102.4!!

...Nope, not a new radio station, this was my temperature at 3:30 this morning!!

I started with a little cough yesterday that I completely assumed was allergies, because I never start a cold with a cough! The cough comes at the end usually and hangs around for a few days. I haven't felt sick, even yesterday, just a cough. So late last night the cough got a little more frequent so I found a mask under the sink that I had with the cleaning stuff and started wearing it while holding my boy. Through the night I felt progressively worse and after Luke's 2 am feeding I could not get warm. I had a ton of blankets and I was still shivering, it was miserable! I called the on call doctor at my OB office, which happened to be my doctor last night just to make sure that it couldn't be connected to the c-section. It was on the list of things to watch for and call, but I assumed it had been a long enough time ago. However before I just took Tylenol and toughed it out - we had to be certain. She was confident that it was unrelated... Now I just have to figure out what it is! I hate it, I can't snuggle my boy! Thankfully Ben's home today, but not being able to hold him other than feedings is really, really going to stink!

I'll post pictures of Luke from over the last couple weeks later today... He's 4 weeks old today! I can't believe how much he's changed and how fast he's growing! We moved out of Preemie clothes late last week!  

Even Better!

Instead of me posting pictures I thought I'd share the pro's photos that just got done =)
Click here and click on 'client proofing' on the top. In the password section type: lucas (all lower case)

2 weeks, 2 days

Time is flying by! My sweet boy had his 2 week check-up on Tuesday and weighed 6lbs, 11 oz. Up 6 oz from last Tuesday. I know that while he's nursing he's not going to get the calories he would on formula, but hopefully I can chub him up a little before his 2 month appointment and get some meat on his little legs. I was really worried that his shots were going to be on Tuesday and the poor kid has no fat to stick that needle into. I was very relieved to say the least that we've got more time! 

Late Monday night he also lost his cord, it was really sad for me! Not sure why, it clearly hasn't 'connected' him to me since he's been here but it almost felt like it had and now it's gone... My baby's getting bigger. 

The last couple nights we've had to use the Gripe Water for Luke. I'm not sure yet if it's things I'm eating (which are all bland and boring because I'm trying to be careful), or if he's just got a bit of colic at night. Each evening he's definitely had a tummy problem. So far, he likes the taste of it and it's appeared to do wonders. I feel horrible giving him something, but Ben's tried to make me feel better by trying to convince me that we're not medicating him (Gripe Water is all natural with ginger and fennel - no meds!) And it calms him down which is ultimately what I want. Even with the upset tummy, he's still a good baby! He only cries when he gets cold - bath time and changing, and just grunts and whines when he needs to eat. Luke's a total boy and has no bones about being dirty. He's never indicating any discomfort with a wet or poopy diaper - he's content to just fall back asleep and stay in it. Over the last week he's started to make all the sweet baby noises while he sleeps, I love hearing him at night while he's in his bassinet! He let's me know he's alright =) 

I had more on my prescription, but took myself off my pain meds last week. I do take the occasional Advil to take the edge off with my neck pain and subsequent headaches. My incision appears to be healing up, I'm definitely still very aware of it every time my abdominal muscles engage (standing, sitting, walking, laughing, etc.) so all the time, but it hasn't stopped me yet... Though blowing my nose has been the thing to avoid since the surgery! Talk about feeling like your blowing your stitches out! I had my follow-up appointment yesterday for a blood pressure check and I'm back down to normal range =)

Today we took Luke down for his first mall trip. We ended up with a couple goodies and walked around the Super Mall twice because we didn't really have a 'plan' and ended up adding stores that we'd already passed to our hit list. We can tell it's been a while since we've done real errands, we both walked in the door and agreed that a nap wouldn't be a bad idea. I'm certain Ben and Luke are doing that now and I'm missing mine, but I thought I'd give an update instead. 

I knew that I would love my boy, but never imagined just how much I could... Watching Ben fall in love with his son has also been incredible. We are so thankful for our new little family!

(I know you guys just check this now for the pictures, so I'll throw some up later tonight)

Sneak Peek

We got Luke's picture taken last Sunday and the photographer just sent me a sneak peek. Click here to see!

As Promised

Our Sweet Boy

Napping with Dad

He needs more fat to fill in all his little wrinkles

Great Grandma

Great Grandpa 

Uncle Nick

Great Great Grandma

In Daddy's Hot Rod

It's hard work being so cute!

I know I've been slacking a little, I'm sorry!

I'll upload some pictures today, I promise! We've been out the last few days visiting grandparents and finally celebrating Ben's birthday with my mom's side of the family now that things have settled a little. My little guy's doing very well - I thought I'd try to get him on a better schedule with feedings, but he's really still just doing his own thing. 3-4 hours, and as long as he's getting what he needs I'm not too worried about it now. 

Ben has decided to take an additional week off so he won't be going back to work until next Wednesday =) 

We're really just loving this time with our little boy! We know he's only this little once, we want to absorb and appreciate every moment with him (and each other) that we possibly can.

In the last 2 weeks as a new mom, I have found a greater faith than I've ever known before! There are so many things that I never thought would worry me, and now every time I put Luke in his bassinet and attempt to sleep away from him (just a few feet even) and I get so anxious! Mainly, that I'm not going to hear him choke (his only preemie 'issue' is that his digestive system isn't quite developed all the way and he does this from time to time) ... God's getting an earful from me lately! He gives me peace so that I may rest and it's then that I remember that Luke is His first, and then ours to raise and cherish. This I know, but it's much harder than I ever imagined to just trust Him lately without wanting to take it back and panic about it a little more. (I think it's partially because at this point of the night I'm exhausted and probably a little irrational too.) I know this is only the beginning of my worrying days, but I'm trying not to borrow trouble and think too much farther ahead =)  

Anyway, Luke's hiccups are finally gone and he's fallen asleep while I've been typing so we're going back to bed for a just a little bit longer... 

Dr. Appointment & Bath Time

Luke had his first appointment this morning and he's right back at birth weight, and doing really well! He's just a tiny bit yellow, so they're not concerned. He actually has gotten a lot of his tone back since we brought him home. I was getting nervous on Friday that he might continue to get more jaundiced and that we'd have ourselves a little glow worm this week with a baby on billi-lights. The doctor called him the "model baby" - both because he's absolutely perfect health wise, and because he told us Luke was a good lookin' boy. They are not adjusting his age, some have told me that before 37 weeks they'll adjust for medical purposes, but they are counting him term at 36 weeks so tomorrow he will be 1 week old, not the adjusted 0 weeks. This being the case he was in the 20th percentile for weight and height for a 1 week old. I know he'll get bigger and bigger, much faster than we'll be ready for, we love how tiny he is now (only because he so healthy!) but already can't believe it's been a week. Time means nothing to us right now, it's like we wake up, blink, and it's 8 at night.

Ben took charge at the appointment today! He never left the side of the table, he undressed Luke, took him to the scale, answered all the questions - I was quite impressed! He doesn't remember his own stats, questions, or complaints at his appointments without confirming with me first! He's so cute with his son. The snow's been coming down ALL day out here, which is Ben's favorite thing ever - I kept finding Ben holding Luke and looking out the window watching the snow. He says he gets stir crazy when he's not working, which is usually very true, he's ready to go back to work after his weekend and likes to work. However I really don't think he's having that hard of a time at home with us right now :) He has gone all primal on me though this evening with his man/provider role and is at a hunter's safety course right now. He's wanted to start hunting for a while now and there happened to be a class open tonight, and seeing how he should be in New Mexico now and Luke and I are fine just hanging out, I told him to go... but not before we gave the little boy a bath, and of course got some really cute pictures!

The 'supermodel pose'

He's not quite a fan of bath time yet

All clean
He's pretty tuckered out over the whole bath thing
Daddy sharing his love of snow with the boys

Luke

We're finally home from the hospital! It's been quite the week. Even though I had Aubrey post the basics, I've been asked for the story... Here ya go:

Tuesday I left work to spend the evening with Ben for his last night off before his birthday. Traffic picked up a bit as we're rounding the corner on 405 into Newcastle, but the cars in our lane slowed quickly back to a stop. The car in front of me had time to stop, I had plenty of time - no one slammed or squealed their brakes... And then I check my rear view just in time to notice the car behind me was not slowing and I had time to tense up right as she hit me - pushing me the 10 feet or so into the rear of the car in front of me. Thankfully the impact was not enough to deploy my airbag, but I did get a pretty good jolt - not to mention that because I saw it coming, and tensed up, my muscles took an even greater hit. Immediately I had a pain in the back of my head and my back was sore, but before I could grab my phone to call WSP the top of my stomach was hurting pretty bad and I was having contractions. Bellevue's Fire Dept was loading me into the back of the ambulance when they asked if I wanted to go to Overlake. I told them my OB was at Valley but assumed I didn't have a choice and whatever worked. At this point, I still really thought that I would get there and things would slow down and I'd get to go home. The driver told me he would take me to Valley to ensure that I was more comfortable with my own doctors - Bless that man! Things got more and more uncomfortable as the drive progressed and when I got into triage my blood pressure was reading at 250/156... Which everyone assumed was an error and they moved me to a room. Ben got there just moments after I did and I quickly moved through x-rays so they could get me to labor and delivery to monitor me. At this point I was told I'd be staying overnight for observation on the monitors but with any luck, I'd be home and in my own bed by the morning. Then they checked my bp again and the British L&D nurse that was so calm and sweet became somewhat rude and very short with me... She was in and out of the room and wasn't interested in listening to my concern of the new, really sharp pains during contractions in my upper abdomen. Within a few minutes I had 2 nurses working to get me 'stable' and we were being told that the sharp pains making me cry were not due to the pewny little contractions I was having, but my liver was swelling and my kidney functions were down, in addition to an erratic and extremely high blood pressure. The doctor came in and told me that they'd hoped to be able to buy me some time to have a normal induction and delivery but it just wasn't an option and they were taking us down for an emergency c-section. About 10 minutes later Ben was holding our little boy and they were checking my liver for damage and bleeding. My near perfect pregnancy, without a bp check out of normal range had apparently taken a turn that week and my (unkown) pre-eclampsia had turned into HELLPs syndrome. Without the accident, I would have just gone home that night and the doctor said that because I hadn't realized anything was wrong by that point, I may not have had any idea things were so bad until I'd stroked. It was all pretty scary. I was glad that they moved so quick, because if we had time to think about it, it probably would've been harder.

On to the good news: Luke is perfect! We were told that at 36 weeks he still might have some problems and may have to spend some time in the NICU - but thank God he was just fine. He stayed in the room with us the entire time and nurses like a champ for me! One by one I got to come off of the awful meds they had me pumped full of and I slowly got to feeling better and was able to enjoy him more and more. Luke was circumcised yesterday morning, which was A LOT harder for me than I thought it would be! After that they took him and his car seat down to the NICU to monitor him for an hour while strapped in to make sure he was able to tolerate it before letting us leave... It's a preemie thing. He passed and they let us take our boy home around 2. We've gotten the hang of nursing but because he dropped down to 5 lbs, 12 ounces the first night, they gave us some formula to add into our feeding routine for the calories. We tried a little bit the next couple feedings and managed to get hit at 6 lbs again before leaving, so they thought that I should do it a couple times this weekend at home to make sure he keeps weight up until his first appointment on Monday. BAD idea! Last night I gave him some and it completely tore his little tummy up. I felt so terrible, poor kid was so sad. It was heartbreaking.

Ben was able to get out of his New Mexico trip. We found out that if they can find a class later to fit him into, he'll be able to go, so he's not too bummed. His 26th birthday was spent in the hospital room, all day! His first "happy birthday" was at 5am from Luke in the form of a poopy diaper. His first diaper to change, and he didn't even complain! When I put Luke down, it usually doesn't take more than a few moments and Ben's right there to scoop him up to snuggle. He's a great Daddy already!

I swore I'd never be 'that mom' that always talks about how cute her baby is, because it's really all in the eyes of the beholder... Until now - my sweet boy is adorable, really... get your eyes checked. :) No, but seriously I am so in love with this kid! He's got the sweetest little face, really dark blue eyes, this tiny little cry that just breaks your heart! I could just look at him and kiss his little face all day long! He's incredibly strong already as well. The nurse put him on his back in the little hosiptal crib on Wednesday and when she turned back to him is face was pressed up to the side. He's got a great kick, and he can lift his head up long enough to adjust his hands so that he can lay on his fists while on my chest (his favorite position so far.)

We are so thankful for this little boy and that he's healthy... God is so good!

Now for the real reason you all read this post, to get to the pictures:

Hearing test

Daddy giving Luke his supplements

My sweet faced little man!

At home in the bouncer, and the huge hospital binky

So tiny!
Luke: 4 days old
Kaelyn: 4 months old

Guess who's here.....

Ben and Christina welcome their son ...

LUCAS (LUKE) BENJAMIN JOHNSON

Born: Tuesday, March 3, 2009 @ 11:47 pm
Weight: 6lbs 5ozs
Length: 18 inches long


This is Aubrey, Ben and Christina's friend and they wanted me to let everyone know that Luke is HERE!!! Christina was rear ended last night on her way home from work and they took her to the hospital to make sure all was ok. As they were doing tests they found she wasn't ok, but not from the accident. She had preeclampsia and HELLP Syndrome. They did a c-section and everyone is doing fine. He was born at 36 weeks and he is perfect! He is in the same room with his Mommy. Right now the doctor said they will probably be coming home Friday. My arms are aching to told this sweetheart and give my friend a big hug! She is amazing and I love her! Congrats Ben and Christina he is so precious!!!