Carter Gary Johnson

Carter is now 10 days old, so it's about time that I record the story of his birth.

I was overdue and my fluid levels were a little low on Thursday, January 30, 2014, so my doctor said he wanted to induce me before I went too much longer. He offered to induce me on Monday, but since that was Peyton's birthday, we opted to be induced on Tuesday, February 4 instead.

We had a small birthday party with Shawn, Peyton, Grandpa Gary and I on Monday night and then Peyton went to Annie and Abe's for a sleepover. It made for a fun end to a fun birthday, but it was so weird dropping him off knowing that the next time we were all together we would be a family of four.

We had to be at the hospital at 7:30 a.m. for the induction. By the time we got in and got set up, it was about 9. My doctor came in at 9:30 and broke my water and then they started me on pitocin. I started having very bad contractions immediately. It was so crazy how quickly they came once they broke my water.

They had two sets of twins being born that day as well, so they wanted to get me my epidural as quickly as they could before the anesthesiologist had to go in for the twins, which was fine by me! He came in about 15 minutes after they broke my water to get my epidural going. He struggled a bit getting the epidural in and had to try several times before he got it in place, the whole time I was having very strong contractions every 2-3 minutes. It ended up taking about 15 minutes to get it going. Once it was in though, it was fantastic :) I would never go without one if I didn't have to!

After I got my epidural, I was able to relax and even fell asleep for about 45 minutes.

At noon, they checked me and I was fully dilated! I couldn't believe that I had gone from 2 cm. to 10 cm in about 2 1/2 hours!

I had to wait for a while though, while my doctor delivered one of the sets of twins. At 12:30 he came in and they were ready for me to push. My doctor checked and said that I wouldn't have to push much. He was really ready to be born.  I ended up pushing one time for less than a minute and he was born at 12:37 p.m. I was pretty shocked that it was so quick. He had the chord wrapped around his neck one time, but the doctor was able to get it off so quickly!

My doctor had to leave pretty quickly after delivery to deliver the other set of twins. All five babies were born in one hour. My doctor was happy that he didn't even have to reschedule any appointments because they all came during his lunch hour.

We named him Carter Gary Johnson. He weighed 8 lbs. 2 oz. and was 21.5 inches tall (Peyton was 7 lbs. 1 oz, 19 inches long).

Peyton loves him. He calls him Baby Brother or Cute Brother. Every time he sees him, he says "Ah, he's cute!"Today we were in the car and Carter started crying and Shawn said, "Carter, no crying." Peyton thought it was the funniest thing he had ever heard and kept laughing and saying, "No crying!"

He has been such a good baby. He is pretty calm, except when he takes his bath each night, which he HATES. He still has his days and nights switched. He sleeps really well during the day and is awake at night. He wakes up about three times each night, which isn't so bad, except that he is up for HOURS when he does wake up. The other night he was up for four hours, which is tough, but it is getting better.

Right now, we are trying to get adjusted to having two kids. It's much less of an adjustment than the first one was, but it is still tough to get into a new routine! We are loving our little Carter and are so glad he is part of our family.

Just a short update on Baby Boy #2. My due date is Monday. I am feeling 39 1/2 weeks pregnant at this point. I pretty much want to sleep all the time, but actually sleep very little between the constant trips to the bathroom and the head cold that I have.

I finally decided in the past week to get stuff ready for him. We bought diapers, wipes, bottles and everything else we need before he comes. We got out the carseat and cleaned it. We set up the bassinet and washed all the bedding with it. We should be about ready.

I went in for my appointment yesterday. I haven't had any progress in three weeks, but I'm fine with that. I think he has just decided it is far too cold outside to come out yet. With the head cold I have had for the past week, I am kind of glad he isn't coming early so that I can try to get that out of my system before he comes.

We are pretty anxious to see what he is going to look like. With Peyton we were so curious and with this one, you kind of assume he will look somewhat like Peyton, but every kid looks so different.

I will update when more happens. Nothing too exciting to report this week.

Update on Baby Boy #2

My goal this year has been to blog more than last year, which isn't hard since I posted once last year and it was a post about my tardiness in getting our year in review video completed.

So, with this post, I have now kept my resolution. :)

Update on Baby Boy #2: I am now three weeks from my due date. I have another appointment tomorrow, but as of last week everything looked great. I have gained four pounds total so far in my pregnancy, which is great. (Two of those pounds were in the past two weeks. Darn Christmas candy!) I have been eating healthier and I am hoping that it gives me a head start to lose weight after the little guy comes.

I am really not ready for this baby to be born. I have not gotten anything ready, and I really mean nothing. I bought him a shirt a few months ago and that is the only thing hanging in his closet (which is still set up as the guest room and probably will remain the guest room until after I have him.)

I found the box of Peyton's old clothes this weekend and brought it in the house, but it is still sitting in the office waiting to be washed folded and put away.

Other than that, we haven't done anything. We are planning a shopping trip next week to get everything else we need, so he can't come early!

Johnson Family 2013 in Review Video

This year, we decided to record our year in one second a day. Some days were exciting, some were not as exciting, but every day got one second. In the end, our lives are made up of the exciting and the ordinary days. Being honest, there are a few days here and there that we missed getting our video. On those days, we used a photo that we took that day.

We hope you enjoy seeing the highlights of our year!

I asked Shawn if we were going to do it again this year. He said absolutely not! It was a TON of work :)