First Smile Caught on Camera!

We've been seeing this elusive smile for weeks, but have not had an opportunity to catch it on camera. Finally, today was the day! He's such a happy boy...for now...

Growing So Quickly!

I love this little outfit! We received it as a gift from my friend, Kim, and I have been eager to get Garrett into it. We are having breakfast with my family this weekend and Small Fry will be wearing this. Cutie Pie.

A Happy Parent Moment

This is my little guy after his bath and he is really pissed off because it's so cold in our house, dammit! Poor dude.

Today brought a happy event!

Cal and I have made the common mistake of waiting until the baby was sleepy before we put him down for naps or bedtime. Without fail, he would cry endlessly and inconsolably for an hour or more. We were popping in there every minute or two to calm him down and feel so frustrated for not understanding what needed to happen for our baby to be calm at bedtime.

So, the past couple of days, we've been putting him down at the first signs of tiredness, regardless of how alert and awake he looks. He makes the big yawns that look like his jaw is about to unhinge, we swaddle him up, and put him down for his nap. I followed this today and when I put him down for his nap after the big yawns and while he was wide awake, he smiled a HUGE baby smile at me and laid there calmly. When I walked out, he made some weak cries (more like whimpers) and went to sleep on his own! He has been in there for two hours totally asleep!

How sweet it is...

Baby's Complexion

So, how come I've never noticed how blotchy the complexions of babies are? My little guy's smooth little face has become the face I thought he'd not have until his teens! I have younger siblings who I remember as babies and I don't remember this happening, although I'm sure it did.

A cuddly little boy. He loves his daddy!

Going Green

"Be Nice To Your Mama"
That's good advice...

We've begun our journey into using the cloth diapers. We used disposables for the first few weeks until we got the hang of changing quickly. Now, we are in transition and using the cloth diapers during the day and using disposables at night. I am surprised how easy these cloth diapers are to use, so I am confident that we'll be moving into using them at night in no time.

The best part about these diapers is that we can use them until Garrett is 35 pounds! They are designed to fit baby from birth til toilet training (7lbs.-35lbs.). The rate at which Garrett is growing, I'm afraid he'll reach 35 pounds well before toilet training.

Frankly, I think Garrett looks adorable in these diapers. We have five colors: blue, pink, green, yellow, and white. We've reserved one white diaper that he will not wear unless we need a pristine diaper for pictures or some other event for which he must look nice. :)

The angle of this picture makes his diaper look sumo-like.

Some Fun Pictures of Garrett

Garrett is on the left. The other baby is my nephew Braydon. He is about 7 weeks older than Garrett.

Just a tiny little peanut

Does this kid look like Cal, or what?

Makeshift bassinet

Such a scrunchy face! This is how I will remember him looking as a baby.

Oh, so sleepy.

Visiting Old Friends

We went to visit my old friends at my internship site this week. Little Garrett arrived there asleep and I was sure we were going to have a lovely visit. As you can see by my picture, Garrett had other ideas.

Joe, Gary, and Laura were all there to see the new little guy. We had lunch together, then people took turns holding the baby. Garrett especially loved being held by Gary, who has a big bushy beard. Garrett was filled with tons of smiles and coos while he looked at Gary's face.


Joe took Garrett from Gary and promptly heard lots of crying. Poor Joe.

Epidural Consequences!

So, when having an epidural, something like 20% of women experience an "epidural headache", which is apparently a result of spinal fluid leaking out and creating tension on the fibers that connect the brain to the skull. Sound painful? Yeah,...it is. Ask me, I know.

When lying down, the unbearable headache would subside, however, the resulting tension on the optic nerves showed up. So, I had to choose from feeling like my head was exploding or my eyeballs imploding. Take your pick.

The nurses told me to try the home remedies of acetaminophen and ibuprofen, plus lots of Mountain Dew for sugar and caffeine. If those didn't work, I'd have to come back to the hospital for a procedure or suffer with the headache for approximately three more weeks.

So the home remedies didn't work. I had to be re-admitted to the hospital to have a blood patch. Description is below...it's not for the faint of heart.

The person who successfully administered my epidural came to the hospital and drew so much blood out of my arm that I lost the ability to open my fingers for a few minutes. Then, he performed another epidural procedure (that's number 4, for those of your keeping count) and injected all that blood he drew into my spinal column. Then, I had to lie down in the hospital bed for over an hour to let the patch "take". Luckily, Garrett was still in his new baby coma and just slept the entire time.

Happily, after that hour was over, my headache was gone. The optic nerve pain persisted for a few more days, but the worst was over.


Since I wanted to keep spending time with my new baby during the time I had to remain horizontal, this was the best we could do. Poor guy.

Cats are adjusting, too!

The cats are wondering who the heck (or WHAT the heck) this squawking, squirming, smelly person is! They are sometimes scared, sometimes curious. Mostly, they are just neglected and starved for attention. Remember when Sonny and Sparkles used to run away from anyone who wanted to touch them? Yeah, those days are gone.

Welcome Garrett!

Welcome Garrett Lee Johnson!
He was born on May 20, 2008 at 8:36pm.
He was 8lbs. 12 oz. and was 21 inches long.

Here is our first picture together! I love this one. He's so calm and his eyes are wide open.

Our labor began on Monday night, May 19 at 9pm when my water broke at home. I had a moderate freak out when it happened as it was as dramatic as when it happens in the movies! Immediately, we were off to the hospital for what would prove to be one of the longest nights/days of our lives. Oy.

Since my water broke at 9pm, I hadn't eaten for quite some time. Thus, I would not eat again until after the baby was born. Little did I know how long that would take. All I could have was water and ice chips (for those of you in the know, you'll recognize that as the best thing they could have offered me!), and a little cup of jello in the morning. Yay.

In the morning, the epidural lady came in and we had two failed attempts at pain relief. Sheesh. So, my doctor came in and gave me morphine. Nice. I have a low threshold for weirdness when I have strong pain medication and this was no exception. While in the throes of a morphine coma, my doctor came in and told me that they think my waters had re-sealed so they were going to go in and break them again.
My response to this was: "Oh, do you have to? I was thinking maybe I could just go home?"
Her response was: *Nervous laughter, glance at Cal* "Are you serious?"
My response: "No, I was just kidding." Then I looked over at Cal and silently mouthed: "I wasn't kidding"

At 3pm, I finally got my epidural on the third try. What a blessing! An epidural helped me to actually enjoy my labor and delivery experience. How nice.

Then around 8pm, I started to feel the need to push. At 8:36pm, Garrett was here!

After he was born, I suffered from a serious case of maternal amnesia. I do not remember Cal cutting the cord, being cleaned up, or how long they took Garrett for testing and cleaning. I remember the nurse asking me if she could take him from me for cleaning and testing, and I nearly tossed him over to her so I could finally eat!

Then, finally, after an hour or so, our new family was able to spend some quiet time together.