We have a 2 week old!

Well, the past 2 weeks have gone by amazingly fast. It is hard to believe that little baby Hunter is already 2 weeks old! We sort of lost that first week, since we were in the hospital most of the time, so I imagine that made it seem to go by even faster.

Hunter had his 2 week checkup with Dr. Terwelp yesterday morning and he is doing great! They want babies to be back to their birth weight by 2 weeks of age (Hunter's was 5 lbs 13 oz). Hunter was up to 6 lbs 1.5 oz! He is in the 4th percentile for length, weight, and head circumference which was great because that was on the term babies chart rather than the preemie chart. Now that he is up to his birth weight, I can also start demand feeding - feeding him when he wants to eat rather than having to wake him up every 2-3 hours to eat - although so far he has pretty much been sticking to the 3 hour schedule. I'm hoping that he'll decide he wants to sleep longer than 2-3 hours during the night soon. :)

Mom and Brad left on Sunday and we sure are missing them! AJ took off Monday-Wednesday to stay home and help me and my sister flies in on Thursday for a visit. We are enjoying our new little family and settling into a routine. Here is a pic of Mimi, Papa, and Hunter before they left!

It's a BOY!!!

Hunter William Johnson made his debut 4 weeks early on Easter Sunday, April 12th, at 8:22am. He weighed 5 lbs. 13oz, and was 19 in. long, and AJ and I are over the moon that he is here. There is a lot that has happened over the past 9 days so I apologize in advance for a long post. :)


AJ sent out a note to our friends after he was born and it is the perfect way to tell the story of what happened - here it is -

________________________


From: Johnson, Antoine
Sent: Sunday, April 12, 2009 10:35 PM
Cc: Johnson, Kristin
Subject: Best Easter Ever


Hello everyone,

By now many of you have heard that Kristin gave birth to our new son this morning. Hunter William Johnson was welcomed into the world at 8:22 this morning. He was quite an Easter surprise.

Details:
Saturday was like any normal Saturday. Kristin’s mom was in town to help get the final things she needed for delivery. They went shopping, picked out new baby outfits, etc. Keep in mind that the due date wasn’t until May 9th. Our friends April and Piper came over that morning to take some pregnancy pictures for Kristin. Boy do we have great timing!

Anyhow, Kristin’s mom wanted to treat us to Salt Lick so that’s where we went for dinner – again everything normal so far. Also, Kristin did not have any Braxton-Hicks contractions at all during her pregnancy – our baby was pretty relaxed and chilled out.

After dinner, she helped her mom pack for her 9am Sunday flight back to Indiana. I went to bed to read and watch SNL. She came to bed shortly thereafter. As soon as she laid down – 11:50 on Saturday night, her water broke. She hadn’t even finished packing her overnight bag!! Well, we got her dressed, woke up her mom, and hustled to the hospital. By this time her contractions started. By the way – Kristin and contractions do not get along! After the epidural she was all good though – many of you got phone calls from her!

She labored for about six hours and pushed for about an hour and a half. My mother-in-law was a godsend. She was there to help us through this and offer encouragement. She was completely complimentary to me and made sure that we were both comfortable throughout the process. My wife is a phenomenal woman. She did so well during this that I was truly inspired by her.

We did not know what the sex of the baby was before he was born. This was the best surprise I’ve ever gotten! I was the first person (other than the doctor) to see my new son enter this world. He is truly a blessing! Andrew was born on Father’s Day and that makes Father’s Day special for me. Hunter was born on Easter Sunday, and Easter will always be special to me as well.

He’s a little on the small side – he came 4 weeks early! However, he’s doing well. He’s taking to nursing right away and he’s discovered that he likes to suck his thumb sometimes. Kristin has done great so far – she’s going to be a great mother. We’re all tired but happy. What more could any of us have asked for? Andrew is very excited about his baby brother. He’s going to be a great role model. I could not have done this without my mother-in-law Jan. I’m so happy she was here to witness all of this.

We have plenty of pictures, and I’ll send them out later. We’re at North Austin Medical Center room 224 for anyone that wants to come by and say hello.

Thanks to everyone!

Antoine Johnson


____________________



We were able to go home on Tuesday, April 14th and had a pediatrician appointment with Dr. Terwelp on Wednesday. They wanted to check his bilirubin levels - this is a breakdown product of blood and high levels cause jaundice - and since he is techincally a preemie it needed to be monitored closely. His bili levels had gone up since leaving the hospital at Wednesday's appointment and so we had to go back for another check on Thursday. Thursday's levels had jumped higher than anyone expected, so he was readmitted back in to the hospital Thursday evening to spend some time under the phototherapy lights to work on getting his levels down. It was very hard for us to see him hooked up to all of the machines and having his blood taken several times a day, but he was able to come home again on Saturday evening.


Here is a picture of the little guy -






He has a special little name, as Hunter is my Mom's maiden name, and William was my Dad's name. He is settling in to his new home and routine quite nicely. He is a good little baby and we are so thankful that he is healthy and is home. My Mom has been here and has been a godsend. She has helped us so much. Brad flew in yesterday and my sister will be here to help out at the end of next week. We are lucky to have such a wonderful group of friends and family.

Indy trip

I made it to Indy and back last weekend without any airline drama for a change. My sister threw a baby shower for me on Saturday and it was perfect. It was at noon, so we had a delicious lunch of chicken salad croissants, veggies/dip, fruit, and of course cake! I had a great time and I think everyone else did as well. It was great to see my friends and family and I am very appreciative for everything that everyone did to make it a special day. I felt very loved. :) It was a pretty short trip, but I did get to see a lot of people. It is crazy to think that the next time I am home I will have a baby!

I had a quick Dr. appointment on Thursday before I left. Not much new to report, although the baby is head down, so even though there is plenty of time left, hopefully he/she doesn't decide to flip. 8 more weeks to go!

I passed!

I have been waiting on the news to update the blog and I have the official word – I passed my glucose test! For those of you (men) who are reading and don’t know what that is, it is a blood test they do right around this time in your pregnancy to test your blood sugar. You have to drink an orange drink that tastes like flat McDonalds orange soda in 5-10 minutes and get your blood drawn an hour later. If your sugars are too high then you have to do another 3 hour test, where I believe you drink the same drink but then have to get your blood drawn once an hour for 3 hours, which I was NOT keen on. I have had such a sweet tooth and was totally convinced I was going to fail, but I passed with flying colors. :) It’s the little things that excite me, huh…?

My appointment last week went well. It was just a quick checkup. The baby is measuring right on schedule. I have another appointment late next week so they can check me before I fly out on Friday. Whitney is throwing me a shower in Indy and they wanted to check me before I travel. Everything has been smooth sailing so far, so I don’t anticipate having any problems, but keep your fingers crossed. This will be the last time I can travel before the baby is born so I’m really excited to go home…although I wish that I could stay a little longer. I’ll make sure to post some pics when I get back!

I’m starting to get tired again, but other than that I’m feeling well and really can’t complain at all. I will be 30 weeks on Saturday which is totally crazy to me. It seems like time has flown by ever since I hit 20 weeks. I think I will start to feel more prepared once we start to fill up the nursery with the essentials. I'm starting to think about the fact that this baby is eventually going to have to come out and he/she isn't getting any smaller! Hopefully the epidural will sound less scary to me in 10 weeks.... :)

I almost forgot - we have our first class next week! We have about one per week for the next 5 weeks or so, so I’m looking forward to those. I’ll keep you posted on how those are going!

25 weeks

I'm not sure how I feel about posting a side view picture of myself in all of my pregnant glory, but my friends from home have been asking for belly pictures so I’m biting the bullet. I think I look as big as a house!

My Mom and Brad came down for a little visit last week. We all had a great time. AJ and Brad were able to get in a few rounds of golf while Mom and I played around at Babies R Us. :) Brad loves the fact that he can play golf in January. They picked a good week to come and we enjoyed having them here!

I had my 24 week appointment last week and everything is still going well. Next appointment is in 4 weeks. I'll have the glucose screening test and that is my last 4 week appointment. I’ll start going every 3 weeks after that, which means it will be my 3rd trimester ALREADY! Time is flying by. We are still working on names and it is much harder than I thought it would be. It’s not even that we are in disagreement - it’s more of names reminding of someone else that you grew up with, or someone else already has a child (or a dog) with that name, or that it just doesn’t work with Johnson (crazy, but true), etc. The baby is moving a lot and I’m still feeling well, although it is becoming increasingly difficult to put on my socks and shoes. I might have to start asking AJ for some help here before too long!

20 weeks and Merry Christmas!

I had my 20 week appointment on the 18th of this month. (I’m a little behind updating the blog…sorry. I’ll get to that. :) ) I had an ultrasound and everything is looking good. The baby weighed 12 oz. - we’re getting close to a whole pound! He or she wasn’t working the camera very well so we didn’t get very many good pictures this time. No side profile pics – only the full on facial view. Still cute though! We also got a video that lasts a couple of minutes to take home so that was fun. This was a full anatomy scan, so we had to turn our heads away from the screen when she moved to determine gender and it was MUCH harder than I thought it would be! I compare it to finding your Christmas presents in the closet when you were younger and not taking a peek. :) AJ and I both behaved though and both have different guesses as to whether we have a little boy or little girl in there. I’m starting to feel a little movement I think, but still not much. It is hard to believe I’m over half way there!

We left for Indy on the evening of the 19th, and whaddya know, the airline loses our luggage on the way up. We ended up getting it back late the next day, but not before the Winship side of the family’s Christmas party at my aunt and uncle’s the next day. We were able to create new outfits by combining the clothes that we wore with some things that Mom and Brad let us borrow so it all worked out. Christmas Day was enjoyable and relaxing. Whitney and Brian were there and my grandparents came up to visit us with my Uncle Bill who just moved back from China. The baby even got some super cute bibs and IU booties! We went to see "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" that night. I thought the movie was pretty good. I'd recommend it and will probably see it again when it comes out on DVD. Then Friday...the fiasco started. We left Indy on Friday night where we were supposed to have an hour and a half layover in Chicago, which turned in to a 3 hour delay, which turn in to a 2 day unexpected stay. We finally made it home on Sunday night safe and sound.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas as well. Here’s to a happy and healthy 2009!

AJ's Playroom

Or man-cave, as I have also affectionately named it. :) AJ has been wanting to fix up the media room since we moved in and he finally is pretty close to having it finished, so...goodbye 60 inch perfectly normal TV, hello 115 inch projector/screen!

He is happy with it and so am I. It's a pretty cool place to watch a movie or a basketball game. We're thinking about doing some theater/stadium-type seating and decorating with some movie themed posters, but the "important" stuff is finished.

This weekend was pretty low key. I finally got started on my Christmas shopping AND bought my first few pieces of maternity clothes! We were going to go pick out our tree tonight, but AJ got wrapped up in the Cowboys game and BCS Selection Show (neither of which he is happy about) so looks like that will be a project for tomorrow night!