am also getting tired of being pregnant as always happens later in my pregnancies simply because it's harder to sleep, and harder to do everyday things because my belly gets in the way. I also want to have the baby before the true summer heat hits us here. I think we are pretty much set for our new baby, I have his bed and bedding, clothes, and all the little baby accessories, we have a swing and bouncy seat (though I doubt they'll get much use), and we have a car seat and stroller which I'm sure we'll use a lot. I've made all his diapers since we'll be using cloth on this baby to avoid all the rashes and sensitivities that we had with the older two. It is true what they say about learning as you go along as a parent. With my older two I didn't think I had a choice, I thought my only option was disposable diapers. I was wrong, we can use cloth and it's easier than you might think. I chose to make our diapers so that we would save money as well as our baby's little bottom, but there are many great options out there for purchase as well and a lot of them are as easy to use as a disposable the only difference being that you have to wash them instead of throwing them away.

Well, now you know a little about me and my family, and you know what a Birbitt is. Thanks for reading as I begin my adventures in blogging.