Monday, November 1, 2010

Elyas Christopher Johnson - September 24th, 2010

The Birth of Elyas Christopher Johnson


This post is long over due, but I finally have a free moment and was able to write it.

Baby Elyas Christopher Johnson was born Friday, September 24th, 2010 at 4:37 PM. He weighed 8lbs 3oz and was 20 1/4" long.


Friday morning I decided not to wake up at 6AM like I normally do; instead I slept in until about 10:30AM. I woke to go to the bathroom and when I was done I started to get up when I oddly started streaming again (this was about 10:45AM). I thought this was weird, and considered that this possibly was my water breaking. I got up to tell Chris that I thought my water may have broken, but he was like "mmmmhmmm" because we had a few false alarms already. I went and started the laundry and became sure that my water had in fact broken because I felt myself leaking, and confirmed that it was real this time with Chris. Then I continued doing the laundry and experienced my first real contraction.

Chris started getting ready and I went and took a shower. Now I know you are probably thinking "what the heck?" right? yeah, well we were new to this and we had been informed to stay home even after the water has broken and to wait there until the contractions are consistently 5 minutes apart for an hour. We really thought it was going to be a while before we needed to go in, because everyone kept telling us that their labor had been about 20+ hours. I began experiencing stronger and more frequent contractions while in the shower. They began to get closer and closer in a short period of time and I panicked a little when I couldn't immediately get a hold of Chris. When he came upstairs, he found me crying at the end of the bed trying to breath. I told him the contractions were more severe and very close together. I told him to call the midwife and that we needed to go soon.

We checked into the hospital at about 12:11PM. By the time we got there my contractions were only 2 minutes apart. They checked my cervix and I was still 3cm dilated (same as I had been on Wednesday), however, My midwife Nan came in not too long after and said that I was already 6cm dilated. At that point the contractions were blended into each other, and I was thinking "where are these breathing breaks everyone kept talking about?" because there were NO Breaks at all in between.

Chris was wonderful, I couldn't have asked for a better coach. He stood by my side the whole time, apart from the time he had to go park the car and buy me flowers. He stood by me and held my forehead and hand during each contraction. Every position was uncomfortable except for sitting in the glider and rocking; I did most of my labor in it. The idea of the Jacuzzi bath sounded good, but they wouldn't let me get in it until the baby was reading perfect on the charts. Nan helped ground me by telling me that I could do it and that I was strong, because I was birthing completely natural and was feeling a lot of pain. This calmed me down and so I began repeating this affirmation to myself over and over as I contracted. It helped ease the pain and kept me calm.

The next time Nan checked me my cervix was at 8 almost 9cm dilated. Oddly, this is when they decided to let me in the jacuzzi tub. As soon as I got in I wanted back out. They asked me what was wrong, as I began squirming back and forth. I knew that it was time to push. I couldn't get out, and began to panic a little. That's when Chris bent over and scooped me up out of the tub. I wanted back in the glider, but they said that that time was over and that it was time to get on the table for the rest of the birth. When they checked me my cervix was completely gone and I was past ready to push.

Nan got all dressed in scrubs and they wheeled a table with clamps and other medical equipment into the room. The lighting changed and everything became so surreal. I felt ready to push, but I was waiting for someone to say "push!" like they do in the movies. My midwife Nan told me that whenever I was ready to start pushing to go right ahead, but I was still hesitant like I needed someone to say, "ready and GO!". So finally I just started pushing.
Everyone was talking to me, giving me encouragement. They all counted for me and kept me pushing. It was hard and it hurt. They wheeled a mirror in for me so that I could see the baby's head, and made me feel the head with my hand. After 10 minutes of pushing Elyas Christopher Johnson was born at 4:37PM. He weighed 8lbs 3oz, and was 20 1/4" long. They put him directly on my chest so that we could have some immediate skin to skin contact and bond.
Elyas was beautiful. No bruising, no birthmarks, there was nothing wrong, he was absolutely perfect. The nurses all said that he was so beautiful, the most beautiful baby they had seen, and that he didn't even look like a newborn because they said that normally newborns are wrinkly and squished and a little on the ugly side. I can't believe he's mine. He is so beautiful. I love him so much.












My mom and dad arrived soon after he was born. Mom was sad she missed his birth, but was excited to see Elyas. Chris said he cried tears of joy a little bit when Elyas was born, but I didn't cry until I saw my parents reaction to Elyas. Chris's Aunts Jan and Chris and his mom Gail and Mark came to see Elyas too, along with my sister-in-law Karrie and my brother Bryan and my nieces Victoria and Dominique.

The hospital treated us really good. The nurses were all nice and I felt really taken care of, it made me want to stay a few days longer. I was shown how to breastfeed, weird right? You'd think that would come naturally, but not really. He doesn't open his mouth wide enough, doesn't latch well, among other obstacles.

When they checked Elyas they said that he had high counts of Bilirubin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilirubin), which was making him a little yellow, and that breastfeeding and pooping would help get rid of that. They said that if levels got too high it could cause permanent brain damage.

I feel so happy and blessed that I have a perfect, healthy little baby boy. He is the newest love of my life and the perfect addition to my new family. Chris and I love him so much. Welcome to the family Elyas.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Camping in the Mt Hood National Forest

Sunday June 20th - Monday June 21st

Camping in the Mt Hood National Forest


We’d been planning this trip for about a month. We were really looking forward to this trip. School was finally out and we were going camping, HOORAY! We had gotten me a fishing license, a new tackle box, and a new hammock. We were prepared to be out in the woods for a whole week. Awesome!!!

Sunday evening we drove out to the Mt Hood National Forest. We had three lakes in mind to scout for the perfect spot. First we tried Trillium Lake. It was pretty crowded and loud, so we decided to move on to the next lake, Clear Lake. We didn’t even get to scout clear lake because the next thing we knew we were already at Timothy Lake, we decided it was meant to be. So we began scouting the area. It wasn’t too long before we literally found the perfect spot. It was everything we were hoping for. We were primitive camping, so it was free, yeay for no fees! It was right next to the lake, nestled by nice big trees that kept our site nice and private. It had the perfect trees to set up our hammocks, a huge fire pit that someone had so nicely left firewood and newspapers in a neat pile for the next camper. Our first day was everything we had hoped for.

Well, then the night shade began to drop, and that’s when our neighbors down the lake started getting loud and obnoxious. Their music with their loud base started thumping, they started yelling and screaming and whooping. As it got later and later, the music and yelling got louder and louder. As we were cooking dinner we began to hear gun shots. We looked at each other with worried expressions. We felt like our lives were in danger because some partying teenagers thought it was funny to shoot off bullets into the dark woods. Chris and I grabbed our dinner and proceeded to eat in the car. We stayed in there listening to the radio and talking for a while. When we opened our doors, the gun shots had stopped, but the music continued. We decided to sit by the fire for a while and just hang out and try to enjoy ourselves. We went to sleep soon after in our hammocks, very comfortable. We weren’t in there very long however before we heard the guns going off again. We immediately took shelter in the car again. We ended up sleeping there for the remainder of the night.

The next day we woke up hoping that all would be well, that the partiers down the lake would be done and that they would be packing up and leaving so that we could stay and enjoy our perfect site. When we opened our doors, there it was. Music was still blaring, cars were revving, and the rowdy crowd was still going. It didn’t sound like they were leaving anytime soon. We had breakfast, hot chocolate and scrambled eggs, and enjoyed looking out on the lake as we ate. We soon came to the conclusion that we were going to have to move. We decided to head to Trillium Lake and try our luck there.

The first thing we did when we got to Trillium Lake was pull over and try to get some sleep. Chris had no problem falling asleep, I however couldn’t sleep. So after watching a deer walk really close by the car, I got out of the car and began do explore the area. As luck would have it, I stumbled upon another perfect camp site. It was big and private. It was awesome. I was so excited. We went fishing soon after Chris woke up, we didn’t catch anything, but we had fun trying. It was beautiful; we had the perfect view of Mt Hood. We set up camp at the site I had found after fishing. We collected firewood and got our hammocks set up. We had fun hanging out and playing uno and backgammon. As it began getting later, we ran across our first problem at our new site. The fire would not burn the wood in this area. It was either too freshly cut or too damp. I searched and searched all over the place for older, dryer wood, but had not luck. The wood in this area just didn’t want to burn. As it began to get later, it began to get really cold, and there was no fire to warm ourselves up with. Around 7 or 8 PM, after trying to get warmed up in our hammocks and trying to stick it out, we decided to pack it up and head for home. It was sad, but we felt that we would come back at a later time and try again.

We enjoyed the drive home and the next day woke up and heated up our fire pit in the backyard with charcoal. We roasted marshmallows and made smores, after all, it was necessary since we didn’t get to do it during our camping trip. It was good to be home, safe from the flying bullets in the woods.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Announcement

I had been feeling sick for quite a while and thought it was the weirdest flu I ever had because the thought of food, except for certain cravings, made me noxious. I became very suspicious of this weird symptom and told Chris that we better get a pregnancy test, so we bought two. On Valentine’s day I woke up and took the test. It instantly said I was pregnant. My mouth dropped. I went out to Chris calm and said, well I better take another test tomorrow just to be sure. He thought that meant it had been a negative test result. I then continued my sentence, “Because it says we’re pregnant. Chris was like “Don’t tell anyone, we have to be sure." So the next morning we took another test. It too instantly said I was pregnant. So we called the doctor and made an appointment. I still wasn’t suppose to tell anyone because we wanted to be sure it was real. The doctor congratulated us when he walked in the room, the blood test was a positive. So Yes, I’m 23 Weeks and 5 days pregnant today. I suppose you want to know what I’m having too…It’s A Boy! :)

We are both so excited and happy and we can't wait. I'm Due Septemper 28th.

Saturday, April 10, 2010