Weeks 40,41 & Birth

I have been so excited to write blog about Lucy's birth. I would have done it sooner, but my hands have been a little full lately! I love to read birth stories - totally a mom thing. Birth is such a crazy experience and no two stories are the same! That being said - I will be talking about birth, so if that isn't your thing...turn away now. Also this is the longest post ever - sorry!!


This whole pregnancy I felt very strongly that I would have the baby early - which made me excited because I was 11 days overdue with Ruby. Jokes on me...I was overdue again - 9 days!!

By the time February came and I was so done being pregnant. I needed to be done....so I did the one thing I said I would never do - drink Castor oil. The first time I took it (February 11th) I only took half a dose (fearing all of those horror stories people had warned me about) a few hours after taking it I started to have some very mild, regular contractions and some serious diarrhea. We decided to go out for dinner and then we dropped Ruby off with my parents. We then decided to go walk around for a few hours and everything stopped. Dangit. The next day I felt really tired and nauseous. (most likely because of the castor oil - the stories are all true. It was awful.) That night I woke up with some regular (weak) contractions for about an hour and then they stopped. Dangit. So what did I do the next morning? Took Castor oil again...because I didn't learn the first time. I felt a few contractions but then decided to go to the hospital just to see if I was even the slightest bit dialated. The hospital probably thought I was nuts for coming in because I wasn't really having contractions. Finally a super nice resident came and check me - he said I was 3cm and about 50% effaced. Awesome!! They called my doctor to give him the heads up and told me to go home and come back in a few hourst when things were a little more regular. Things were happening and we were so excited! Until we went home and everything stopped. So what did I do the next day? Took Castor oil AGAIN. (I was pretty desperate) And nothing. Dangit. The day after that I went to the Doctor and he was so surprised I hadn't gone into labor after they called him on Sunday night - until he checked me. He told me that I was barely 1cm and that the resident probably had got things wrong at the hospital. The doctor then swept my membranes and told me I better have the baby today because he was going on holidays that evening - no pressure. (This was not my regular doctor - I had seen my family doctor until 36 weeks but he doesn't deliver so he sent me to this other doctor in the same office and now I was being told that I would have to see another doctor if I didn't have the baby soon. Great.) Feeling frustrated and unsure I asked Travis to give me a blessing.  

Soaking up every last minute as a family of three.

The next few days I continued to take my daily dose of castor oil - I'm pretty sure I have built up an immunity to that stuff. Yuck. On Friday the 17th we took Ruby to my parents (wishful thinking) and went walking again - nothing. I'm just really good at being pregnant and my body just wasn't ready to be done. That Sunday at church everyone was harassing me about still being pregnant and suggesting this or that to get the baby out. (Trust me, I had tried it all) until one lady told me about some magic pumpkin pie she makes that will put me into labor. At this point I was thrilled to try anything - and pie sounded great! She told me that 20/25 pregnant people she had made this pie for had all gone into labor within 48 hours of eating it. So Family Day 2017 was spent eating pie. All day. The lady told me that the trick was eating as much of the pie as I could. About 1/4 of the way thru I started to feel so sick and full...I managed to eat about 3/4 and could do no more. I am unsure at this point if I will ever want to eat pumpkin pie again. Not even the magic pie could get this baby out. I felt very defeated.

The next day I went to Doctor #3 and he scheduled an induction for the 24th. We went out for dinner and ice cream the night before the induction. It was such a strange feeling knowing this was our last night out with just Ruby. Everything was about to change and I was so scared how she would react to such a big change. When we went to drop her off at my parents house I lost it. I'm not usually a super emotional person, but it was such a bittersweet feeling. Ruby is such a sweet girl and I was scared that she would feel neglected having a new baby around. I was worried I hadn't spent enough time with her one on one. I was also just plain scared to actually get the baby out. I cried for a long time after we left her - and I'm crying again writing this. I dropped off my baby and the next time I would see her she would be a big sister - and I would have another baby.

Snapchat Filters make everything better

I was hoping having an induction day would scare the baby out - but no such luck. We checked into the hospital the morning of the 24th and got settled in. The nurses warned us that this could potentially be a really long day. The doctor came in and administered the gel at about 8:50am. Mild contractions started shortly after. The doctor told us that if the gel didn't do anything he couldn't do anything more until 6 hours after the gel was put in. Contractions were regular but weak so we spent all day walking the halls of the hospital. Finally at about that 6 hour mark (3:10pm) the Doctor came by to check me and I was only at 3cm - he then broke my water and told me that this might start things, might not. But he would come back in about 2 hours to put me on the drip to really get things going. (Travis was downstairs grabbing some food during this - he brought me back some lemon meringue pie - but I didn't touch it) Within five minutes of my water breaking my contractions were WAY stronger. I asked the nurse what me options for pain management were at this point. (With Ruby I had a shot of morphine about 6 hours before she was born - that was it. Things happened too fast to have anything else) The nurse came back and gave me a shot of morphine and went to prepare a delivery suite so I could labor in the shower if I wanted. I have never really made a birth plan - each time they have been:

#1. Get baby out

#2. Get drugs if I need them

Shortly after the shot of morphine we moved over to the delivery suite and I got into the shower (between contractions). After a few minutes in the shower the nurse asked me how I was doing and I told her I needed to be checked - I could tell things were progressing and I was starting to feel the urge to push. She probably thought I was crazy - the doctor had checked me less than 30 minutes ago and I was only at 3cm. I waddled out of the shower and hopped up on the bed and the nurse checked me at my request.

6cm.

She was surprised things were happening so quickly and decided she better go see where the doctor was at. I asked if I could go back into the shower and she agreed - as long as I didn't have the baby in the shower. I literally had ONE contraction in the shower and told the nurse to check me again...so I got back on the bed and she checked me...she then very calmly turned around and paged "Dr. Coma for delivery now". I was fully dilated and ready! AH! How was I about to have another baby without serious drug intervention again?? A resident was already in the room prepping for the delivery and kept telling me to not push and wait for the doctor. Do you know how hard it is to not push? You physically can't - your body just takes over. Birth is so crazy!! Travis and the nurse were holding my hands and kept telling me to keep breathing, stop hyperventilating and to stop pushing. I swear it took an hour for the doctor to come. Then when he finally did get to the room it felt like an eternity for him to gown up. The Doctor asked the resident if he wanted to deliver but since I had just had morphine an hour ago there was concern what effect it might have on the baby, so he said "I'll let you take the reigns on this one". The nurse told me that if she knew I was going to progress so quickly there is no way they would have given me that shot of morphine. On the next contraction I started pushing - The nurse held a monitor up to me to watch baby's heartbeat. It started to dip pretty low, so the nurse paged NICU to be on standby. On the second push the doctor told me to stop so he could get the cord from around the neck. On the third push she was out! I couldn't believe that was it - everything happened so fast. It was only 1 1/2 hours from the time my water was broken until Lucy was born. As soon as she was out - they had Travis cut the cord and they whisked her to the other side of the room to asses her. She let out a cry and my mommy heart burst! She was finally here and I knew everything was going to be fine. A nurse from NICU walked in but was quickly sent away as Lucy was doing fine. Then Travis got to cut the cord again and they brought her over to me. 

At least I'm not wearing a zebra print sports bra this time around!

Lucy Lynn Johnson (Lynn is Travis's middle name and Lynne is my mom's middle name!) was born at 4:37pm February 24th. She was 20.5" and weighed 7lbs 10oz. She took her time coming, but when she finally decided to come it was fast & furious!! Moments after she was born Travis sent out a text saying she was here. My mom thought he was joking with her because I had just told her my water had been broken an hour earlier. It wasn't until he sent a picture of her on the scale did she believe us!! Literally within about 15 minutes of her being born - my dinner was brought into the delivery room. I thought the timing was strange. The nurse made a comment how sick it looked and insisted she make me some peanut butter toast. I didn't exactly feel like eating. The nurse brought me ice water and toast and suggested I have something to eat to get my strength up - it was literally the best meal I ever had. Then Travis fed me that lemon meringue pie - heavenly. 

The nurse couldn't stop telling me how she couldn't believe how fast everything happened and how calm I was through the entire thing. She then told me that next time I have a baby I need to give a heads up that things happen fast! A couple stitches and a shower later, I was moved into the maternity ward. Minutes later my parents & sister showed up with Ruby. I was so nervous for her to meet Lucy! Ruby was super apprehensive and would't come over to see her. Then Travis held Lucy and convinced Ruby to come over...then she warmed up and hasn't stopped touching her since! Soon after Travis's parents and brother stopped by to see us. That night Ruby went back to my parents house, Travis went home and slept (I wouldn't let him sleep on that awful couch/chair) and I had a sleepless night at the hospital. I have a lot of respect for nurses - mainly because they do things I could never do, but I seriously had an awful experience on the maternity floor. They were filled to capacity and were just never around. I'm sure the first time moms were first priority that night, but they made me feel like they had better places to be every time they came in. I understand if they were busy, but I wish they would have just told me that! I kid you not it was after midnight, I had all the lights off and I was sleeping and a nurse came in, switched on all the lights and asked if I wanted to bathe the baby. Um...no. Thankfully I was discharged right at the 24 hour mark. (which was too bad because the nurse that discharged me seemed so great!) 

I'm actually surprised they let us go home so quickly because Lucy was down about 12% from her birth weight. The same thing happened with Ruby and we were in the hospital for 5 days. (I think they seriously just wanted my room - thats ok, I would rather recover at home) The next week was full of adjustments and visits from the health nurses. Someone came over every day to weigh Lucy. She just wasn't gaining what she should have been. It was exhausting. 

Ruby is so obsessed with Lucy. Every time she hears her she goes running to her to say "I'm here, its ok" So sweet!!!

I had a rough time breastfeeding with Ruby and I wasn't really excited about this time around but I promised I would give it more effort with Lucy. With Ruby we had to give formula right in the hospital to help her gain weight and then formula/nursed for about 4 months until one day I just stopped and that was it! This time around I was really determined for it to be better. I fed every 2 hours religiously (once she slept for 5 hours straight and the health nurse made me feel like a terrible person for letting my baby starve for that long - insert eye roll), I was also pumping after each feed PLUS I was on a medication to increase my milk supply. Lucy still wasn't gaining so I started offering a little bit of formula. Finally I made an appointment with a lactation consultant and she weighed Lucy, then I nursed and then she weighed her after. Less than half an once was transferred. That explains why she wasn't gaining weight. The nurse then told me about a condition some people have where some people just don't have sufficient milk glands. For a few days after that consult I continued nursing, pumping (I would literally get 3-4 drops), taking medication, eating oatmeal and drinking tons of water. I was getting so worked up (even though I was giving more formula and she started to gain weight) that eventually I made the decision to stop nursing. No one was benefiting and there was no point getting worked up about something my body just couldn't do. (plus it is so nice that other people are able to feed her so I can sleep or go out!!) Mom guilt is real, but I feel like I made the right choice for us. Lucy was finally up to her birth weight when she was 3 weeks old.

I just can't get over how cute they are together!!

March 19th 2017: Blessing Day

Here is a before/after of Lucy's room. The other half of the room has my desk and all of my craft stuff. 

Ruby has blown me away with how great of a big sister she is! She is always willing to offer "help" and wants to hold her 100 times a day. I know its hard for her to share the attention and she does get frustrated when I can't come to her right away if I'm feeding Lucy. She will also pretend to be a baby - maybe she thinks she'll get more attention that way!! But I wish you could see how much love this girl has for her sister. I can't wait to watch them grow and bond together. (Don't worry, I know she won't always love her and be so sweet!!)

 When Lucy was 3 days old I had the crazy idea to get newborn photos done. Looking back I'm not sure how I found the energy to get off the couch and showered but they turned out so good. I am so glad we have those pictures to look back at! (Pictures by Jillian Russell Photography - she is amazing!) 

It's been a crazy month! I am so lucky to have two adorable girls and a husband who has gone above and beyond to help and support me. I am also so grateful for all of the love and support we received after Lucy was born. I seriously didn't cook for two weeks!! I have never felt so loved and blessed (and tired).

Weeks 30-39

Here is another assortment of pictures aka my lame attempt at blogging:

I am a lucky pregnant person. For the most part my pregnancies have been pretty smooth sailing - I know a lot of people have it way worse! I have certainly been more tired this time around and have had some crazy hip/pelvic pain. Every time I say "ouch" Ruby asks me if its my hips!! Other than that, no real complaints. (Other than being crazy uncomfortable and large at the end, but everyone feels that way!!) I threw up only twice the whole time - once was from morning sickness and once was from a 24 hour flu bug. #blessed

Christmas 2016! I love Christmas and it was even more fun this year with Ruby!! She was afraid of Santa when I took her to the mall, but at our ward Christmas party? No fear!! (I was asked to decorate a "welcome" table at our party - that was cool!) We had so much fun driving around looking at Christmas lights. There are a couple pretty fantastic light displays very close to our house - so we had to check those out every night! I showed Ruby The Grinch (the Jim Carrey version) and she was hooked. I thought she might not be interested because she might be  a little young..but we watched it every. single. day. Anyways, there was a house we drove by every night that had a Whoville theme which was so great becuase Ruby had this crazy obsession with the Grinch. One night when we were driving past there were two people dressed up as the Grinch + Max. She was horrified!!
We were able to spent a lot of time with our family, eat too much food, watched Trolls on Christmas Eve at The Mill and we were all really spoiled! Last Christmas as a family of 3!!

Since the baby will be here soon, I wanted to be sure we spent lots of time with Ruby and do fun things! I know it will be hard for her to share attention, so it was important to me to appreciate the remaining time I had with just her. We shopped, went to our friend Asher's birthday party, went to movies, did crafts (with stickers...on her face...while she was suppoesed to be sleeping), went to walking club with our friend Peyton, lots of chocolate chip math, spent time at auntie Brooke's house and painted/ate snow.

Ruby has the time of her life with her daddy! We took advantage of any day off he had and went to the museum, played in the snow and even tried skating! Travis is such a good Dad who is always ready to play - which is great because I am so pregnant and tired!!

January 27th 2017: Last day of work!! I have worked for an oral surgeon doing sterilizing for just over two years. It has been such a great place to work (for the most part, but I mean, who loves their job 100% of the time?!) I will miss my office and my work. I was glad I worked as long as I did, but I was starting to get slow and uncomfortable - also none of my scrub tops fit anymore!! I was spoiled with balloons, pizza and some gift cards on my last day. It is such a bittersweet feeling being done work - sad to be done, but excited that baby is coming soon! (I cried the entire way home that day - hormones are weird)

All I wanted for Christmas was new kitchen back splash. I was so happy to see a box of white subway tiles sitting under the Christmas tree! The tiles in my kitchen before were ugly, square and brown. Plus half of them didn't even have grout between them. The white totally changed the whole vibe of the kitchen. So much brighter and modern! Thank heavens for that handy husband of mine!

We took in the live nativity as a family. It was freezing and windy but Ruby loved seeing the donkey! I drove solo in Calgary for the first time in my life when my mom needed a ride to the Calgary airport and I was the only one available! Naturally Ruby and I stopped for a gourmet lunch at Ikea. Ruby had (what I thought) was some eczema that wouldn't go away, so I took her into the doctor to hopefully get a prescription creme to help. The doctor had a look at it and told us it was SHINGLES. What?? Apparently kids can get shingles when they haven't had the chicken pox - super rare but it can happen. The doctor told us there was nothing really at this point we could do as he thought it was just about passed and to just follow up in a few weeks. Then over Christmas we were around cousins who had hand/foot/mouth and I was paranoid she had caught it when I noticed a few little blisters between her toes. Back to the doctor we went and we ended up seeing a different doctor who checked out the blisters and we also had her check out her Shingles. She told us that she was pretty sure it wasn't hand/foot/mouth or Shingles but didn't know what either thing could be...great. So a week went by and nothing was getting better so we went back to the doctor (a different doctor). He was pretty sure the shingles were just eczema and that the blisters between her toes were from her wearing slippers to bed and having sweaty feet. So that was a fun and confusing few weeks. I'm still not sure if she had shingles or not...
Ruby also had her first trip to the dentist! She did so great! (probably due to the fact she was able to watch Paw Patrol the while time...)

This feels like a super long post. Hang in there...I'm almost done!!

In January we had another Johnson cousin born! (#13 I think...there are so many babies and it seems like someone is always pregnant!!) Ruby was so tender with baby Ivy and would only whisper around her - it was so precious! My mommy heart burst seeing her act so sweet with a new baby! She is going to be such a fantastic sister. Ruby loves her auntie Brooke so much and she loves helping people blow out birthday candles even more!! I found Ruby an Edmonton Oilers shirt so she could match with Travis. They have a lot of fun watching together. She wears that shirt at least once a week - I better make sure I find one in the next size up!! Ruby has been a hoot prepping for the baby. She loves to climb in the car seat, look at the tiny diapers and then crawl in the crib and pretend to cry. Oh and she like to test out all the soothers. Oh boy.

Ruby turns THREE!! I had a lot of mixed feelings as Ruby's birthday approached - mainly because I was due on her birthday and I was seriously worried about having two kids on one day. I didn't really want to do a birthday party for her because I was so pregnant and tired, but she had been insisting for weeks that we were going to have a party at Grandmas work and have pizza. This girl has a crazy good memory, she never forgets anything - its actually kind of scary. So we invited some friends and cousins, watched Trolls, ate pizza and had cake a few weeks before her actual birthday. She was in heaven!! She was pretty adamant about having carrot cake and a rainbow fish Snuggie Tail for her birthday...so Grandpa came through and bought her a carrot cake (it had to have little carrots on it - she was very specific. Also, she has literally never had carrot cake before.) and the Snuggie Tail - if you don't know what that is, go watch the commercial on Youtube. So ridiculous.

We also got to play with my cousin's Yorkies on her birthday - best day ever!! 

It is so hard to believe I am a mom to a three year old. She is so sassy, smart, funny and loving. I love her so much and I can't wait to continue to watch her learn and grow. (and become a big sister!!)

Week 22-29

I am so disappointed how awful I have done recording this pregnancy. When I was pregnant with Ruby I kept a very detailed journal and was very diligent about taking a weekly picture. This time around? Not so much. I keep joking with Travis that the next one will be lucky if there is even one chalkboard picture!! Life just gets so busy. (Especially while growing a human, being a mom to a crazy 2 year old, working and everyday life!) But I did manage to find time to re paint my chalkboard  white! Unfortunately when I did my pregnancy announcement I put vinyl on the chalkboard surface and it totally wrecked it. I need to replace it, but I need to find time! I have been feeling really good, just really tired and really sore hips!

We (Travis) started some renos! We have three bedrooms in our place but the room we have been using as our office had no closet, gross carpet and a terrible paint job. So we (travis) moved everything out of that room, ripped up the old carpet (I wish I had gotten a picture of it, but just think blue and stained!!) and Travis framed in a closet so it could officially be a bedroom. (I think I will keep that handy guy around!) Travis also made a closet in the hallway (an extension from the new framed closet) for extra storage - you can never have too much storage! (Maybe I just have too much crap...) After pictures to come in a later post!

Mom of the year! I was making lunch, turned around for one second and Ruby had touch the hot burner. The picture is hard to see but her hand was covered in big blisters. She cried, I cried. It was pretty sad. She was in a lot of pain, but with some cream & cool cloths she felt better and insisted on making pancakes the next morning. She is such a trooper. The picture on the far right is right after we got our flu shots. She didn't even flinch when she got the shot, but as soon as she noticed the sticker the nurse gave her fell off? Meltdown. Oh to be a toddler. 

Eating snow, passing swim class (she is a fish & loves the water) and her first experience with a dipped cone. 

Halloween 2016! I love Halloween, but this year I didn't give it a whole lot of thought. I spent most of my time and energy prepping for our cruise earlier in the month, plus working, plus being pregnant - I was exhausted. These were very last minute costumes! Ruby told me she wanted to be Belle and Rapunzel for Halloween...so why not?? Grandma had both of the dresses at her house so all I had to do was find a flower and a frying pan. She was in heaven and there was a trail of glitter for months after. We weren't even going to dress up - but then we were invited to a Halloween party. I spent many late night searching Pinterest for good pregnancy Halloween costumes. I saw the Cast Away one on a few different lists but didn't give it much thought - until I saw some Fedex packaging in the garbage at work the next day. Ta-dah! Procrastination at its finest. Nothing could ever top our costume when I was pregnant with Ruby: 

Milkman & Housewife 2013
I literally have the same glasses & hair color - a new record!

Going to see Santa at the mall is a tradition I will never skip! This year Ruby was pretty good until we walked up and then she was pretty scared. But I finally convinced her to sit and then she asked him for an Elsa doll in a Red present...funny because at this point she had never mentioned this and Santa was already done shopping! I love this year's Santa picture because I just see pure fear in her eyes. 

It's hard to find time these days to complete projects, but I did manage to find some time to make a few Christmas signs (while I binge watched The Crown...twice) and then slapped some vinyl on a broken picture frame. One day I will have more time to make crafts. (Hit me up if you ever need anything made!!)