Meeting Dallas Part 1

Before I start this post, I should say I'm always a little hesitant with reading or writing birth stories (not that I've had that many opportunities to write them...). I hope this isn't too boring or in way too much detail. Also, remember that if you're pregnant there are always things that aren't that fun but I promise with my whole heart, it is most certainly worth it!!

We got to the hospital bright and early on April 5th and I was so nervous! They sent me in the bathroom to change into a gown and when I went in there I realized that I hadn't really taken a picture of my belly the entire pregnancy. I know some day I may regret that but when you feel larger than a whale its not really your first priority :)
So as you can see in this picture I very awkwardly took a picture of myself in the bathroom. Haha, I'm such a loser.

I felt like it was so much scarier knowing that I was walking into the hospital asking to be cut open as opposed to Penny's birth where after being in labor so long I was just ready for them to get her out! I asked my friends to pray for 3 things.
1. That the IV would go in smoothly
2. That the spinal block would go in smoothly &
3. That Penny would do well when she came to visit us and meet her brother

I don't really know why but I was just so scared of the whole thing. I came to the hospital that morning not feeling as much excitement as you'd think I would have, I was just afraid that I may not love this little man as much as I loved Penny and no matter how many times people told me that the love is instantaneous I just couldn't wrap my mind around it so I'm sad to admit that all I could really look at was the physical side of the surgery.

Our nurse started out ok and I tried everything I could do to get her to warm up to us but it didn't seem like it was going to be an easy task. She told us that they were really backed up that morning and that my c-section was probably going to be really delayed so that I would just have to wait in triage until an OR opened up. She went to start my IV and it completely blew through my vein. She was instantly annoyed with me for messing it up. Jona and I kinda looked at each other and knew we were in for an interesting experience with this nurse. They had to try 5 more times and finally the charge nurse came and did it and it worked! I was feeling so sick to my stomach by that point and my arm had huge bulges of IV fluid that had collected in my arms. It was not fun!

The second the charge nurse finished my IV someone came and tried to take blood but that wouldn't work either. I was starting to feel pretty nervous about this experience when out of nowhere Nurse Cranky-Pants said, "You wont be allowed to see your daughter until you go home from the hospital. We don't allow anyone under 15 to visit because of flu season." I'm ashamed to say that I completely lost it! We had spent so much time preparing Pen and telling her that she was going to come and meet baby Dallas and be able to be with us every day. She was even on her way to the hospital and we had to call my mother-in-law and ask her to stay with Pen for a while. I was so upset. I just wanted to go home and give birth a different day. Thankfully they switched my nurse to a total sweetheart, Nurse Bridget, that realized Nurse Cranky-Pants wasn't treating us with the kindest bedside manner and she really helped to get me ready to go have Dallas.

They started taking Jona and I down the hall into the OR and they told me that Jona couldn't be with me for the spinal which also brought another round of tears. Then they told us that they have no rooms so I would most likely be spending the night in the OR recovery room and they wouldn't allow visitors in there either. It sounds so dramatic now but I had kinda had it. I just couldn't imagine what could make this worse and I am sad to say I did not have my eye on the goal of meeting my son, nor did I trust that God had a perfect plan in all of this. The one redeeming moment was watching Jona try to squeeze his 6'3 frame into the tiny paper gown. The nurse and I started laughing so hard!

Nurse Bridget took me into the OR and I sat on the table as the anesthesiologist prepared me for my spinal block. My OB and nurses kept telling me that I was so lucky to have this anesthesiologist because he was really really good and he was the chairman of his department. He seemed very capable and that he had a lot of faith in his ability. Apparently I was there to humble him. :) I got in the right position and felt the horrible numbing needle, waited for the pain to diminish and then got hit with the full force of the spinal. My back was not numbed! I felt him dig around a little and then he pulled it out, told me I could relax and said he had to try again. This was exactly what I was so afraid of! He tried again and the same exact thing happened. This happened NINE times. I was absolutely freaking out.

My OB came in on the 5th or 6th try and I just started begging him to just knock me out and let me go under general anesthesia. I was WAY over it. They kept trying to tell me that it was much safer for the baby to go this route and that I wouldn't regret it. I still don't know, now that its all said and done, if I had really felt like I had a choice if I would want to be knocked out for the birth. It REALLY was not fun. Finally after try #9, I said very firmly that I was done and that I wanted to be put under. My OB said that he wanted one more shot and then if it didn't work then they would put me out. The anesthesiologist said that he wanted to get someone else to do it with "a fresh set of eyes" and basically asked Dr. Frields if he wanted to pin the tail on the donkey :) My OB is absolutely amazing and said later that he hadn't done a spinal for like 12 years but he did it perfectly on his first try (my 10th).  An hour had passed since I had left Jona waiting in the hall and he was pretty nervous as to what was happening in there!

Dr. Frields was so nice to get Jona in to be with me as soon as possible and I tell ya, there has never been a sweeter sight than Jona walking in and getting to brush my hair out of my face. It took a little while for them to get to Dallas cause he was so high up in my ribs that they had to use a vacuum to get him out. The doctor that assisted my OB actually laid across the bottom of my chest and pushed down with all her might to try to dislodge Dallas. He just did not want to leave his little apartment (this does not bode well for us in 18 years :)). Several minutes passed and I finally heard Dr. Frields say, "Ok! Here comes Dallas!" and I got to hear the most precious little cry of this little boy who was preparing to steal my heart!!!

Meeting my sweet boy Part 2...

He can bring humor to every situation

Recap

I cannot believe that six weeks has passed since we became a family of four! I feel like if I let one more day go by before I document the birth of our little man then I will have 10 more blog posts to write! These have easily been the craziest six weeks for our little family but they have also been 6 weeks of incredible joy and dependance on the Lord!

Its so funny to me that this pregnancy is already so hazy! I really think that it was a way better pregnancy than Penny's. I felt so much better over all and even though we got sick SO MANY TIMES, it still seemed to go much more smoothly.

Now that its over I have to say that I was so terrified of being pregnant with a boy! The second we found out Dallas's gender I felt a little sense of disappointment that I wasn't going to be a mom to all girls. I could easily imagine loving a little girl as much as I loved my darling Penelope and I felt like I was capable of handling the drama that comes from raising girls but I didn't think I was up to the task of raising a stinky little boy :). I think if I had said this during my pregnancy someone would have smacked me especially since we wanted this little one so badly it shouldn't have mattered whether it was a boy or girl but I guess to me it did. I am SERIOUSLY delighted that I couldn't have been more wrong. I'm so in love with Dallas just writing his name puts tears in my eyes! (more about that later)

I feel like I haven't even had time to write in my journal so I am going to document as much about these past six weeks here if just for the sake of being able to recount everything that has happened before I try to write it in the kid's journals. So here we go!

The days before Dallas's scheduled c-section I was having so many contractions. I thought for sure that I would have him earlier because I was even having contractions close together for so long before he was born and he was breech so there was a chance that the c-section would be a week earlier. I was even put in the hospital a week before he came because I was feeling really sick and my OB almost let me have him that day except for that the little stinker flipped right before Dr. Frield's performed the ultrasound. The second I went home though it hit me that I only had one week left with Penny.

I was such a mess that week. I felt so guilty and sad that I was ending this season with Pen as my only child. It may sound so ridiculous but I just was really sad that our time was ended just the two of us. I always said that I wished that my kids could be closer together but I really had become so thankful for the relationship that her and I had been able to develop and that I had gotten to pour all of my energy into my little Penelope Mae for three years without there being any other kids to divide my attention. I can absolutely see now how God gave that time to us as a gift.

The night before the c-section Jona and I were both emotional knowing that this would change our little Pens and that she would now be pushed into the role of big sister. We went out to dinner with my family and I couldn't eat I was just really overwhelmed and scared to have another c-section and to be away from Penny. My brother even asked if I was nervous and I burst into tears right in the middle of Applebees :) Even though this is a side note, I have to say that I was so blown away by Jona's tenderness with my emotions. He didn't make me feel dumb or hormonal even once. He was so understanding about the whole thing.

We dropped Penny off at my awesome in-laws house and sniffled our goodbyes to her and went home to get a good night's sleep before heading into the hospital early the next morning...

Our last picture before little Dallas joined our family!

Thanksgiving Part 2 (the embarrassing part)

If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time you'll know that my life is mostly made up of embarrassing moments. If there is a way to somehow ruin precious moments in life, I will find it. ;)

We came home from Oklahoma on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving because Jona had to go back to work. He worked for like 5 days in a row so I didn't get to see him on Thanksgiving day and the Johnsons were still in Oklahoma so I couldn't spend it with them. We also decided that since we were going up to Washington for Christmas we couldn't afford for Penny and I to go up for Thanksgiving as well. My sweet friend Caitie offered for Penny and I to spend thanksgiving dinner with her family.

I was so excited to go since I love the Levis' and the Wades but I don't know her family incredibly well and I told Jona I would most likely do something embarrassing like spill my drink at dinner or Penny would have an accident on their carpet or something. I was totally right.

I got Pen dressed up all cute and made my carmel apple dip and we headed over there. When we got there, Caitie's little girl, Olive (who Penny absolutely adores), was in the back yard, super dirty, playing with worms.

I should give a little back story. Caitie is the coolest, most laid back mom, who lets her daughter get dirty and explore mud and bugs and all that gross stuff. I'm not quite so cool, haha. As a matter of fact, I spent months making sure Penny didn't drink her bath water. Caitie has totally helped me calm down and let Penny live a little! However.... letting Pen dig through a compost pile for worms to feed to the chickens is a little outside my comfort zone. Caitie and I are constantly making fun of each other for how uptight I am and I tell her that she's totally gross (all in good fun).

So.... they called us inside for dinner and I went to go find a bathroom to wash Penny's hands because she had been looking at the worms ;) All the bathrooms were being used so I asked Caitie's brother where else I could wash Pen's hands. He directed me to the kitchen where I washed Penny & my hands with warm water and soap.

We sat down to eat and there were about 20 of us. Mrs. Levis was still working on the meal while Mr. Levis got ready to lead us in scripture reading before our meal. It was super quiet when Mrs. Levis came out and said...

"Susi? Did you wash Penny's hands?"

(I was thinking that she knew we had been playing outside and I thought she was just adopting me as a daughter or something to make sure we had cleaned up before dinner.)

"Of course", I responded.

"With soap"

"Uh... yeah. She was outside with the worms!"

"Oh..." she said, "Well, you washed her hands over our gravy"

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was SO embarrassed!! Of course I had ruined the perfect, amazing gravy that she had slaved over. There was a pan in the sink but I thought that it was dirty. Nope! She was so incredibly gracious but for the rest of the meal, they kept saying stuff like "Can someone pass the gravy? Oh wait..." or "Man, you know what would go great with this turkey?..."

It. Was. Awesome.

Regardless, it was an awesome night and they were such a fun family to spend (and ruin) Thanksgiving. :)

Thanksgiving!

This year we got to go to Oklahoma for a mini Johnson family reunion. We had so much fun being all together and got to share an incredible BBQ Thanksgiving on the Saturday before. Oklahoma is really such an awesome place and we loved being able to stay with and spend time with Jona's Grandpa, "Pa", who is easily the coolest man I know over the age of 60 :) 

Everyone, from his children to his great grandchildren, absolutely adore and love spending time with Pa! We wish that he lived closer to us, but that would probably put us in competition with some of the Oklahoma Johnsons and I quickly learned that a lot of them carry guns :)

As is usual, I didn't take many pictures, so here's just a couple from our trip. 

I'm sure my sister-in-law will post a bunch on Facebook.

We went to the Coney-Islander in Tulsa, which is basically the most inexpensive, yet delicious hot dogs you can buy! Jona went to this place when he was just a kid and he really wanted to go back so we did! It was a lot of fun!

One of my favorite things is watching Jona be an Uncle. 

I already know he's an amazing dad, but watching him wrestle with both of the kids is just awesome.

Pen and Ray (my nephew) absolutely love each other. 

They play hard and would probably be together all day, every day if they had the option!

We got to visit the Bass Pro Shop while in Tulsa, which is always a favorite!

Pen looks seriously concerned at her Dad's story-telling capabilities! :)

Getting ready to board our flight home!

Dallas Phillip Johnson

So... we are having a BOY!!! I can still hardly believe it. I have pretty much thought this entire pregnancy that this was probably a boy because I have felt so different than my pregnancy with Penny. Our appointment to find out the gender was so much fun.

Poor Jona had been up the night before working so he was pretty exhausted. When we finally got in there and started the ultrasound and our little one's knees were so tightly pressed together. We tried and tried and pushed and pushed on him but he would not move. 

Finally we asked the doctor if we could try a different method of ultrasound ;) so he left for a few minutes and then came back and tried again and the results were the exact same. Those little knees would not be moved! Finally Jona said something to make me laugh and the little guy either loved it or hated it but every time I would laugh he would kick and punch and finally moved those little legs out of the way. 

I could not believe when we saw that he would be a boy! I am so incredibly excited but I also feel so far out of my depth! I know little girls, but I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to raising little boys. Then comes the whole responsibility of raising him to love and lead a family. Whew, I'm so thankful that God promises to give us everything we need but I am definitely feeling the weight of that responsibility!

Our little man's name is Dallas Phillip Johnson. Dallas is from his sweet Dada (Jonathan Dallas). I have always wanted to name our son after his dad and I finally get my wish! Phillip comes from my awesome father in law. This kid has big shoes to fill!

Penny is so thrilled and I love hearing her say "Baby Dahdis" Here is the video of us telling Pen she is going to have a baby brother.

Just to give you a little explanation:
In the video you hear her say "the baby grow and grow and then it comes out and meets Mr. Justin." Our good friends Justin and Caitie Wade, have a little girl named Olive who Penny absolutely adores. For some reason Penny is obsessed with the idea of "Mr. Justin" meeting our baby when Dallas is born.  (Who knows!)

Baby Update!

I thought I'd give a little update on baby Johnson #2! We had a little bit of drama a couple of weeks ago and it kinda gave us a little scare. My only real pregnancy symptom was a sore lower back and some nausea. I woke up one morning and my back was just aching. Throughout the day it got worse and worse and I could hardly move. With it came horrible nausea and vomiting. I went into my massage therapist and I eventually went into urgent care because it was just hurting so badly. 

They got us into our OB/GYN the next day to see if it was pregnancy related and we had an ultrasound of the baby. The baby was measuring a couple of weeks behind and my doctor thought that I may have a slipped disk due to the hormone "relaxin" that causes all of your ligaments and joints to stretch to make room for the growing baby. We asked him if we should be concerned that we still hadn't heard the heartbeat by this point and he seemed almost as concerned as we were. He set an appointment for us to have another ultrasound the following week and said that we should definitely see the heartbeat by that appointment (our fourth ultrasound).

It was a difficult week of waiting but the back pain was almost a blessing in disguise because it was very distracting! They sent us into an orthopedic surgeon and they basically said the only things we can do right now is physical therapy and they got me a back brace which has helped immensely!

We went back for our 4th ultrasound and I got to see and hear a BEAUTIFUL little heartbeat. I cried. I just had the worst feeling going into that appointment and I was so very thankful that this little life was preserved! 

Amazingly, now that the back pain is mostly gone so is my nausea. If I wasn't a little hungrier and a little more fatigued I would have no idea I was even pregnant, which is a huge change from my pregnancy with Pen!

We are so thankful!!!

Random Pics

I cannot get over the fact that summer is over! I am thankful to try and set up a bit more of a schedule but I will miss these unscheduled days with Pen!

Here are some recent (and random) pictures from the last few weeks...

I am so thankful for our little pool at our condo. 

We love going down there at night when no one else is there.

A couple of weeks ago my dad was invited to speak at our friend's, the Koh's, church in Laguna Beach. They had a blast and were spoiled for an entire week. We were only able to make it down on Saturday but we had a great time with mom and dad and the Kohs! Pen obviously didn't get a nap that day and fell asleep on my mom's arm at dinner.

I know I say this all the time but it breaks my heart that they don't live closer :(

My mom was in heaven!!

During the summer Grace Community does patio fellowship nights and my sweet friend Lisa planned this awesome boardwalk themed night. It was a huge success and Pen loved the shark stuff!

This was from one of our potty training days where Pen and I went out to lunch away from the house to make sure she could be out and about without an accident. She did great!

This needs a little more explanation. My poor husband told me several months ago that he never got Student of the Month as kid and it used to make him so sad every month when they didn't call his name. Jona's cousin worked for Grace Community school (where Jona and I both went as kids) and she helped me get a student of the month certificate from him signed by his 1st grade teacher and the principle. It was pretty fun :)

I love this little ham!!