one to remember.

So Shane went to the dentist this week and had to get Laughing Gas. Anyway, he got home and seemed to be ok. A little loopy, but otherwise fine. 

The light bulbs on our upstairs landing have been out for a couple weeks and neither of us have changed them. Anyway, Shane grabs some bulbs from the kitchen cupboard, walks up the stairs and changes the bulbs. We talk while he is doing it any everything. Then he takes a nap (more like a coma) for about 5-6 hours. 

I'm gone when he wakes up and he texts me, "thanks for changing the lights upstairs. It's nice to be able to see." 

I truly thought he was being sarcastic so I asked if he was. "No..." I then let him know that he changed the bulbs all by himself and we had a whole conversation and everything. He had no recollection of changing the bulbs or any conversation we had. However, he did remember that I didn't bring him some Ibuprofen....

Johnson Family Christmas Party 2010

We had our annual Johnson Family Christmas Party this week (my Mom's family). I've only been to a few of these in my life, but they are lots of fun! Our family has gotten too big to hold the party at my Uncle Jim's house where it has always been, but this is a great place to have it since the kids can just go into a playroom and not be so much in the way. Here are a few pictures from the night --- Chloe is still terrified of Santa. 

Shane didn't come because he was sick (he actually was!) and when I got there, my Grandma high-jacked Adam and I practically had to tear him away to feed him. And that was fine by me :)

Grandma Johnson teaching the kids about Christmas symbols

Adam thoroughly enjoyed the presentation by Grandma!

I had to have my niece, London, hold Chloe down while I took these pictures. Adam could have cared less who was holding him!

Mark and his "get the camera out of my face" face. I think he has had that look for about 30 years!

Adam with G'ma Johnson

Adam with G'pa E. True Johnson - his namesake

Well.... this post may not be as cheery as the last.... When I last reported, I found out that I was able to get two more weeks of maternity leave! About a week later, I was laid off..... Pretty cool, huh?? We have no idea what is going to happen, but there is a "bright" side. I get regular work pay until January 3 then I get a severance - which works out to be 8 weeks of pay.
When I first got the call, it was surreal. I was devastated. Then, after having some time for it to sink in - I was kind of excited/relieved/and still devastated. I hated that job. Even though I was able to stay home with my babies, I still hated getting up and working with these people. Now I get to try and find a job where I can start fresh and maybe enjoy it again. I so wish that I didn't have to work, but unless we magically can pay off my car and Shane's truck and still afford insurance somehow, I will be working for the foreseeable future.
I am SO heartbroken at the thought of having to leave my kids. I have been working from home for a year and before that I was home by 3:30 so I still had a lot of time to spend at home. I have been able to be the Mommy for a year now and it has been amazing. I cannot even think about how hard it will be to start something new. But we have to have insurance and I'm sure we "make too much" to get CHIPS or WIC or anything like that.

Other than that, things are going pretty well! We have been extremely fortunate for Shane to be so busy at work. He has a few days where he doesn't work, but his pay checks have been more than enough to keep up with the bills (we still need mine to pay it all though). I've been attempting to potty train Chloe, but she is just not having it. I can't force her and I'm trying to just take a relaxed approach to it so she doesn't feel too much pressure. But if she's three before it happens, I just don't know what I'll do! I'm not excited to deal with accidents and changing the sheets multiple times a week (I do have a plastic mattress cover though!)

Adam is awesome. I just fall more and more in love with him every time I look at him. He is really starting to interact with us - cooing and squealing. He and Chloe will just sit and smile and laugh at each other and I know the second I grab a camera, it will stop.... So I can't share that with all of you! I am so grateful that I am getting to spend this time with him so he knows me. I'm still able to nurse him and I just love that time together. I don't love it so much at 2am, but I still look down at him and want to cry because I love him so much.

We went to Logandale for Thanksgiving and of course that was fun! Brian and Janell and their families both stayed at my Mom's too. We had 6 of the siblings and their families on Thanksgiving Day --- my Mom needs a bigger house :) We stayed up late playing Scatergories and laughing/crying and Brian and Dan's answers (Dan - make sure you call Brian 'Willy Wonka' from now on!) I love being at my parents' house, even though it is completely different from when I lived there - it still feels like home!

Anyway, here are a few pics from recent happenings - sorry for the rambling!

Chloe begged for me to lay Adam next to her. They laid next to each other like this for a few minutes :)

Found Shane and Adam like this just before Thanksgiving dinner

Shane is trying to corrupt my children with the evil sport of soccer. It is pretty cute to watch though.

Don't know why the picture rotated, but here is my little Muffin Man asleep on my Mom's couch.

Chloe and her Uncle Brian taking a nap.... 

Getting so big already!

His chin is ticklish so I can usually get him to smile that way

She just loves to give him kisses!

I'm sorry, but this is just one of the cutest things I have ever seen!

Updates 11/9/10

We've just been hanging out lately. Shane has been pleasantly busy with carpet and I have just been playing with my little ones. I was preparing myself to have to go back to work tomorrow but I got a call from my benefits department yesterday informing me that my company does offer 2 additional weeks of parental leave at 100% pay. HALLELUJAH!!!! And on top of that, I have the days around Thanksgiving off so I actually have until November 30 :)

We blessed Adam this Sunday. It was nice to have all of our families together - my house can actually fit everyone (if they stand!!!) We all came back here afterwards to have muffins and cinnamon rolls since my church is at 9.

I had my 6 week postpartum visit yesterday - I have lost 30 pounds since Adam was born. Just 40 more to go for me to be happy. I would LOVE to lose 50, but I don't think that is physically possible anymore :(

In other awesome news --- by sister-in-law asked if we wanted her and my brother's mattress that is just too soft for them. So we now have a King sized Beauty Rest that is like sleeping on a cloud....We had to go get all new bedding last night and I think I slept better in the few hours of sleep than I have in months :)

Anyway, here are some recent pics.

Isn't this just precious??!!

I just always love the pictures of babies chillin in their carseats.

Adam with his cousin, Lucie. She is two weeks older...

Our family

Halloween

Adam was Woody (the fatness on his face is misleading - he is tall and skinny!)

Chloe was Little Bo Peep

Chloe with a few of her cousins

Other pics....

I love taking naps with this little guy - he is so snuggly :)

Sorry - I so don't feel like writing a lot today.... I'm starting to get depressed with my fatness and the fact that I have to start work again next week :(

Ok - now that I have posted the birth story, I can catch up on everything else! First, here is Adam in his  "going home" outfit. 

First, when we got home, Shane surprised me with a gift --- a deep freezer! I have been wanting one for a long time and he decided to just get me one! I was totally shocked, but very excited about it. My mom also came in to help me out for a week. It was just so nice to have someone to play with Chloe. I just forgot how tired I would be!! It's two weeks later and I'm just barely getting into a routine. 

I had to go out a few days after he was born - I don't know how people can not go out for weeks after they have a baby... There are certain errands that just have to be run by ME and I can't leave my baby at home. Anyway, Adam did so great. He's a natural shopper, just like Chloe was! Here are just a few pictures from the last two weeks though.

I know it's a girl Boppy, but he's never going to know!

Chloe loves just look at him :)

Ok - tell me what you think of the two pictures below... I took the one of Adam and looked at it and had a total deja`vu! Look at their little noses!

And Shane's baby sister, Tracey got married last weekend:

Adam's Story

It's been a few days since baby Adam was born and I think I have enough time now to document the story. It's going to be long and detailed. I didn't really document Chloe's and I regret that so if you don't want to read the whole thing then DON'T! ....

I had my 40 week appointment on Monday, Sept 27. I was very anxious since I had not been progressing for 3 weeks and this was kind of my last chance. I needed to be at at least 2.5 cm to be considered for induction. After the doctor discussed all of the possibilities of what might happen, he checked me. ----- TWO AND A HALF CENTIMETERS! I felt my face flush and my heart started racing because I knew that they would break my water. So he said that they'd call the hospital right now and put me on the schedule to be induced in the next day or two. FINALLY.

We go out and the nurse is already on the phone with the hospital. When she is done, she tells me that I am 4th on the list for the next morning. Down-side (that we figured out on our own): Tuesdays are the scheduled c-section day so more beds are filled up making less space for the elective inductions  (which is what I was). The nurse said that if I hadn't been called by 8:30 the next morning to call the hospital and start making inquiries. Needless to say, I didn't get the call so I had to call. When the lady answered, she was incredibly short with me and basically said that I would get called if/when I got called. Shane begged me to call when noon time came around so I did and I just asked for the person in charge of the scheduling. Thank goodness they sent me right over and she was actually working on my case right then. She had put in a call to the doctor on call to ask what time was too late to have me come in (they don't like to go past noon since it could be such a long process). I got a call back about an hour later saying that the doctor thought it would be best to wait until the next morning to call me. And I would still be #2 on the list.

I was so disappointed. I needed to get out of the house so I put Chloe in the car and we just went to Sonic and got some lunch and drove around for a few minutes. I came home and Shane was just playing FIFA (Soccer) on X-Box and I just went upstairs to hang out. I went to the bathroom and then came out to sit on the bed and just adjusted my position and...*pop*

"What was that????" I hopped up and sat back on the toilet thinking, "I have total bladder control so I don't know what that was! Not to mention I just went to the bathroom!". When I sat, more clear liquid just came out. Of course my mind automatically went to water breaking but there just wasn't that much there. I called my sister who is an RN for labor and delivery but got no answer. So I called my mom - who has not experienced this in over 24 years - just hoping she would remember! And she didn't really.... So I called the doctor's office and they just said I should go into the hospital to be checked since I was supposed to be induced anyway. All this time, I am still sitting on the toilet just wondering if my water really did just break. When I got off the phone I yelled at Shane to come upstairs and he said he was playing a game. I said that he needed to turn it off and he was up within 10 seconds. I told him what was going on and he was kind of reluctant to believe me at first but  came around really quick. We got our stuff together and met his mom at the hospital to get Chloe. I was feeling no contractions and I didn't know what to expect. Since I had been in before with this pregnancy I didn't have to go through all the check in process and she was able to get us a room right away.

The nurse came in and got me all hooked up and everything and we were waiting to see how far I could progress on my own without any pitocin (I'm not able to use the normal amount since this was a v-bac and they had to be careful with my uterus). After about 2 hours I hadn't progressed at all but I was having contractions. I decided that I would go ahead and just get my epidural now and see if that helped me at all. Let me just say, I love epidurals. I wasn't even in THAT much pain, but it was so nice to experience no sensation at all. I was able to get some sleep and I finally started progressing at about 10:30-11 pm. The nurse would come in every 90 min or so to check me and when she came in at about 4:50 am she went to check and guess what ---- THERE HE WAS. She hurried and paged the doctor and started getting everything ready for delivery. They had me get started with the pushing but after one push she decided that we had better hold off since he was so close.

The doctor was in the room within just a few minutes and after 30  minutes of pushing (and no episiotomy!!) out came baby! The umbilical cord was kind of bunched up on his chest so the blood flow was a little cut off and he was really pale, not to mention he had his first bowel movement before he was born so they had to bring in some respiratory people from the NICU just to be safe. Anyway, they took him over to the little table right away to get him cleaned off and everything. He was crying so I wasn't worried about him, but they wanted to take him to the NICU anyway to make sure his blood-flow was ok. Shane went with them while I was getting all cleaned up and everything. It had only been about 30 minutes since he left when I got into the wheelchair to be taken to see him. We wheeled all through the NICU looking for the "big baby" when they told us that they had already taken him down to be bathed.

The nurse went ahead and took me to my room to get settled in. Baby came in just a few minutes later and he was just perfect. Poor Shane had to go to work so he left us and we got to know each other. Anyway, that's the story of his birth. I'm sorry it is so long, but I never documented Chloe's so I needed to do this!

9/15/10

Ok, well a lot has been going on. No baby yet though :(

I'll just kind of go over the last week. Last Tuesday, 9/7, I had my 37 week appointment. I felt so AWFUL the next day - so bad that I went into Labor and Delivery to be checked/monitored. Well of course there was nothing worth keeping me there for so they sent me home. I was literally on the couch through Friday. Good thing I have a laptop to work on!! I was just in a lot of pain and running a fever and had constant headaches. I was completely miserable! I finally started feeling better on Saturday - well enough to walk around Peach Days in Brigham City. I had to go S-L-O-W and it was H-O-T, but it was good to get out.

Shane has been great - work has been slow this week so he has helped me out a lot. He cleaned the house a couple of weeks ago while I was gone and then cleaned the upstairs for me on Friday. Then he left to go to his brother's house for a "surprise." He wouldn't tell me what he was going for but this is what he brought home:

 

Obviously it wasn't painted at all when he brought it home and my swollen, un-pedicured foot is just there to show size (it's HUGE), but when he was cleaning, he decided that Chloe has too many toys and not enough places to put them, so he built a toy chest. He's stenciling little pictures all over it and it's just adorable. I'm very excited to get it in her room and fill it with STUFF. 

Let's see.... I got the baby's room "done" - as done as it's going to get I guess. We don't do themes or specific decor so it's just basic and homey.

 

This is the blanket that Shane's mom crocheted for the baby and the little outfit we will bring him home in. Next is the diaper bag I got (Chloe's was pink and brown...)

 

Shane made the little nightstand next to the crib           I need to find a better cover for the chair, but it's a very comfy rocker!

 

The cabinet he made :) It's also HUGE so we decided to make the top a changing table.

Finally, the bathroom. I begged Shane for weeks to let me paint it and I finally got most of it masked off and he just came in and took over because he knew I would totally screw it up! And I am OK with that!  He wouldn't let me paint this color in the baby's room so it's in the bathroom instead and I love it. It just made the bathroom so clean and crisp. There just seemed to be irreparable damage from the renters so this was perfect.

  

And this, my friends, is the best you will get for a 38 week picture!

Oh, and I can't forget the internet. Shane wanted to make sure I could work anywhere in the house if need be so he hard-wired the internet upstairs and added lines downstairs too. This is the new "docking station" in our utility closet. It works AMAZINGLY!! 

Anyway, sorry for the overload, but that's what's been going on. We should hopefully have a baby in the next two weeks and then Shane's little sister is getting married right after that so I'll be nice and fat in the pictures :) 

What a day....

I would so love to forget that yesterday even happened.... But of course it did so I need to write about it. I'm sure that other people have experienced worse, and blah blah blah, but this was bad for me.

So, on Tuesday, 9/7, I had my 37 week appt. No big news there -- just that if the baby isn't born by 40 weeks then I'll have to have another c-sec anyway. I was pretty disappointed about that. I just don't feel like this kid is coming any time soon so if I'm going to have one anyway, why not just schedule it ahead of time and be done?! Oh --- and did I mention that my blood pressure was super high for me? 143/86. I'm usually 120ish(or less)/60ish.

Anyway, I was feeling pretty blue on Tuesday and of course got no sleep that night and woke up Wednesday with a throbbing headache. After not very long of working (less than an hour) I started having irregular contractions and around 8-8:30 they started regulating and they hurt. Enough that I couldn't work through them. At 10:30 I took the second half of the day as sick and I literally just laid on the couch. Thank GOODNESS that Chloe and the dogs were being so good yesterday. Chloe just sat and watched movies and the dogs just laid around. Chloe can even let them in and out to go potty now :) {such a good little helper for Mommy}. She kept asking me if I was ok and giving me kisses where it hurt.

Anyway, at 10:30 I called the doctor's office to see if I needed to be making arrangements or anything. Of course, no.... Wait until they are regular for 3-4 hours then go in. Fine....whatever.... So back to "napping". After laying on the couch for not too long, the contractions seemed to stop, but I still just hurt all over. I got up at about 2 something and just went upstairs and turned a movie on up there for Chloe. I was just feeling worse and worse - really achy and hot and I just wanted to curl up and go to sleep.

At about 4 I called my sister (who is a Labor and Delivery nurse) and got her take on the situation. Well, between the fever (101 F), headache, contractions, and high BP reading the day before, she practically yelled at me to go in to the hospital. And I apparently had my membranes stripped at my DR. appt too..... Shane wanted me to call my dr's office too - just to be sure that's really what I should be doing. The nurse I talked to there said I should go in too. So.... I hurried and put a little bag together, JUST IN CASE. I so did not want to get my hopes up because, let's face it... I am just not that lucky.

After getting checked in and everything, I got hooked up to the monitors. And guess what.... my fever was gone, contractions were very irregular, BP was WAY down (lower than it has been this whole time), and I hadn't dialated or anything. So I basically looked like a big whiny baby for  going in. I am not one of those people who goes to the doctor for just anything - there needs to be LOTS of blood or death coming for me to feel justified in going. I was really irritated. They sent me home after an hour of monitoring, but I was still just in so much pain everywhere. We got home around 8 and got Chloe into bed. I was hurting so so so so bad still. I couldn't even muster the energy to sit in a hot bath. I got some ice water and got in bed. I checked my temp because I felt hot again and GUESS WHAT.... 101.3 F. Anyway, I kept falling asleep and would wake up every hour just sweating and aching and everything but I wasn't about to go to any dr for it this time.

I was finally able to pretty much stay asleep from about 1:30 to 5:30 - when I have to get up for work. And I feel ok today. Still a little headache, but what else is new.... Anyway, the day was a lot worse than I am making it out to be. I was laying down for probably 12 hours throughout the day and let's just say that it's a good thing they have epidurals. If that pain wasn't labor.... I won't be able to handle it.