December Update

No, we haven't disappeared off the face of the planet. We just haven't had a chance to write for many reasons, one of them being all the holiday craziness. Besides holiday shopping and parties, the youth ministry has been unusually busy this year. Monday we have girls' and guys' Bible studies. Tuesday, Greg coaches the Jr. High b-ball team. Wednesday is church. Thursday is Sr. High b-ball practice. And then it seems like the youth group has something holiday-related, be it service or a party, going on every weekend night. It's really getting a bit excessive. Tomorrow, we're hosting the 5th and 6th grade Christmas party, and Greg's basketball games start on Saturday (plus, we have a youth ministry service project), so there doesn't seem much chance of slowing down any time soon.

Luke continues to do well. He's in a good sleep phase (as opposed to last week). He sits up by himself, and is growing more amenable to being on his stomach. He's also quite desperate to start eating solid foods. He is entranced whenever we eat anything and complains until we put him on our lap. Tonight, he managed to grab 2 green beans and some spaghetti sauce from my plate and was making a beeline for his mouth when we caught his hand. We were going to wait until six months (Dec. 19) to start him on solids, but we're thinking he's not going to make it that long. I think we're going to follow Ken and Victoria's example and start him off with sweet potatoes.


(no we weren't letting him lick the plate)

We also (gasp!) left Luke with a sitter other than grandma for the first time on Tuesday when we went out to 82 Queen for my birthday. Tim and Charity Summers, a couple from our church who are really great with babies, came over and watched Luke while we were gone. They have two teenage sons in the youth group, and a third, Darius, was a friend of ours at college. We were worried they would have trouble putting Luke to bed, but they claimed he was no trouble at all. They even accused us of making up Luke's trouble with sleeping:).


(Luke with the Summers)

On the entertainment front, Greg and I have actually gone to see some movies! Over Thanksgiving, we went with my brother to see Bobby and Casino Royale. Bobby was utterly disappointing, especially for a history nerd like myself and a Robert Kennedy fan, like my brother. The actual footage they showed of Kennedy was riveting and gave me chills, but all the fictional stuff was a failure. They were going for a slice of life type of thing, with about 37 story lines, but, try as they might, they couldn't get the audience to care about those people. Casino Royale, on the other hand, was quite enjoyable. As origin films go, it was far inferior to, say, Batman Begins (I agree with Ken on this), but compared to the last few Bond films, it was great. I just don't get in to invisible cars crashing around ice palaces and such, so the (somewhat) more realistic approach was refreshing. And I love Daniel Craig. After seeing his turn as a spineless weasel in Road to Perdition, it was amazing to watch him as Bond. Lastly, we saw Happy Feet, which is not so much a movie as an assortment of movies, few of which are for children. If you don't like your child to be terrified or exposed to heavy sexual innuendo, stay away. There was, however, the refreshing ecological message that humans DO care for the environment, but only when said environment entertains us, preferably by tap dancing.

Update on the Sleep Wars

Well, Luke's sleep patterns finally seem to be getting better. For the past several days, he has been falling asleep promptly at 8:30, sleeping until 1:00 when he wakes up to eat, and then sleeping until 6:00. Then he'll either eat and go back to sleep for another couple of hours or stay up for a couple of hours and then take a two hour nap. It is lovely. We tried a potpourri of methods, but I think really he just needed some time to adjust to his crib. Now we do our bedtime routine, put him down while he's awake but drowsy, and sit beside his crib while he falls asleep. He hardly cries, and it's a relief not to have to bounce, walk, or swaddle him anymore.

Also, my mom came and visited for a few days, which helped me get caught up on sleep. Now that I'm better rested and Luke is sleeping well, I'm able to see all the other wonderful developments that I'd missed before. For instance:

--Naptime has long ceased to be a problem. During the past couple of weeks, even when he wasn't sleeping well, Luke would easily take naps in his swing during the day. Greg decided that that wasn't a good habit, though, so now he generally naps in his crib. It's working surprisingly well. In the past, naptimes were harder than nighttime, and we basically had to hold him all during his nap. Now he sleeps fine on his own, though he still doesn't mind if you nap with him:).

--Luke has always liked bathtime...until he had to get out. Then he would cry and scream all through the drying, powdering, lotioning, and dressing. I'm not sure when it happened, but for awhile now, he no longer fusses at all. Instead, he actually seems to enjoy the process. That makes it a lot more fun for mama, as well!

--The carseat. Luke used to get apopletic at the very thought of getting in the carseat. I think our big road trip helped in that department. Now, he rarely fusses, and when he does, all you have to do is put is pacifier in, and he'll go right to sleep. It's even easy for me to take him places alone. If he fusses, I wait for a red light, and then reach back and stick in his pacifier. It calms him right down.

--The newest development is nursing. The past couple of days I was worried that my milk supply was low b/c Luke kept coming off screaming. I'm not sure what happened--maybe all my rest and concentration on proper nutrition helped--but now Luke only comes off to smile at me.

So it seems that my fatigue has blinded me to the fact that Luke is becoming a much happier baby overall. We always loved him, but we are definitely enjoying this little golden age. Here's hoping it lasts for quite awhile!

thought people might want to see this....

That's me on the left at about 1 year old. That's Luke on the right at about 3 months. I'm afraid he may have to claim me as his old man.

The Best Laid Plans

From the short experience I have had as a father, I have learned that planning ahead is usually overrated. Right now, Kim and I are in the process of weaning (by 'wean', I mean taking it away abrubtly and not giving it back) Luke from his swaddle blanket. The transistion has not been smooth. First of all, Luke was already off any kind of routine after our big trip a couple weeks ago. We figured that since his sleeping routine was out of whack, we would go ahead and incorporate the change from swaddled to unswaddled, rather than getting him back into a routine, just to turn right around and disrupt it again. Second, we didn't take into account that I had jury duty this week (I intend on writing another blog on this experience), which meant I was not available Tuesday or Wednesday during the day to give Kim any breaks during the day for naps. Then on Thursday, I had a meeting in Columbia, which meant I was unavailable for a big part of that day as well.
The nights over this last week have been somewhat of a blur. Our plan was that we would give him his pacifier and turn on his motorized Fisher-Price mobile thingy that played ocean sounds. Luke started calm and seemed to enjoy his paci and the mobile. While he had these, he was pretty content. Problem is, the mobile only runs for about 5 minutes at a time, so even if Luke fell asleep, if he woke up with no pacifier (which had fallen out) and no mobile, he would be unable to fall back asleep. This was particularly bad because Luke seemed to wake up about every fifteen minutes, and it would take him in the neighborhood of twenty to fall alseep (with mobile and paci). That night, we eventually decided he would just have to cry himself to sleep just so he'd know that he actually could fall asleep on his own. Luke was quite persistent in his objections to this plan. I don't remember many of the details, but I do remember Luke crying more than I would think we'd be able to let him, and eventually us caving to his protests. We hadn't really developed a back-up plan, so we just kind of picked him up, placated, and comforted at random. I wouldn't recommend this kind of inconsistency to anyone trying to get their baby to sleep. It's not that effective. We decided that our varied responses that night (and throughout the week) was conditioning Luke to cry in the same way a slot machine conditions people to waste their money. The excitement of never knowing what kind of response he would get probably fueled his persistence.
The next day, poor Luke had lost his voice, which made us very sympathetic to his cries. So the next night, our dedication to our plan was even weaker. We still had full intentions of letting him "cry it out" but again, we would lose our resolve and again find ways to try and comfort him. I'm really not sure at this point in my recollection of how many nights this went on. One night at somewhere around two in the morning we decided that the 5 minute ocean sounds were just not sufficient white noise, so I hit the internet to find a audio clip of white noise that I could put onto a cd to put on repeat. By the time I had finished the project, Luke was actually asleep, so Kim and I had to perform a "stealth mission" to put the cd on in Luke's nursery without waking him up. It sounds like an easy enough job to perform quietly, but unfortunately we were so delirious with fatigue that we found everything funny, so we had to stifle the laughter long enough to figure out how to put the cd player on repeat. The constant white noise proved to be an improvement, but Luke still could not stay asleep for more than about an hour and would take anywhere between 10 minutes and 2 hours to go back to sleep. If there was progress, it was very slow, and we were beginning to despair that our son would never learn to sleep on his own. We weren't even particularly opposed to letting him sleep with us while he got the hang of sleeping unswaddled, but he would have none of it. When he did finally go to sleep in our bed, all one of us had to do was breathe wrong, and he was back up again.
There was, however a glimmer of hope. Luke would fall asleep fairly easily the first time each night around 8:30, then wake up around 2 hours later at 10:30. Since Kim had been bearing the brunt of this all week, I volunteered to let Kim finally get a good night's sleep last night. We planned that she would feed him when he woke up at 10:30, then I would be on duty from then until 7 or 8 the next morning. Kim had also read from somewhere that as long as the baby can go to sleep once per night on his own, then for the rest of the night you could do whatever necessary to get to sleep so he could get his nightly quota. So part of the plan was that when he would wake up at night, I would do anything but swaddle him to get him to sleep again. He fell asleep, as usual, promptly at 8:45, and then we went about our business, expecting him to wake up around 10:30 to eat again. Well, 10:30 came and went, and Kim finally went to bed. Luke slept until 1:2o, which was nothing short of miraculous. I woke Kim up to feed him, and then he went right back to sleep in his crib. He only woke up two other times before 8:30, and promptly fell back asleep without me even having to pick him up. I had been planning to be quite heroic for my wife that night, full of sacrifice and self-denial; however, Luke, once again, had different. And this time, I was happy for his revisions.

Luke's Big Road Trip, Part 2

Do you know the scene in RobinHood where, upon arriving back to his native England from a Jerusalem prison, Kevin Costner rolls around on the beach grabbing big fistfuls of sand and yelling, "I'm home! I'm home!"? Well, that was the kind of joy that I felt upon arriving back in Summerville yesterday afternoon. Not that our road trip was anything comparable to a Crusade-era prison. It's just that, after sleeping in so many different beds and traveling for so many hours a day, it's great to be...well, home.

The trip, however, was great. Here are some highlights:


--Getting to see so much of Greg's family in one place. It was great to see Granddaddy and for Chris and Jill to get to meet their nephew (and to see that our nephew was doing fine in Jill's tummy!) It was also a good surprise to see Victoria and Amelia, whom we had thought wouldn't make it. Amelia was as cute as ever, at least from the distance I was keeping myself and Luke, due to her cold. And Grace regaled Jennifer, Greg, and me with tales of Amelia crawling on the ceiling and much more that we couldn't quite understand (not b/c Grace is inarticulate, but b/c her little voice didn't stand a chance in a room filled with so many Kirbys!)

--The lucky coincidence that Alison Winstead, her mom Wendy, and her two grandmothers all happened to be in Greensboro on Saturday going to the Hobby Lobby. Luke got to meet all of them, and I got to see Alison for the first time in a long time. [Sidenote: This girl is amazing. She's in her third year of med school at Wake Forest and is going strong. She's even delivered five babies without passing out or anything, a feat which I find truly incredible.]

--Staying with Jeff and Pat Whitfield in Nashville. These people were wonderful. Greg had to remind me before we got there how they were related to him ("Ohh, your mom's first cousin. That sounds like a real close bond..."). Do I even know my mom's first cousins? No, but that's okay. Jeff and Pat--whom I have met once before, I should say--were the most open, caring people. They have a new grandbaby of their own, so they anticipated all of our needs. They also insisted we come and go as we pleased and treat them like our parents. Plus, Pat cooked a wonderful dinner for us on Monday night and let us invite whomever over. I invited Heidi Winstead, and Greg invited Mo Miller. Heidi and I had an amazing, nonstop conversation in which we were oblivious to all around us (luckily, Luke was asleep) for hours after dinner while Mo and Greg briefly got caught up on each others lives and then watched football. Then on Tuesday, Pat and Jeff sent us off with some fudge pie, grapes, and a homemade blanket and two monogrammed burp cloths for Luke. See? Amazing!

--It was also great to see Viviana and Becca Elizalde, two of our girls from Youth Encouragement Services, where I used to work. We also stopped by Lipscomb and saw some of our Freshmen from Summerville, Melissa and Vanessa Helbig, Laura Potter, and Jessica Lewis, in their new college environment. We also stopped in and saw Dr. Hearn (one of my favorite professors and the head of the English dept.) and Dr. Philip Camp (a Bible professor we both liked a lot). We talked to Dr. Camp until Luke started screaming his head off, causing professors teaching in their new Bible building to shut their doors. We took that as a sign to leave, thus ending our Lipscomb visit.

--Swinging through Alabama to see Grandma and Rob. Rob is in the hospital recovering from surgery, and he's doing much better than he had been previously. We're glad that Luke got to meet his great uncle, and it's always wonderful to see Grandma. We couldn't stay long, though, because we had to get back on the road and because Luke started screaming again. He really does control the length of our visits!

--Recovering in Macon. It was wonderful to see my parents and have them take care of Luke while I got some extra sleep. Of course, being doting grandparents, they fell for all of Luke's nighttime tricks (the smiles, flirting, and such) and didn't make him go to bed when he should. Of course, it WAS a vacation, and Luke's schedule was already screwed up, so I didn't mind. Now that we're back at home, though, we are getting re-regulated.

Be sure to check out our pictures of the trip on our photosite! There's a link to it on this page.

Luke's Big Road Trip, Part 1

Well. It all started as a relatively simple weekend trip to Greensboro, NC, to see Greg's family. But then we decided that, since we were dying to get up to Nashville sometime during the fall, we should combine the two trips. So our original SC-NC trip expanded to SC-NC-TN. Once in NC, however, we realized, in the wee hours of Saturday morning, that if Luke's behavior up to this point was any indication of the future, the baby would implode sometime during the nine hour trip from Nashville to Summerville. He simply wasn't handling things well. So we thought we'd instead take the much shorter drive to Macon from Nashville and let Luke recuperate a few days at Grandma's before heading home. Thus, our trip expanded again to SC-NC-TN-GA. Well, then we heard that Rob was in the hospital and decided that we should probably try to see him and Grandma, hence making our final trip from SC to NC to TN to AL to GA. Needless to say, it was pretty crazy.

We're proud to report that the trip went GREAT...after the first night. Luke actually did pretty well on the trip to Greensboro, if you don't count the hour or two that he was sitting in stop and go traffic with the sun continually in his face. He obviously hated the bright sun, but he also wasn't so much a fan of being completely surrounded by the car seat canopy, which was the only other option. We ended up finally stopping at a rest area at the peak of Luke's rage to feed him and calm him down. He then slept the rest of the way to Greensboro.

Once in Greensboro, we checked in to the hotel and then headed over for Granddaddy's house for dinner with him, Dan and Glenda, Floyd and Linda, Alan, Wyndie, Tamyra, and Kalyb. Luke didn't last too long, so we rode back to the hotel to put him to sleep. And thankfully, he went down rather easily at 9:00, as did his exhausted mama. Unfortunately, he woke up at midnight in rare form. For one, he did NOT go back to sleep after he ate, as is usually his custom. For another, he proceeded to cry at an abnormally high volume for an hour and a half. At least, it SEEMED abnormally high, probably because of our awareness of everyone sleeping in rooms around us--oh, and the fact that we were exhausted! I don't remember how, but we finally got him back to sleep around 1:30 or 2:00. And he slept well...until 4:00. Then he was up for round 2! After another half hour to an hour of screaming, we decided to turn to the internet for advice, so we put Greg's new laptop to use. At first, we googled "baby constipation" b/c several factors up to that point had made us believe he might be constipated. However, every website assured us that breastfed babies do not suffer constipation. To that we said, "Hmmm." So then, I typed in "baby won't stop crying." Actually, what I typed in was "babysop.." "baby won'tsop.." Eventually, I was able to spell everything right. A helpful website pointed out that babies are sometimes inconsolable at night b/c they'd had high stress days. After reviewing our day--a grueling 6 hour trip and a slew of new relatives--we figured that sounded about right. This same website recommended some white noise like a vaccuum cleaner. Well, we didn't have a vaccuum cleaner, and our neighbors really WOULD have kicked us out if we ran one...but I remembered that Luke always likes it when I dry my hair, even when he's in a fussy mood. So we cut on the hotel hair dryer, and within thirty seconds, Luke was completely calm. Within a minute, he was sound asleep. Greg and I were so relieved that he was asleep and yet so wired by all the things it took to get him to sleep that we layed in bed and talked for awhile. It was then that we hatched our plan to go to Macon instead of back to Summerville on Tuesday. We figured we all could use some rest.

Stay tuned for more about the good part of the trip!

Weekend with Luke and trip to Charleston

Well, this weekend was my first extended time alone with Luke. Greg had a Fall Retreat at Palmetto Bible Camp, and my mom and dad were in Louisville, KY, so it was just Luke and me! I had some trepidation going into the weekend, but I was also really curious to see how it would go. And it went great! Luke slept like no one's business at night--he would wake up once or twice to eat, but we both got ten hours of sleep each night. Amazing! And during the day, he was a saint. I didn't get too much done during the weekend, but I did have a lot of fun with the Lukester (one of our many cheesy names).

Then today, in celebration of a successful weekend (both Greg's and mine) and Columbus Day (ha!), Greg and I went to downtown Charleston. Again, Luke was amazing. He had a couple of fussy times but would promptly drop off to sleep. It helped that it was an absolutely gorgeous day and that Luke loves the outdoors. Greg and I first split a calzone at Mellow Mushroom and then walked to Kaminsky's for dessert (really healthy, I know--though our calzone DID have pineapples:)). After that, since Luke was in such a good mood, we decided to walk down to Waterfront Park. Let me reemphasize what a beautiful day it was. We got some great pictures at the Park, which you can see on our photosite. We then loaded up and drove to Babies R Us to get Luke a hoodie (it might get cold during our trip to NC and TN this weekend!) and later we had our Guys' and Girls' Bible studies. Both went really well. SO, it was an absolutely amazing day. Not to get sappy or overdramatic, but I love my life and I'm so thankful for all the blessings God lavishes on me and on my family. I hope that He is blessing you in wonderful ways as well.

Motherhood

Today, I got incredibly excited about being a mom. Not that I wasn't before. It's just that the idea of motherhood struck me in a new way. See, the last three months have been amazing and wonderful, but I have lost all sense of time. It seems, as bad as this sounds, that the last three months have lasted forever. I was thinking about why that is, because I've really been enjoying being a mom. But I think that it seems like Luke's been around forever for two reasons: 1) I've been awake more than I ever have been, so these last three months have literally been the longest of my life, in terms of time spent conscious, and 2) having Luke has been the biggest change of my life, so the newness of everything makes it seem longer. At least, that's my theory. Also, the weather since Luke's birth has been exactly the same: it's either boiling hot or pouring down rain. No in between.
But today was different. I took Luke outside to go over to the church building and realized that the weather was MILD. In fact, it was incredibly nice. So I decided to take Luke to the playground, something we'd never done before b/c of the heat. I put him in the infant swing, and he LOVED it. He grinned like a fool while I sat cross-legged in front of him and pushed him back and forth. He had no fear of swinging high, reinforcing Greg's and my belief in his thrill seeking nature. Eventually the indirect sunlight, combined with the gentle breeze, caused him to start to drift to sleep, without the usual screaming/fighting. I cannot emphasize enough how enjoyable this whole experience was. And it really got me excited about the future and all the things Luke is going to get to experience for the first time. It also helped renew my sense of time b/c I realized that the seasons ARE still changing and that it is, indeed, officially fall. Those two concepts combined to make me realize that October will come, as will Christmas and winter and spring, and that Luke has so many wonderful things in store for him. I feel incredibly blessed to get to bear witness to his experiences, and I also feel the need to capture each moment and save it in my memory forever. I spent much of the rest of the day staring at Luke and willing myself to remember exactly how he looks right now. To remember the moment he first swung in the playground swing, to remember how adorable he looked while taking his nap, to remember how he chewed on his Jumparoo, how he grasped the tshirts while "helping" me fold laundry, how he smiled and laughed when Greg or me played with him. It's like, all of a sudden, I truly realized how this time is going to fly by, and I don't want to miss or forget any of it.

Another Big Adventure for Luke

Today Kim and I took Luke with us to the new Tanger Outlet Stores that they have built in North Charleston. Unfortunately we forgot to take a camera to document the cuteness. Luke behaved brilliantly for the majority of the trip. The outlets are about 25 minutes away, and Luke was great in his car seat on the way there and the way back. He even slept for about 30 minutes in his stroller/carseat (unswaddled!) while we shopped and ate. Eventually, I think all the new sights, sounds and smells caught up to him though. He got extremely tired right before we left but had no intentions of falling asleep. It really was a miracle that he did not scream the entire way home. At the end of the day, Kim came home with a couple new shirts and Luke got a new outfit (if there is one person in the world who doesn't need more clothes, its Luke, but it was really cute and inexpensive) from the Carter's Outlet.

Friday is evidently 'Baby Day' at the outlet stores, because I'm not sure I saw more than about 10 people without strollers. I am further convinced of Luke's cuteness, because amid all these other babies, people still have to stop at marvel at Luke. The clerk in Banana Republic even said that she wished she had a camera to take a picture of him. Had I been thinking, I could have refered her to our (Luke's really) photosite page.

We have had some fun times thanks to Luke's Baby Beethoven DVD. Evidently the Second Symphony is hysterical, because Luke cracks up laughing during that segment. The DVD is fun because it is specially designed for babies because they don't overload the senses like normal TV, which Luke doesn't get to watch. Not that he doesn't want to. If one of us is holding Luke and he hears the TV, he will contort every muscle in his body to attempt to turn himself to see what's going on. He's quite the nosy little fellow. Also, Luke has learned how to roll himself from his tummy to his back and has gotten more adept at grabbing and holding things.

Visit to Grandma's House

Well, Greg left Macon on Tuesday because he had church on Wednesday, but Luke and I stayed a couple more days. We got to spend some quality time with Uncle Mike and got to visit Thomaston Rd. Church of Christ (my home church) on Wednesday night. We were excited about church b/c Luke would get to go to cradle roll (or is it role?), and we thought he would like it. Luke, however, had other plans. He got fussy right before the service started, so I moved to the back row. This was a good thing, because his fussiness soon elevated to outright crying, and Grandma took him out to calm him. (In fact, Luke was so fussy that my dad, who was doing announcements at the time, said, "That's my grandson you hear in the back. You can stop turning around"!) The rest of the congregation then proceeded through worship up to the main prayer. I say "main prayer," because it was the apparent centerpiece of the service: a detailed conversation/list of requests presented to God. It was nice, but necessarily lengthy, and in the middle of it, I began to hear a faint yet distinct wailing echoing through the building. The wail built up steadily until an emissary was sent to fetch me from the service, mid-conversation with God (I'm sure He understood). I then proceeded to the nursery where Luke was being tortured--I mean, rocked to sleep--by Grandma (he can be a bit high strung at times:)). I calmed him down, and he promptly conked out for all of cradle roll/role (I don't think I actually understand that name). This whole incident completely embodies our life so far with Luke: completely unpredictable, exciting, and entertaining!

By the way, Luke had a great car trip back, and fell asleep by himself in his carseat two or three times. There was also a lot less screaming. I've included a picture as proof of the miracle!

Adventures with Car Seats

Luke made another trip to Macon and back earlier this week. Kim and I decided it would be nice to relax at her parents' house for a few days. The visit itself was very nice and very relaxing. The trip to Macon however was a different story. Luke has decided that he is not a fan of his car seat. At all. We left Sunday night after church thinking that since we were traveling at night, then perhaps he would sleep the entire four hours. Luke can typically sleep that long with no problem at night. The plan backfired though as Luke had trouble falling asleep in his car seat. And it being night made him tired and extra cranky. We stopped at McDonalds to grab a bite to eat and Kim and I took turns walking and rocking Luke in the parking lot. He finally went to sleep, but woke up the second we put him in his seat. We decided to travel on, hoping Luke would tire himself out and fall asleep. In October we are traveling to Greensboro to see my family, then from there we are traveling to Nashville to see friends from college, so Luke needs to learn how to sleep in the seat. Eventually he did fall asleep, after 10 minutes of screaming at the top of his lungs. Those of you who have heard Luke cry know that he is very capable of making his case known. 20 minutes later, however, he was awake again and making sure we knew it. Kim was in the backseat trying to comfort Luke, and we had to switch places because Luke's cries were too much for her motherly instinct to bear, so she drove and I got in the back with Luke. Eventually, I learned that if I didn't look at him, but simply kept my hand on his chest with a finger on his pacifier, he would calm down. When I would glimpse over at him though, I found that he was glaring at me with great contempt. But, he finally fell asleep and this time stayed asleep for a couple hours until we were coming into Macon. Then he woke up and screamed his head off again for the remaining 10 minutes of the trip. It was the longest 4 hour trip I've ever made.

I came back to Summerville on my own because I had to teach class on Wednesday night, and Kim stayed in Macon for a couple extra days and her mom brought her and Luke back. They said that he traveled much better on Thursday, so hopefully he will handle the road trip better in October when we make the 4 hour trip to Greensboro, 7 hour trip from Greensboro to Nashville, and 8 hour trip from Nashville back home.

Little Accomplishments and Adventures with Grandparents

It's crazy that Luke is not even three months old, and yet he surprises us everyday with his little accomplishments and glimpses into his personality. The other day, I was washing his hair, so he was laying on his back on the counter with his head over the sink. He heard his dad talking somewhere over his head, so he craned his head backwards to see, stretching until his hair hit the water. Intrigued by this new position, he then continued to force his head back until it was essentially hanging upside down, halfway in the water--at which point, he relaxed, head dangling contentedly. We took pictures, which you can see on our photosite (I'd add a link, but I don't know how). He's also getting better at grasping objects, standing (with help, of course), and sleeping during the night (note that I said "during," not "through").

Luke has had plenty of opportunity to show off these new tricks to visiting grandparents. My mom comes up for a couple of days every other week to see her "sugar lump." Now that he takes bottles of breastmilk, she'll send us off in the evening for a date while she takes care of the baby. She also lets us get a full night's sleep by feeding him in the middle of the night. All in all, she's been a great help--we just have to restrain her from introducing juice and milkshakes to Luke, both of which she's suggested!

Luke's other grandparents, the Kirbys, came up for a weekend and left this afternoon. Luke obligingly introduced them to the full gamut of his emotions, from coos and smiles to raging fits. Grandma Kirby rode out a particularly impressive performance (so I'm told) during church on Sunday, when she volunteered to take Luke out to the foyer when he became fussy. I think she may have come to regret that helpful gesture! As it was, Luke stubbornly refused to go to sleep until he finally succumbed the hypnosis of a ceiling fan. Luckily, both Grandma and Grandpa also had Luke during some happy times. We were thankful that they could come spend some time with him and look forward to seeing the rest of the family in October.
--Kim

If anyone ventures back to this website....

I have been away from the blogging game for quite a long time now. To all those that are dying for updates on Luke, my deepest apologies. I could offer many, many excuses for my long absence, but if I can't/won't find the time to write about my life, why would I take the time to write that?

Anyway - I will attempt to very quickly bring every one up to speed on everything that has happened over the last month and a half. Starting in mid-July

Ken and Victoria's visit - I will say that having 3 children in the house under 3 ensures for a visit with never a dull moment. Grace has gotten quite tall and articulate since we had last seen her. We got the pleasure of meeting our niece Amelia for the first time. I must say that I have never met a baby that will give you a healthier self-esteem. Practically anytime anyone makes eye-contact with her, she beams with an enormous smile. Her middle name (Joy) seems very appropriate to me. You can find Ken and Victoria's perspective on the trip on their blog.

Luke's trips to his Grandparents - Shortly after Ken and Victoria's visit, I had two youth trips in three weeks. One was to Carolina Workcamp, painting houses for people in Greenville, SC. It was a great trip for our group, especially some of our younger members. The other was a mission trip to the New Orleans area with an organization called Hilltop Rescue. I very naively (I'm not computer savvy enough to know how to insert the extra little dot over the 'i', so you'll have to use your imagination) went into the week thinking that we would be working on the rebuilding process. What I didn't realize is that the vast majority of the city is still in the "tearing down before you can build back up" phase of reconstruction. We spent the week "mucking" or cleaning out houses that had not been touched since last September. It was quite an eye-opening experience to just how bad the devastation had been and how much is still left to do.

So, while Dad was out sweating like crazy (Greenville's heat index that week was over 100 everyday and New Orleans... Well it was New Orleans in August) and enduring all kinds of new and interesting stenches, (think of refrigerators that had been underwatter full of food for almost a year) Mom and Luke went to Macon to visit Grandma and Grandpa. On the first visit, his great grandmother and great aunt were also there. He quickly learned that he is spoiled at Grandma's house. Kim told me that during the week, that he would start crying the second he wasn't being held, something he does not ordinarily do at home. He also went swimming for the first time. The Sparrow side of him comes out in the water. He loved the pool and always enjoys his bath at home. That is until he has to get out. I highly recommend you heading to the Photosite to see the pictures of his first swimming experience. I'm sure roughly 20 years from now, Luke will be quite embarrassed as Kim and I show some lovely young lady these pictures. Also while in Macon, a friend of the family's who is a photographer took some portraits of Luke - you can look at those here. I'll warn you, they are incredibly cute.

General Developments - Luke is becoming more and more responsive. Which I am loving, because it means that he is getting more and more fun to play with. He is really beginning to smile now. His favorite time to smile is when you have his diaper off on the changing table. It is also his favorite time to try out the baby talk. He's getting rather skilled at the "guh" sound. He is also a hoss. At his 2 month check-up last week he weighed 14 lbs. He is in the top 95 percent of babies his age in height and weight. If i remember correctly, both Grace and Amelia were those ranges. The Kirby boys seem to have big babies. Maybe not the best news for Jill, my sister-in-law who is having her first baby in February. He also had his immunizations, and has had no problems from them. He was already kind of fussy when the doctor gave him his shots, which was probably a good thing. I think since he was already crying, he didn't really notice the needles, because he didn't change the pitch of his cry at all. As soon as we had him dressed and picked up, he had stopped crying.

Besides the pool pictures, there are a bunch of new pictures on the Photosite. I upgraded the account so that now it will hold a thousand pictures. I found it too difficult to decide which ones to leave up and which to remove, so look for even more coming soon.

Week 3

Luke's biggest adventure of week 3 was his first trip out of the house besides Church or the doctor. Kim and I took him with us to the Seaton's house (some friends from church) for a July 4th cookout with our young families group. We of course had to dress Luke fittingly for the event in a patriotic baby outfit. We had a very patriotic baby outfit that we had gotten as a shower gift. It was designated as fitting a 0-3 month child, but obviously they intended more of 3 months that 0 months. But... we dressed him in it anyway. And he looked quite dapper in it, even if it was a little too big. He behaved quite well at the Seaton's house. He slept most of the time and enjoyed all the wives taking their turn at holding him. The way home on the other hand... was a different story. It is maybe a ten minute drive from the Seaton's house to ours. About 3 minutes into the drive Luke decided that he was hungry and decided to make that opinion known. For the remainder of the trip, he would scream until his throat would dry out, take about a 5 second break and resume his screaming. Obviously Dad was ready to get him home. Unfortunately, Trolley Road (the road our house is on) is the best place to view Summerville's Town Fireworks display - so there were plenty of pedestrians to complicate things further. But we made it home, Luke got his meal, and no pedestrians were run over. So all in all, it ended up quite a successful outing. You may be thinking that this is a much delayed post in that July 4th was over a week ago. To my defense, you can still see/hear fireworks blowing up nightly - South Carolinians love blowing stuff up - so it doesn't seem like that long ago to us.

Also on Sunday, Luke attended his second Church service and again did quite well, sleeping the entire service. He was presented with a Baby Bible from our congregation, something they do for all new babies. The elder presenting the Bible mistakingly called him Matthew Luke Kirby (it was printed right in the Bible though). I think the teenagers in the youth group were much more upset about the slip-up than either Kim or me. Luke didn't seem to care at all. Speaking of babies and church, Luke should have plenty of friends to play with as he grows up. David Henniger, our associate minister, and his wife Caryn today found out that they will be having a boy in December. By the time they have their baby, that will be at least 5 boys born in our congregation in 2006, so we're excited about that.

Remember to check out the photosite for more pictures of Luke. There's even a few pictures of other people, but lets be honest, they're not why you're here. This week, Luke's cousins, Grace and Amelia, are coming to visit, so soon there should be plenty of pictures of babies almost as cute as Luke.

2 week check up

Luke had his two week doctor's visit on Friday. Everything checked out, he's completely healthy. He is also huge. He has grown over an inch (he now measures 21.75 inches long) and has broken double digits in weight (weighing in at exactly 10 lbs).

His Grandma went home this morning (no worries, her and Grandpa are headed back on Wednesday for another visit, so she hasn't gotten tired of him yet) so Kim and I are in for our first taste of being parents on our own. So far, so good. We took him to church this morning, and he slept very peacefully throughout. I hope David (our preacher) wasn't too offended. Uncle Ken and Aunt Victoria were planning on coming down to visit over the 4th, but sadly Grace came down with a fever so they had to postpone their visit. We're very much looking forward to meeting our niece Amelia and seeing how much Grace has grown (and of course seeing Ken and Victoria too) .

This is a picture of Luke in his Fisher Price swing that his Grandma and Grandaddy Kirby got for him.

Yep, he's still cute...

Grandma Bev has been quite the shutterbug. Luke can quite easily sleep through flashbulbs going off two feet in front of his face now. Actually Luke can quite easily sleep through most circumstances.

If you go to the photo site, you can see the newest pictures. My favorites include:


Luke 'enjoying' his first bath:










Posing as a bouncer:


With Grandma (in his straightjacket as Grandma calls it. Incidently, his miracle swaddling blanket has been terrific - thank you Ken and Victoria):








With Mom - she's not too bad looking either:










And of course, with Dad:

Luke has arrived

On Monday, June 19th at 8:15 am, Michael Luke Kirby finally arrived (he was only 2 days late, but we were past ready for him to get here). Kim went into labor on Sunday night around 7:50, but did not go to the hospital until after 1 am because she did not feel as if her contractions were strong enough to warrant a trip to the hospital. Judging from her demeanor once at the hospital, the nurses determined that she couldn't actually be in labor yet because she was far too calm and walking much too easily. They took her back into a room just to be sure, where the nurse was astonished to find that she was at 5.5 cm dilation, so they promptly moved her to a better room. Evidently they did not want to mess up one of the 'good' delivery rooms for someone they felt they would just turn around and send home. The new room was much nicer, with its own private bathroom (the other shared with another room) with a jacuzzi bathtub and more space. The tub was a wonderful thing during her transitional labor.

Her labor went very smoothly and she seemed relatively comfortable until about 4 am, when her labor got very intense. She was amazing though, and managed to deliver Luke with no pain medication whatsoever. Especially impressive considering his size - 9 lb. 6 oz. 20.5 in. Our nurse, Carry and our midwife Judy were amazing. He's completely healthy and absolutely beautiful. I know, I'm his dad and I'm biased, but everyone else seems to think so too. Other than the swelling on his head from labor, he hasn't looked much like a newborn. He looks more like a 2 week old already. His skin is not mottled at all, and he has very plump little legs and arms. (He also has enormous feet)

A little over 24 hours after the delivery we were able to bring him home, and he has been a very easy going little guy so far. He tends to get very fussy around 2:30 to 4:30 am, but I discovered last night that the sound of the TV puts him to sleep, so here's to hoping that trick continues to work. I watched some of the bonus features of the LOST Season 1 dvd Kim and I had been watching. It could just be that Luke found the characters voices comforting though because he had heard them so much in the weeks leading up to his birth. His parents had been somewhat addicted.

He also has had lots of hands around to hold him. He has already met all four of his grandparents, his Great Grandmother Travis, and his Uncle Mike. He seems to like them all, and they certainly like him. They have all headed back home except for Grandma Bev. She is staying around to help, which has been greatly appreciated. I'm expecting she'll probably go back home around the time Luke turns 18. For those of you who have not met her, she is very excited to have a grandbaby.


Our Nurse Carry and Midwife Judy

If you'd like to see some more pictures of Luke (and trust me you do, because he's maybe the cutest baby ever) then you can go to my photosite page.

The origin of this blog

If there is one lesson I try to teach the kids in my youth group, it's 'if everybody else is doing it, then so should you.'* So here I am jumping on the blog bandwagon. With a son coming very soon, I am guessing that there will be some grandparents and great-grandparents who will probably want to know updates and see pictures and such. I've already jumped on the myspace bandwagon - http://www.myspace.com/icekirby, but if you're at all familiar with myspace, you probably know its not the type of place you want to send your grandmother to find out news about your newborn son.** So since I've tried to be like my oldest brother for the last 25 years, I thought I'd follow him to the blogger site and try to get some credibility as a grown-up before Luke comes next month.

So now that I've given the obligatory explanation of why this blog exists, it brings me to the obligatory explanation of the name of this blog. It's quite simple actually. You see B.I.T. was a nickname I acquired in college. And this is where I muse about stuff. So there.

Now the not-so obligatory explanation of the nickname: In college I was privileged to be considered for membership to a very prestigious group of guys. No, it wasn't a social club. Social clubs at Lipscomb were dumb (sorry Dad). These guys were much more fun. I think the only requirement for membership is that you had to be a guy, be fairly lovable and not care too much about hygiene. These group of guys were called simply "the Bubbas" and congregated mainly on the 8th floor of High Rise, though members could be found scattered throughout campus, country, and even the world. My older brother (not the oldest brother mentioned above) was a charter member and suggested to the other Bubbas that I might be allowed to become a Bubba as well. Fortunately, they agreed, but only if I were to be subject to a period of 'Bubba training'. Hence I became a 'Bubba In Training'. Bubbas aren't generally known for their ambition and saying, "Hey, Bubba in Training, pass me a Mountain Dew" everytime I happened to be sitting closest to the refrigerator seemed a bit too much work to say on a regular basis. So I became B.I.T. for the sake of brevity. Eventually, even three syllables got to be a little much so my moniker was shortened to just 'Bit', which I never quite liked as much. So since it is my blog, I decided on B.I.T.'s musings over Bit's Musings. If you decide to tell all your friends about this blog site*** then you are more than welcome to call it Bit's Musings. I'll leave that for popular opinion to decide.


*I'm kidding, I don't really teach kids in my youth group that. And even if I did, it would harldy be 'the one' lesson I try to teach them.

** For those of you who aren't familiar with myspace, its a place where teenagers create their own sites with just about whatever content they want. It's a great ministry tool, but as you can imagine, you can inadvertently find all kinds of things you would wish you hadn't.+

*** My hubris is allowing me to imagine a group of well dressed business profressionals standing around a water cooler saying things like "Did you read the latest blog on Bit's Musings? I laughed, I cried, I wanted to be a better all around human being." My grasp of reality reminds me that odds are millions to one that only my closest friends and family will read this and say, "Greg is such a dork, but we love him anyway." In the end I think that to be much better.

+I promise not every blog will have millions of footnotes.