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Becoming Real Parents
One would argue that we have now been parents for almost 10 months. I would definitely disagree with that. Jessi has been with us and we have been her mommy and daddy from the beginning. Parenting (for me) was pretty easy in the beginning. Well for basically the first 9 1/2 months were pretty easy. I didn’t have to do anything but take care of KK.
Then on March 25th everything changed. I had been a daddy for months, but now the daddying was different. Parenting before Jessi arrived consisted of feeding the wife, picking things up off the floor, rubbing the belly, and talking to Jessi. Man, things have changed! Parenting has now become what so many before us knew it to be already.
Diapers, feeding, crying, not sleeping, butt paste, screaming, rashes…
No Sleep, no TV, pacing the floor, weeping, gnashing of teeth, still not sleeping, insanity…
Did I mention that there isn’t much sleeping? Hmmm. Well, parenting is definitely harder than the first nine months. We need a DVR we are so far behind on some of our shows. That may have to change. But as much as many of those things suck, it is well worth it! The noises, the faces, the stretching, the flopping. It’s all worth it.
Maybe one of these days the crying will slow down a bit and the sleep will commence.
She's Two Weeks Old Already!
Well we have now been out of mommy’s belly for 2 whole weeks! Seriously where does the time go? Oh, right. We were awake for all of it. Just seemed like one reeeeeeeally long day.
The first two weeks with Jessika have been awesome and rough. We haven’t slept well mainly because she seems to be all about the whole night owl thing. But that’s to be expected right? Mommy got sick and had to deal with fever, pain and coming off of pain pills (I swear should be illegal or something because they kicked me in the butt too when I came off of them after my wisdom teeth surgery). So that added to the exhaustion for her, but now we seem to be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel!
For a newborn Jessi came into the world extremely vocal, strong and alert. Not only did she get vocal chords stronger than mine (hopefully she will be able to sing on pitch) but her grip is ridiculous and she has been holding her head up from the start. She wasn’t satisfied to just lay around as an infant. She wants to see the world. Her eyes dart all over the place taking in all that she can (with her 20/400 vision). She follows movement and sound with her eyes and head. I am an expert swaddler (thanks to Happiest Baby On The Block and Taylor and Julia Faught) but when she doesn’t want to be swaddled, it doesn’t matter how well I wrap her. She will Houdini her way out.
The family has all had to return back to normal life again and we miss them already. Jack misses the attention but is doing great with his new little sister. We are so thankful for friends and family that have been and still are praying for our little family. If you would like to pray a little more specifically, please pray for continued recovery and health for mommy, good routine for Little One and sleep for daddy, mommy and Jack! Thank you all so much!
And this one is still my favorite. Can’t get over it. She could yawn all day long and I would get satisfied.
Being The Daddy I Was Made To Be
It’s crazy how something so small completely changes your world. It’s no longer about what I wanna do. It’s no longer about what is best for me. What is best for me is now taking care of a little one that relies solely on us. It is loving this eating, crying and pooping machine (still somehow cute through all of it). If I still go through life aiming for the things that I want and not what WE want I have no right to be called daddy.
As I was reading this chunk of Romans this hit home. Just as it says, when we focus on ourselves we are no longer looking toward our Daddy who created us. We aren’t giving Him the love and attention He deserves just for being Who He is. I pray that I don’t live my life focused on myself but rather on God. I don’t want to be focused on me but focusing on my family. I could never live up to the title daddy if I didn’t.
Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored. But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him.
Romans 3:7-9
Just Waiting & Convincing
We are now spending a lot of our time waiting and convincing. Of course there are tons of other things that we are doing with a five day old baby, but much of it seems to be waiting. Waiting for Jessi Girl to wake up so we can see those eyes. Waiting for her to start to wake up so we can watch the cutest wake up process ever. Waiting for her to go to sleep so we can sleep. Waiting for her to wake up because we know she is ready to eat. Waiting for her to get used to a schedule of some sorts so we can too. Even before she got here we waited for her to arrive. We waited to know what she would look like.
So we wait and wait and wait. Then in the long nights and extended crying periods we do a lot of convincing…at least we try. We walk her all over the house and tell her everything’s ok as if we have a clue why she is still crying. We swaddle her up. We change her diapers. We hold her tight. We do all these things and constantly try to convince her. We tell her we love her. We tell her everything’s ok. We tell her she’s fine. We tell her she will be our favorite over all the other future kids if she will go to sleep. We tell her everything in hopes that we can convince her.
The good thing is that in a while (exact period of time unknown) she will start to catch on to these things. She will know that we love her. She will sleep without us constantly waiting to see if it will ever happen. Makes me think about my life. How many times has God done that for me? How much does He still do it? He waits and waits and waits for me. He waits for me to give myself over to Him every day. He waits for me to obey Him. He waited for me to give Him my heart and mind. He made all of creation trying to convince me of Him. He uses my little baby to convince me that He loves me. He tells me He loves me. He tells me everything’s ok.
I hope that I can live my life responding to Him in the way Jessi Girl is growing to know us.
Video Of The Week – Jessi Girl
I had another video planned for this week not expecting to get much video of my new little baby girl outside of crying and sleeping, but I happened to get the best video I think any new daddy could ever have captured. So the plan has been altered and this video has taken precedence. Plus it’s my dad’s birthday and I know he would rather see video of his grandbaby than anything else. I don’t know what else to tell you about it other than that (even though everyone says this) I have the cutest, most gorgeous baby in the entire world. Yeah. I said it. Watch the video and try to disagree with me.
Kingsfield Church Setlist
Well, we have baby so I’m sure that most of you that are reading this today are expecting more baby talk so I will give you a bit. Jessi and KK are doing great! We are headed home this morning! We cannot wait for Jack to meet Jessi and sleep in our own bed! Seriously that will be awesome. We also said goodbye to one set of grandparents today as they are roadtripping back to OK.
I will not be leading at Kingsfield today because I am staying home to take care of my girls so Chris is taking my place. He even picked his own set all by himself! We also did a show on Friday night in the Town Center so I thought I would add that set on as well. Enjoy!
Sunday
Jesus Saves – Carlos Whittaker – Carlos Whittaker – EP
Glory To God Forever – Fee – Hope Rising
Healer – Hillsong – This Is Our God
Salvation Is Here – Hillsong United – Look To You
Friday
A Message – Coldplay – X & Y
Viva La Vida – Coldplay – Viva La Vida
All These Things I’ve Done – The Killers – Hot Fuss
Over My Head (Cable Car) – The Fray – How To Save A Life
Life Is A Highway – Tom Cochrane – Mad Mad World
Two Princes – Spin Doctors – Pocket Full Of Kryptonite
Where The Streets Have No Name – U2 – The Best Of 1980-1990
You Can’t Always Get What You Want – The Rolling Stones – Let It Bleed
Chasing Cars – Snow Patrol – Eyes Open
Open Your Eyes – Snow Patrol – Eyes Open
A Whole New World…Update
Now that we are all singing Disney songs and getting prepared for the Disney marathon life to come, I thought I would give you a short little update on our new life with a gorgeous little one.
We are now into day three of being parents and as expected it is quite taxing. I had to leave my beautiful girls last night for about 8 hours to go play a show with the band, but immediately came back to find that KK is still a great mother and can take care of her baby (not that I doubted it at all). KK is recovering very well and we will be heading home in the morning (yeah for our bed…even if it is for an hour at a time!).
Hang on. My turn for the shower. Can’t miss my window of opportunity. Be right back.
Ok. I’m clean and baby is on her way back. The show last night went well. After arriving and realizing I had baby poop on my hospital bracelet (very rockstar of me) we had lots of curveballs that were uninvited, but we lived and had some fun. Kingsfield throws a good party. Basketball is on again today so I am wondering if I can convince Jessi that basketball is awesome. Unfortunately her eyesight is still like 20/7 million so the little bitty TVs they have in our room probably won’t do much for her. She is doing great and progressing wonderfully. She likes to eat and makes the cutest little faces. We had to do 5 glucose tests all day the first day (which sucked because they have to prick her feet) and she passed them all with flying colors.
So we are here. Day 3. Finally getting a little bit of sleep. But now my new boss is crying and awake so I gotta go.
(Hope all that wasn’t too rambly.)
Wait…apparently the hair drier is soothing. Ha! Sorry, Jack, you won’t like that.
Momma Said Knock You Out!
