One week old!

Isaac was born a week ago today, and he's doing great! Not much to write about, except he decided to mark the occasion by explosively pooing across my legs while I was sitting on the floor, changing his diaper this morning... Other than that, though, not much going on.

Oh, he went on his first "outing" yesterday! Juli and Natti brought dinner over, and we went to the park down the street to have a picnic! Natti was so sweet with Isaac, she kept wanting to hold him, and she wanted to know "Is it okay that baby Isaac can sit next to me?", and when I was getting set up to nurse him, she even wanted to know if she could feed him! I told her that that wouldn't work very well... but that, when Isaac is older, if we ever start bottle-feeding him, she can try feeding him with a bottle.

After we ate, Ben and Natti swung for a while. Benjamin would have been happy to never get out of that swing, he was having so much fun! After a while, though, we went back to the blanket, and Natti and Benjamin just burned energy running around and around. Anyway, it was fun!

Well, my big boy is about done with his lunch, and my one-week-old is waking up, and looking hungry (but nothing new there), so I better finish up!

My budding artist!

"Dinosaur", by Benjamin Johnson

I set Benjamin up with crayons and paper at the table earlier this afternoon, and let him have at it. He had fun (and bonus for me, it kept him entertained for a good 20 minutes)! When he was done, I was telling him what a good job he did, and how nice his picture looked, and I asked him, "What do you want to call it?", and he said, "Shyshore!" (dinosaur).... yes, I'm sure it could well have been affected by the fact that he was wearing his dinosaur pajamas (and yes, he's been in his pajamas all day, as have I).

I wanted to upload a video, but it was 144 MB, and the max allowed on blogger AND photobucket is 100, and I don't have any video-editing software, and even if I did, I wouldn't know how to use it... so oh well, this is it!

Oh, and I didn't see a single crayon with a bite out of it! :)

Also, as you may have heard, Ben's been working on learning the alphabet-- so far, he gets excited, and repeats up to around "G"-- but he knows A, B, C, and D pretty well. He hasn't said them in order by himself yet, but he'll repeat them perfectly, and when I say one, he'll usually say the next one if I wait for him. So this morning, while I was changing Isaac, Ben was playing with the wipes container. He started pointing at the word "HUGGIES" on the top of the container, and, pointing at individual letters, started saying, "Ay! Dee! Bee! She!(c) Ay! Bee!" Okay, so they weren't the right letters, but he knew they were letters!!

I'm so proud of my smart boy!!

Day #5, in pictures

Benjamin has been so sweet with Isaac so far. There have only been a few times when I had to really tell him to be gentler, in general, it seems like he just knows. He's been helping me with Isaac's diapers, too: he'll sit next to me and watch, and pull a diaper out of the basket to hand to me, then, if his attention is still engaged, he'll hand me wipes (okay, so sometimes it's a few too many wipes, but it's something!), then when I'm done, he'll take the dirty diaper to the trash. He loves pointing out Isaac's body parts-- I've been trying to discourage pointing at his eyes, in particular, but he also knows his head, his cheek, his nose, his chin, his arm, hand, toes, etc.

He was tickling his foot here-- unfortunately, it turned out a little blurry :(

...And holding his hand while he slept (awwwww)...

I absolutely love moments like this one, just holding him against my chest while he sleeps so contentedly... there is nothing in the world so relaxing, I think.

Cute little profile! (And, as you can see, his eyes are no longer oddly puffy)

These next three make me laugh! Those are tickle smiles, I was feeding him, and he kept dozing off, so I was trying to get him to latch back on, and it made him smile, by some reflex-- he was doing it for a good five minutes before I thought to grab the camera!

Isaac's first doctor visit

I took four-day-old Isaac in for our Mother-Baby visit at the hospital today... He's gained back almost all of the weight he'd lost in the hospital, he's 7 lb, 9 oz right now, so just shy of his birth weight! Mild jaundice, but nothing even on the charts for risk, so no big deal.

That's really all that the appointment was... it felt a lot more rushed, I remember Benjamin's first visit was a lot more comfortable, as if the doctor was really interested in how we were doing and trying to offer help with all the little things, and this time it was just the technical stuff.

Oh, and the doctor also felt the need to let me know that I am "WAY too young to have two children these ages!" (with a smile, though, whatever that means). I never know quite how to respond to things like that... "Thank you!" "No, I'm clearly not, or I wouldn't have two children, hmm?" "Okay...?"

I always just end up resorting to a polite smile and half-nod. Eh, it was just kind of funny.

On another topic, Daniel's really not feeling well... :(
He's been throwing up, and just generally feeling icky. He's sleeping now... I hope he feels better soon. I need him! ;)

Seriously, though, he's been so awesome, I literally could not have handled the past few days without him taking care of Benjamin (and me!) so that I could focus on Isaac, and get some rest. I love you, babe!

Awww... I love this picture... <3

He really is so cute!!!

...And more pictures!

Look at those loooong fingers/fingernails!

I thought this was cute... one of the t-shirts the hospital provided-- "This side up!" (kind of funny, too-- I was at a Kaiser hospital, but the shirt is a Providence one...)

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Here's a cute little picture sequence-- I was just holding him, and took all of these pictures within the space of a minute or two. I LOVE his expressions!!

(This one's my favorite, I think!)



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Tiny baby toes! :)

Picture post!

This'll probably be overload... but oh well. Enjoy!

This little series of pictures was taken by Juli (Daniel's aunt), and put together in sequence by Daniel's grandpa. I had to steal it, because it really does just perfectly sum up the whole thing, beginning to end-- just a whole lot shorter!

(It was technically actually 5:55, this was taken just a minute or two late.)

Father and son...

He makes the funniest expressions!!
See the little tufts of red? Like father (and big brother), like son.
He's had so many of those little fake gas smiles, they're so cute!!
Me and my boys...

Welcome, baby Isaac!

Well, I did it! 39 weeks and two days of pregnancy, and 28 hours in the hospital, and we've got a beautiful baby boy to show for it.

Isaac Otto Michael Johnson

born 5:55 pm on Friday, June 20th

7 lb, 11 oz

20 inches

I'm sure this will be the first of many, many blog posts written at night, while nursing, so expect plenty of simple, quickly-written, flash updates like this one.
I do have plenty more pictures, so I'll try and put up a picture post within a couple of days here-- but I'm thinking it's just about back to bed time...

Uggghhhhhhh...

Wow, that was fun.

I had 12 hours of regular, rough contractions yesterday, from 4 in the afternoon to 4 am, but it went away. That was rather anticlimactic.
But I think we're going to attempt all the "natural" labor encouraging stuff today, so anyone who wants to be there, be ready!

Oh, and for those (female) family members who want to be there, I've changed my mind (again)-- I know, I originally said I didn't want anyone other than Daniel, my mom, and Diane, but I've decided I would love to have more support there with me, if anyone wants to be there-- especially because my mom won't be able to make it up here. (She's in Central Oregon, with my grandma)

Anyway, everyone will get calls when we go... hopefully it won't be much longer!

39 week appointment today

So, I think I posted this last week, but I had my 38 week appointment last week, and was 2 cm.
Today, I had another appointment, and I'm 4 cm dilated now. Getting closer!


It was actually kind of funny, last week, my midwife told me that at today's appointment, I would have the option of choosing to have her "strip the membranes", which is basically just a slightly rougher way of checking my cervix, and it functions as a pretty natural way to speed up the onset of labor if you're getting antsy. When I got home, Daniel asked how it went, and I told him about it, and he looked at me, puzzled: "How can she strip your memories?-- and what would that have to do with starting labor, even if she could?"
Just had to laugh... they're easy words to mishear, but totally different implications!

But anyway, we decided against it, even though for my own purely selfish reasons, I wouldn't have minded helping things along a little. Being nine months pregnant is, to say the least, uncomfortable. But since I'm obviously moving along somewhat, I decided to just wait and see-- and if nothing's happened by my appointment next week, then I'll do it.

These pictures are from a while ago, but they deserve to be posted! This is Natti, Benjamin's three-year-old cousin who loves to "smuggle", with almost anyone available. Apparently, one Friday night not too long ago, none of the grown-ups were available, so she decided to commandeer Benjamin for a smuggle on the dog's bed! I couldn't resist pictures...

You wouldn't know it by his blank expression, but he was about done here, ready to get up-- but notice her fist gripping his t-shirt! I felt bad, I didn't even notice until Adam S. (Natti's daddy) pointed it out.

This is the wonderful diaper cake that Juli made for my baby shower! Thank you, Juli! And thank you, Diane, for buying all the little onesies and blankets and things inside!

I thought this was cute... I can't believe he was ever small enough to fit in that carseat!

I was at my parents' house the other day, and Benjamin was playing with my sister-- he loves his aunt SheeShee (Lizzy)!

And my little muscle-man! This picture is so funny, it looks like he's really trying to lift the table, with that perfect little bodybuilder pose!

This one's gonna be long...

So, as the days tick down to the end of any sembleance of rest and calm in the Johnson household (AKA the birth of child #2), I've been scrambling to make sure I've got everything for the baby together and ready. Kinda last minute, I know, but I finally found a bassinet on Friday-- in pristine condition, at a garage sale for $40! Not bad, huh? (Yes, that is a very messy kitchen in the background...)

So, this is it, as it came. Cute, huh? I really like the old-fashioned look of the floor-sweeping skirt (makes it sound like I'm talking about a wedding dress!), and it even has the same exact vibrating, musical, light-up mobile that I loved on Benjamin's bassinet! Here's a close-up of the detail-- brown and blue, my favorite baby colors this time around!So, that was the bassinet before... and this is it after I "customized" it, with a roll of brown ribbon that Juli used for my diaper cake and gave me the leftovers (by the way, Juli, how much was that roll of ribbon?...and it was at Target, right? I think I could use another roll or two, I've got other projects in mind!), some blue ribbons I had for scrapbooking, and lots and lots of hot glue.

Isn't it cute? I feel so accomplished!

Oh, I also got the crib taken apart a couple days ago-- and that sucker was very uncooperative! Two of the Allen bolts were completely rounded out inside, so after trying over and over again, I finally ended up using a screwdriver point to literally carve a hexagon shape inside the bolt. I think when we put it up again, we'll just buy new bolts to save that trouble later...

So, for the less technical stuff...

Benjamin's been sleeping in his "big-boy bed" (otherwise known as his crib mattress on the floor, with a blanket and pillow) for a little over a week now, and I've actually been surprised at how successful the transition has been! He gets up maybe once or twice, but we just go back in there, and tell him to go back to bed, and that's usually all it takes. Daniel's better at putting him down, though... when I do it, sometimes he gets up over and over again, but it's like he takes Daniel seriously or something, because when Daniel puts him back to bed, he doesn't get up again!

Last night, though, I laid him down, and he fell asleep in bed without getting up once! Yay! Of course, that could be because David and Joey were spending the night, and he was worn out from playing... oh well, whatever reason, I'll take it!

Our morning routine lately has been Benjamin waking up and coming and getting into bed with us to snuggle for a little bit before we get up. I have been so tired lately that I am very happy with this arrangement, and often am able to sneak in 10-30 minutes of extra, much-needed sleep that way. So, the other morning, Benjamin climbed out of our bed, and I had kept my eyes closed for a few more minutes before getting up-- and when I did, I found him sitting in the bassinet, playing with the mobile!! I wish I would have gotten a picture, because it looked so silly, he's so big in it-- but I didn't want to encourage it at all. All I could think of was the possibility of him doing that a week or two from now, when there'll be a tiny, fragile newborn inside the bassinet!

I've got more pictures/stories of Ben, but I think I'll just start a new post, this one's getting loooooong!