Change

Today our baby girl is a month and 2 days old. A month of endless snuggling, changing diapers, being covered in spit up, feeding, bathing, and loving on my baby. I love being a mom! I feel like it might be my purpose in life...Just a wild guess. :)

Emma is getting to the point that she can look at our faces when we talk to her. Her wobbly neck muscles are becoming stronger and her little skin folds have filled out and turned into cute little rolls. She even smiles at us.. under strict conditions (clean diaper, full tummy, right temperature ect.) We have come to the realization that her hair is just like her sweet Daddy's. It sticks straight up in every direction. There is one tuft in particular on the top of her head that won't be tamed no matter what we do. Adorable. She has such a sweet spirit, it is such a blessing to have her in our home. 

My life has been so different. It's been a huge adjustment, going from being a always on the go, super busy, uncomfortably pregnant nursing student to a stay at home mom. I feel...exhausted. The kind of exhausted sleep can't cure. School, graduation, having a baby, taking my boards right after...my energy has been depleted from it all. So really, the truth is I don't mind spending my days at home with nothing more to do than take care of a sweet baby. Now don't get me wrong. It's not the easiest thing in the world. But it's more fufilling than spending hours doing homework and studying for tests.

It's nice actually having time to do things I want to do. Like spend time with my family, be outside, have naps, watch movies, plant a garden. I can keep the house tidy and spend time with my amazing husband.
I wrote out a huge to-do list for this summer while I was in school (probably during class while I was listening very intently to one of the teachers talk on and on about aortic aneurysms or atrial fibrillation or something...) It consists only of fun things I want to do. SO I'm excited to get started on that.

We got our garden planted this weekend. And DANG it's gonna be GOOD!

Mission Accomplished

After 9 months of waiting, the day of deliverance came our little bundle of joy finally arrived. EmmaLee Rose Johnson was born on May 5, 2012 at 1:33 AM. I was admitted to the hospital Thursday night and induced (well, given a cervical softener) at that time. I had contractions all night and into the morning. But they were basically worthless because they weren't doing anything. The next morning my water broke and they thought that we would actually see some progress after that. Boy were they wrong.

 After about 6 hours of no progress (meaning I'm still only dilated 1 1/2 cm) they hooked me up to the pitocin and that's when the real pain started punching me in the face and every where else too. I couldn't have an epidural until I was dilated to a 4. Now, at that time I was all for going natural for as long as possible. But after about an hour and a half of waves intense pain every 60 seconds I decided to ditch my ridiculous plan and go with an epidural ASAP. So about 7 hours later, after being relentlessly beaten by my uterus I was dilated to a 3 1/2 and they decided to give me an epidural.

 Epidurals = Gift from heaven. 'Nuff said.

The doctor became concerned at how slowly I was progressing. I had been in labor for 19 hours and was only dilated to a 3 1/2. He came into the room and told me that I would probably have to have a C-section. He was suspected that:

 A) Either the baby was too big to descend into the birth canal and dilate me properly or

 B) she was caught up the the umbilical cord and that was preventing her from dropping. 

However, the baby wasn't showing any signs of distress at that time so he continued to monitor me and see what happened.

After that I got kind of discouraged because I had already labored for so long and I didn't want to have a C-section after all that. But I decided that if it was best for the baby I would be okay with it.  

So Ryan and I said a prayer asking that everything would work out and then we waited...

BUT not for long! after about an hour of having the epidural I was dilated to a 5 and about 45 minutes after that I dilated to a 10! Woo hoo! I couldn't have been happier. Things were finally working out!

I started pushing and about 2 or 3 hours later the baby started showing signs of distress. So the doctor whipped out his forceps and got things moving, and before we knew it we had a beautiful baby girl in our arms. She cried a little at first and then just looked around, her big eyes as wide as they could be. I couldn't believe how perfect she looked to me. I was expecting a gross slimy alien looking thing with a cone head, but she looked like a perfect little baby who just happened to belong to Ryan and I. I was soooo happy. 

She weighed 8 lbs, 12 oz. The reason it took so long to progress was because 

A) She WAS a little too big for my pelvis and

 B) she was all wrapped up in the umbilical cord. 

Nonetheless, against all odds, she came the way I preferred. The nurses calculated it all out and I was in labor for 28 hours. I would do it again and again in a second for the little gift from heaven we were given. She has been a wonderful addition to our family; we have been so blessed. We love her so much. 

She made it <3

Right after they put the goop in her eyes. "What'd ya go and do that for?"

So small :)

My pretty baby girl