John

I have been considering returning to the blog for awhile now, obviously I took an extra long break because I'm just not the best about blogging. A few weeks became a few months and then it just seemed too long. But, as many of you already know, we are expecting baby number three in just a few short days. While I've been pretty private about things for the last few months, lately I've been feeling like I should share my thoughts on the impending arrival of John.

John Rob Byrd is due on August 24th, but we are expecting him to arrive this week. We found out in March that this sweet boy has Trisomy 18. At the time, they couldn't tell us anything about how long we might have him with us. The timeline was anywhere from losing him sometime during the pregnancy to him living for years, but we always knew that most likely we were looking at a very short time with him. Now, it seems that the time to meet John has arrived. As of now, he's still hanging on, but with some pretty serious issues that they found a few weeks ago. From what we understand, they do not expect him to live long at this point, and we are just hoping to say hello before we have to say goodbye.

After months of processing this information I know this...if there is one job I have as a mother to my boys, it's to teach them about Jesus. It's to help guide them so that one day they accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. It's to help them grow into strong Christian men. It's to help get them to Heaven. And now, with John, I'll skip a lot of those steps, but I know he's going to be in Heaven.

Do I want him to be here with me? Absolutely! Am I going to be so sad to lose a child, a person that I've loved and felt and carried since I found out about him in December? Of course. We pictured our lives with three boys under 4. We were preparing for the madness of a new baby along with two toddlers. I can still imagine these three boys growing up together and I know it's not going to happen. But something even better is waiting for John. He gets to skip all of the growing pains and mistakes of life. I get to see him again. I have years of hard work ahead to help mold my boys and hopefully to help lead them to make the decision for Christ, but John is already going to be with Jesus. I can't possibly ask for anything greater for my child.

Obviously, I don't know exactly how Heaven works, and I won't know until I'm there. But I like to think that John is going to meet my grandfather, who he's named after and who I've always wanted to meet. I like to think that Celia, my aunt, who I've missed for the last three years, will be there waiting for him. She absolutely loved babies, and she loved me. Now she can love my sweet boy when I can't be there. Not that he will even need anyone else there at all, because John will finally be whole in the arms of Jesus, and that is the best love of all. I wish I could keep him here with me, but I'm excited for him to be with Jesus.

I know that the next few months are going to bring a wave of emotions. I know that I will have happy times and sad times. Good days and bad days. I know that I need prayers more than I ever have. But on the days when things are really tough, I can remind myself that he is in a better place than I can even imagine.

This and That

It was beautiful today and I was so thankful for the nice weather so we could spend the afternoon outside. Will had school today and then we went to the playground and came home and played in the driveway for awhile. Fletcher is at a hard age for outside play because he's ready to get down but there's not really anywhere for him to crawl outside. He's pulling up on things now so I'm have to get used to him being able to reach new things when I'm not looking. Luckily, he hasn't noticed the stairs yet. We've had a good week and tomorrow night Anna Catherine is taking the boys so we can have a date night. That was one of her Christmas presents for Rob, a date night during his busiest time of year! It will be nice to get out and so something without having to worry about everything being kid-friendly.

Will has been upset every time I go to pick him up from school lately. I really think a lot of it has to do with him being so tired. He isn't sleeping well at all with his eczema and most mornings he's up by 5:30. They take naps at school and when I go to pick him up he is dead asleep and doesn't like being woken up. Wonder who he gets that from? I've figured out that we just have to stay in the classroom and let him adjust for a couple of minutes before heading out of the school. Fletcher doesn't seem to mind just hanging out in the floor while will gets settled down.  

On a more personal note I've made a few goals for myself this year because I'm turning 30. I got a makeover/makeup present from my cousin and sister for Christmas and have been wearing makeup on a regular basis for about a month now. I love it! This should have happened long ago but I figure 30 is as good a time as any to get started. I'm also working on getting back to a happy weight for me. I have a ways to go but I'm excited to work on it. Losing weight is something that I've always been really good at when I put my mind to it. I think I've not been too worried about it in the last couple of years because I've really been pregnant or breastfeeding pretty much the whole time. I've just had to take some time to get in the right mindset but I'd really like to be there by 30 so that gives me plenty of time to work toward a goal. Maybe if things go well I'll show you before and after pics in October. And I'm also working on my relationship with God. This is something that I hope to always be working on so it's not just a goal for 30, but there are some specific things I'd like to do this year. 

And now for more pictures...

First night in big boy bed right after he turned two. He fell out that night.

He looks so tiny in that big bed!

How do you sleep like that?

Just a little bragging on myself for making these!

Fletcher trying out his new car seat at Christmas. He just moved into in last week.

Oh just relaxing!

My boys hanging out on the couch together.

We slept together last time I was at my mom's house and this is what I found when I went to bed. Where am I supposed to sleep?

I was documenting his eczema (so that I can show the dermatologist pictures of how bad it gets in case it is better by the time we finally get to go) and Will thought I was taking pictures of every body part so he started helping my. This was his lips picture. 

This is a little bit of what is on his leg. I didn't want to show any of the really bad pictures because they are just sad. 

Fletcher loves to sleep with a pillow in his crib but he usually just leaves it beside him. I checked on him at naptime one day and he was like this. He looks like a grown up!

Will letting Teddy Bear sit in his new car seat. 

Playing with the car seat box.

Outside time last week!

Pictures

These are in completely random order and only a few of many that I'm trying to put up, but at least it's something.

One of his first times eating. He didn't like food much then. 

One of many efforts at a picture of them together with the tree. 

The best we got. Not sure why we didn't have the Christmas pajamas on for these.

My efforts at a cow cake for Will's birthday. He loves farm animals. 

Birthday boy headed off with one of his new presents. I couldn't get him to stay there and open them all at once. 

When he first started sitting up alone.

First time sitting together to play. 

Will

*I wrote this days ago but am having trouble with my laptop and the internet. Hopefully I can get this figured out and post more often!

So after my post about my very easy 8 month old, I thought it only appropriate to write a post about Will. Will is 2. That says it all really. One second he is so sweet and laughing and loving on his brother, and the next he’s laying in the floor screaming for no reason at all. I know a lot of it has to do with communication, and the fact that we can’t understand what he’s trying to tell us sometimes. He is talking a lot now and I can get probably ¾ of it, but the rest I just guess at and he gets so frustrated when he has to keep repeating himself. And then sometimes he throws fits just because. Because he woke up grumpy, because he’s tired, because his milk was opened the wrong way, because his oatmeal wasn’t the exact temperature he wanted it to be. There are any number of reasons for him to throw a fit.

Then there's the itching. Oh the itching! He has TERRIBLE eczema and we haven't been able to help him much this winter. We went to an allergist and he's not allergic to anything. That was great news considering Rob is allergic to everything, but bad news for the eczema since there was nothing we could just cut out to help it. We have an appointment with a dermatologist but can't get in until March 28. Hopefully it will be be better by then because the weather will be warmer, so I've taken pictures to show them just how bad it is now. The itching also causes fits, because he's in pain. It's heartbreaking really. He can't sleep half the time because he wakes up itching and sometimes baths have to be 5 minutes because he can't stop clawing at his skin.  

But back to the fits for no reason other than being two...when I picked him up from MDO last Tuesday he threw a huge fit for reasons completely unknown to me. His teachers had just finished telling me how obedient he is and what a good day he’d had and then he fell apart on the way out. It was so much fun to try to get him to the car in the midst of his tantrum while also trying not to drop Fletcher. He loves school so I don’t know if he just didn’t want to leave or he just woke up from nap grumpy. Those are the times when two is really hard, because I’d like to just be able to pick Will up and take him to the car, or to the bathroom, or somewhere that I can deal with him, but I’m holding Fletcher and he can’t walk, so I just have to half carry/half drag Will. It’s special. But I guess if he's going to be really good for someone I'm glad it's his teachers. 

When he’s sweet he’s just precious. He loves to play with his animals and make animal sounds. He loves to look through books and pick out things to talk about, but he won't let us read them to him anymore. He loves Fletcher and really tries to play with him, he’s just a little rough and ends up hurting him sometimes. He loves to play chase, to wrestle with Rob in the floor, to sing songs and count and recite his ABC’s. And he loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He know all the characters and we have to talk about them a million times a day. He likes to play with his little apps on the ipad, although he doesn’t do that as often as he used to. His favorite thing on the ipad is just to draw pictures and have me write letters and numbers. 

And now for more pictures…just kidding, it won't let me add any tonight. Hopefully I can put up a whole bunch in the next couple of days!

I'm Back

I know you are all so excited. And by all I mean my immediate family since anyone else who was reading stopped checking for new posts months ago! Fletcher has a new tooth as of Tuesday, and when I found it I decided that the blogging needed to start back up. You see, Fletcher has no baby book, so the only way to remember these things is to put them here on the blog. This way when he's grown and asks these questions (who am I kidding? He's a boy, he won't ask or care!) I will know the answers. Since it's been approximately 8 months since I've blogged, there's a lot to catch up on, but we'll just make this post about Fletcher. 

Fletcher has been an extremely easy baby in comparison to Will, who was really pretty easy himself! Fletch is happy about 85% of the time and smiles at everyone and everything. He loves Will and will just watch him play and now that he's crawling (as of right at the 8 month mark) he's pretty happy to play by himself too. He sleeps wherever he happens to be at nap time and wakes up happy whether or not he was able to get his whole nap. He sleeps about 12 hours at night and basically just transitioned into all night sleeping on his own. We never had to cry it out, mainly because I was more tired this time around and any time he woke up in the night I just put him in the bed with me, and then well before 6 months (my personal "must sleep through the night or cry it out" marker) he just quit waking up at night and now he sleeps like a champ. Our only issue with him was eating solids. He wanted nothing to do with them in the beginning and thought everything was gross. But they've grown on him and while he's still pretty picky he's a good eater. 

And now for the fun stuff. I have lots of pictures to put up and I tried to put 24 on this post alone but it cut me off at 9 so here they are!

A visit from Nana and Grandaddy.

Fletch!

Playing on the tractors and in the corn at the pumpkin patch. 

Our efforts at a picture with pumpkins. He was really excited as you can see.

Picture with Mimi, apparently someone else was taking one too? They are definitely looking elsewhere but this is the best one I had.

Giraffe Fletcher at Halloween.

Dr. Will talking to giraffe Fletcher. We had random costumes because they don't care at this age so we take what people give us :) Maybe next year Will can tell me what he wants to be.

First time in the Johnny Jumper. He doesn't love it. Will never did either. 

While we were settling in with Fletcher....

Will was hanging out in Fayetteville. My mom came up to cook and wash and wake up with my baby at night so we could sleep, and my sisters and dad watched Will. I have to give them a big shout out because I think it took a lot of maneuvering on their part to get him taken care of all week. Between their jobs and cows getting out, it was an adventure to be sure. He got to spend time with Jessica and Evelyn Gray at the pool (thanks Jessica!), which he loved, and he even took a nap at her house in a big bed and didn't try to escape! He also got to hang out with Emily (thanks Emily!) and lots of his cousins because she took him at the last minute when the bulls tore the fence down. And he entertained Susan's friends that came to the house to play cards, even though I'm pretty sure it was way past his bedtime. Apparently he just rolled with it and had a great time. Below is a picture I stole from Facebook. Someone did a stellar diaper job :) Probably because you can't get him to be still long enough to get the diaper on! Looks like a happy boy to me!

Busy Byrds

It's amazing how much can happen when you don't blog for two months. Most of my readers already know the things I'm about to write, but I'll add fun pictures too!

We decided we were finally ready to list our house by the end of April, at which point we had been talking about it for 5 months. We prepared ourselves for a long wait to sell, because we just didn't think it would go quickly. Boy were we wrong! The house sold in less than 2 weeks and we were given a close date of June 15th, with Baby Byrd due on June 16th. We wanted to sell so we agreed to be out by the 15th and then immediately started a search for a new house!

It was pretty frustrating because we had been looking online for months and had a list of houses we wanted to see, but when we would send addresses to our realtor, everything we wanted would be under contract already. We kept searching and finding new ones and we kept getting shot down. Out of probably more than 20 houses we sent, we were able to see 8. But number 7 was a winner and we were able to get it! Our close date for the new house was also set for the 15th.

So by mid-May we had sold a house, bought a house, and now had to deal with all of the ins and outs of each. Add to that keeping our house clean for showings (I did require an hour notice before each one) while 33-36 weeks pregnant and keeping up with a 30 pound, 17-month-old wild child, and Baby Byrd decided not to wait any longer!

Fletcher Knight Byrd arrived on May 21st, almost 4 weeks early but weighing a healthy 6 lb 12 oz. I never thought I would be one to have such a small baby, but they said he would have been pretty big by 40 weeks! Needless to say, it scared me to death to be going in to labor at 36 weeks, because you hear so much about 37 weeks being the magic number, and in my mind the baby was just going to stay until at least May 26. Because I convinced myself that I wasn't in labor at such an early date, I waited too long to go to the hospital and didn't get to have an epidural. I don't suggest it and if there is another baby I will be going to the hospital at the very moment I think I'm in labor so I can get those drugs! On the plus side, I arrived at the hospital around 7:30 a.m. and Fletcher was born at 9:30 on the dot, so while it was horrible, it was only 2 hours of horrible.

We got home from the hospital on May 23rd and have been finishing up with things for the buy/sale of the homes ever since. We were finally able to start packing earlier this week and it's nice to know we are getting started.

Hopefully everything else will go off without a hitch and we'll be in our new home by June 19th. Will can finally play outside any time he wants to and there is even a fence so I don't have to worry about him running off on me!

Will and I waiting for his ear tubes on May 15th. He seems better already!

Fletcher Knight Byrd is here!

My grandfather, his middle name is Knight too! It was his mother's maiden name and it's also my cousin's middle name. She has a picture with him on her blog, but I don't have one on my camera.

Rob's grandfather, Jack Fletcher. 

Which also makes it Rob's mother's maiden name. Obviously this boy is named after lots of people!

Waiting to go home from the hospital in the same gown that Will wore home. 

Will pointing out Fletcher's nose, we like to do that a lot. 

All of my boys together. Will has really been great about everything so far.

Fletcher napping on the couch. 

Will doing the same right after he came home from the hospital, just a comparison.

Napping again, he does a lot of that!

Will eating by himself. It's very messy but he can get it in his mouth so it's a start.