Cooper is 4 weeks old

Well, I've been slacking on writing on this blog, but here we are and I'm back at least for today. Cooper is now 4 weeks and 2 days old! I cannot believe my little man is 4 weeks old already! He is growing like a weed!

We went to the doctor 2 days after we got out of the hospital and he weighed the exact same as when we left the hospital at 6 lbs 10 oz. Then we went back one week later and Cooper had gained 13 oz weighing in at 7 lbs 7 oz. He had eaten very well! We go back this week on Thursday for his one month check up - I think we'll find that he's gained a few pounds. We are now out of newborn diapers, he is too big for them now!

Tim was off for two weeks and we had a great time visiting with all kinds of family and friends, it was wonderful. The past couple of weeks it has mostly just been Cooper and me at home, and that's been pretty good too. Stephanie and Andrew are home when not at school, work or other activities and they are loving playing with their little brother. "Playing" consists of holding him, but as time goes on he'll be more playful for real.
When Cooper was 10 days old we took him to get his "newborn" pictures taken at JCPenney, and they turned out so good, he was sleeping and he's hard to wake up, so we only have a couple of shots with his eyes open, but that's ok, he was adorable anyway!

Speaking of sleeping..... We've had a rough time with Cooper having his days and nights mixed up, until this past Friday night. He has actually started sleeping much better at night lately, I am so thankful for that too, because I was getting really really worn out and spending most of the daytime doing nothing but sitting around. If dinner was prepared it was amazing!
This weekend we are going to go down south for the weekend for my Dad's birthday celebration. We'll also visit with Nana and Cooper's Grandma Heil, but Saturday will be reserved for Papaw Smith and Grandpa Smith and Uncle Craig, Aunt Casey and Cousins Larissa and Layne.

Cooper Pictures

Here are a few pictures of my little man!

Cooper before his first walk around the neighborhood.


Smiling while asleep. :)

Touchdown!

His favorite sleeping position, on his tummy.

Hanging out at the doctor's office (1 week visit)

Cooper is born!!!

Cooper James Johnson was born on October 3rd, 2009. He came into this world at 10:13pm, weighing in at 6lbs, 14oz. He was 20.5 inches long.



He is an adorable baby, but then again, I'm pretty biased! Here is a link to some photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=112154&id=563493308&l=4f1ec9ef50



The induction process took a long time yesterday, we started at 7am, arriving at the hospital and starting the monitoring of baby before the pitocin could start.



Once the pitocin started, we were progressing slowly and so the doctor decided to break my water at 11:55am.



I was finally ready to start pushing at 7:40 and we (Tim, my wonderful nurse Melissa & doctor) pushed until just about 9:30 pm when Cooper's heart rate started dropping. They had me take an oxygen mask and this got his heart rate up, this happened 3 times, and finally we weren't progressing enough and the doctor decided she didn't want his heart rate dropping anymore. So at 10, we start the vaccuum delivery process. I pushed 3 more times and my baby boy was born!



We didn't move from the labor/delivery/recovery room until almost 2am. When we finally got our room service delivered and got Cooper fed one last time, it was 4am before we got to bed. We were at 22.5 hours without sleep. I'm not sure how I ever stayed up such long hours when I was a kid. Crazy!



We had many visitors yesterday and today. Many people love this young man, and we are thankful to have such great friends and family! God is good!!



We still haven't gotten much sleep, only about 3 hours since yesterday morning at 5:30, so we hope tonight will be much much better and that we get some good rest. We should be going home on Tuesday morning bright and early.

38 weeks

Week 38!

We go into the hospital on Saturday to start the induction process – that is if the little one hasn’t arrived by then on his own!
This week has progressed pretty slowly for me; I guess because it’s like waiting for Christmas day as a kid, time goes so slowly up to the big event.
We accomplished quite a bit around the house last weekend. Lots of grocery shopping and getting things ready for Cooper to come home with us. We did some cooking to put things in the freezer so that we’d be ready for his arrival.
Tuesday, I went to the doctor and found out that I was 3 cm dilated and 70% effaced, so I do not have to go to the hospital on Friday night as originally planned. My body has naturally taken care of the cervix preparation that would have happened on Friday night. I am to arrive at the hospital by 7 a.m. on Saturday!
The rest of this week was busy at work getting ready for being gone for 12 weeks – also getting the month end process completed – that is always a fun process.
I am ready, SO ready for him to be here. I am hoping and praying for an easy labor and delivery, I have nothing to compare this to – only words and advice from other mothers. I cannot wait to meet our baby boy. Tim cannot wait either. My emotions are in high gear, I am so excited and nervous about being a good mommy. I just want everything to be ok for Cooper. I want him to have a good life and I hope that I can provide that for him.
Cooper James – you are so loved already – I cannot wait for you to arrive and meet so many people who love and care about you! I hope someday you know how lucky you are to have such a great group of people, family and friends who care about you and love you!

37 Weeks! Full Term!

37 Weeks! Cooper is now 37 weeks old - and he's full term! YEA we made it this far! :)

Last weekend, we didn't do much. We did some major relaxing and it was much needed! Friday night was Stephanie's birthday and we went to Olive Garden with a couple of her friends and it was fun! Saturday and Sunday we slept in pretty late and did some cleaning and grocery shopping, but it was a wonderfully relaxing weekend!

Andrew had county tournament on Tuesday and Wednesday after school, his team won against Speedway on Tuesday and then lost yesterday against Park Tudor. They play again on Saturday, just a regular match, against Ben Davis.

Stephanie has been really busy this week, not home many evenings. She's got lots going on these days! Busy busy girl!

On Tuesday when I saw the doctor, I had the non-stress test on Cooper and he was such a good boy, kicking when he needed to and gave the nurse a good baseline heart beat, which he hadn't done in awhile. The doctor checked me and I found out that I am two cm dialated and so we could possibly go any time, but we hope that Cooper stays in there until next Friday night.

Today the wonderful people that I work with took me out to lunch. We went to Bravo! (my favorite restaurant) for lunch, and they gave me gifts! I cannot wait for Cooper to meet these fine, fine people!

Tim had a DR test today, and I guess it went pretty well, because he was back home before I made it home for this night. He usually stays at DR very late and today he was home early! That's great!

Tomorrow I will go back to the doctor for another non stress test. The rest of the weekend we'll see what happens, I hope we do a bit of cooking and cleaning, but other than that, who knows. It is our last weekend without a little baby around. I'm SO EXCITED for my baby boy to arrive! LIFE IS WONDERFUL!!! Little Cooper James, I love you already and cannot wait to hold you in my arms! :)

36 Weeks

Well, we’ve hit 36 weeks! Only one more week until Cooper is “full term” and two more weeks until we go into the hospital! I will be going into the hospital on the evening of October 2nd, and will be induced on October 3rd.

Last weekend was fun! Erica threw me a baby shower at her house for all of my close friends, I had a great time and hope they all did too! I am such a lucky girl to have such great friends, I wish that everyone could have made it, but for those who did, THANK YOU! We received many goodies from folks at the shower; I’ve got some pictures below.

This week has been pretty good, not a ton going on more than usual. Tim and I met with a potential baby-sitter on Tuesday night, we liked her and we may go with her but hope to do a bit of shopping around before we make our final decision. Wednesday night we made a trip to Sam’s club to pick up a ton of diapers, wipes and a few other things that we needed.

Tonight we are going to a consignment sale at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds; it is called the Indy Kids Consignment Sale. We get to go tonight because we are expecting a baby and they gave us a pass, so exciting! I hope we find several things at good prices!

Andrew has had tennis matches on Tuesday and also one tonight, he won on Tuesday, but the team didn’t. I hope he wins tonight too! GOOD LUCK CHUCK! Stephanie has been pretty busy this week, she had a funny dream about Cooper growing up really fast last night; I hope he doesn’t grow up that fast!

I guess that’s it for this week, Steph’s 20th birthday is tomorrow so we’re all going out to Olive Garden to celebrate! HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHANIE!!!

Week 35!!

So this week has been more than eventful, some good and some scary!

Last Friday started it all; I had an ultrasound in addition to my normal non stress test, which tests for how many kicks and movements Cooper does in a certain period of time. The ultrasound went fine as far as I knew, until Tuesday, but we’ll get there in a little bit. The ultrasound technician wanted to make sure before I left that a doctor had reviewed the results, so she reviewed them with one of the doctors and I was able to leave and go to work. The rest of the story comes later.

I learned on Friday night that my cousin Erica had been induced and had her baby Evy! My grandma called to tell me, so 4 babies down, Cooper is all that is left!

Saturday was my family baby shower in Henryville at Grandma’s church. It was lovely! Most everyone attended, Stephanie and Erica rode down with me and we helped decorate as best we can, but I tell you, my mom was on top of it, she and my grandma and brother had about everything done when we arrived an hour early! My mom, she is an amazing lady, spoils me rotten even now. The shower was just great. I had a good time and I hope that everyone else did too. It was so great to see all of the babies, well, minus Evy who was still in the hospital of course! It was my first time to meet Mr. Oliver Matthew Ramsey (my cousin Abby’s baby) and boy was he cute. Finn and Layne were cute as usual; those boys have the funniest faces!! There are a couple of pictures from the shower below. Everyone was so generous at the shower; we got so many nice gifts to help us out with our little man! J Cooper is so fortunate to have such a wonderful family!!!

Sunday came and we were all pretty pooped and pretty much just took the day off. We didn’t leave the house, didn’t even make it to church. We are BAD!!! But it was nice to spend the day relaxing at home. I did laundry and washed all of Cooper’s stuff, getting it ready to put his room together the next day.

Monday was the day we put Cooper’s room together! There are a couple of pictures below, we’ve got everything in his room except for two small tables, both will hold one of the lamps that I repainted, one will also have the baby monitor on it. Other than those though, the room is all setup. I think it looks pretty great in there and I cannot wait to bring him home!!

Tuesday is when the drama starts….. I had my normal Tuesday morning NST (non stress test), and I was supposed to meet with a new different doctor that day as well. So, I arrived for the NST alone, as usually Tim doesn’t go with me to these because these visits are so routine and this way he doesn’t have to miss as much work. Well he was running late so he decided to stop by and meet the new doctor. When he arrived, I was still waiting in the waiting room and I was thrilled to see him. I have learned that going to the doctor the day after a holiday isn’t a great idea, lots of waiting!

Anyway, I had my NST, and Cooper was a busy busy man. He didn’t stop kicking and moving around in the 25+ minutes that we were in for the test. They couldn’t even get a baseline heart rate for the little guy…. Finally they decided that he wasn’t going to calm down and they let me get up and so we headed over to visit with the doctor. The doctor came in after a long wait and told us that I had low amniotic fluid. He seemed very concerned about this and said that there were many options for what we could do, but that he thought that Cooper would come earlier than 38 weeks. This was hard news to hear, I held off the crying until after we left the office, but I was very emotional and cried nearly the entire way to work. Tim decided to leave our expedition at the office and drive me to work because I wasn’t going to be fit enough to drive myself. We scheduled another ultrasound and doctor visit and did that on Wednesday.

Wednesday during our ultrasound, Praise God, there was an excellent amount of fluid. I had a different technician doing the ultrasound this time, and she seemed concerned that she wasn’t finding the same results as the other tech, but she seemed pleased that I had plenty of fluid. When we met with the doctor, he said he was thrilled with the results and didn’t think we had anything to worry about. We are scheduled for another ultrasound next week, just to make sure that everything is ok, but we are also being scheduled to enter the hospital on October 2^nd for preparation for induction which should happen on Saturday morning October 3^rd. Cooper should arrive sometime later that day!

Today was uneventful, thank goodness. It has been a busy week, and I’m so thankful that today was calm! I needed it. Tomorrow I go in for another NST, Saturday is my baby shower at Erica’s house for my Indianapolis friends. It should be fun!

3 weeks & 1 day before we go into the hospital!!!

Week 34!

Week 34! Cooper will arrive in 4-5 weeks! Wow! It won’t be long now! Since I started the twice weekly appointments last week, I’ve had one and the doctor visit and then I have my second Friday along with another ultrasound to measure Cooper’s growth. Tuesday’s appointment was pretty low key – I had the baby monitoring for 15 minutes or so, which is pretty relaxing and cool to see his heart rate fluctuate and to know that he is doing well and kicking so much even with an audience! J The doctor thinks that he’s doing wonderful. I saw Dr. Gates this week, he is a super cool doctor, says that Cooper is measuring really well as far as growth, but is glad we’re doing another ultrasound on Friday just to make sure all is well.

Sleep has become harder this week - I didn't sleep well on Tuesday night or Wednesday night - was sick on Sunday night - so I'm really hoping that I can get a good night's rest tonight! I'm exhausted and being this tired doesn't bode well for working all day long! I'm so glad we do not have many activities tonight - dinner and picking up around the house is probably all I'll do!

Last Friday’s appointment for the baby monitoring went well too, we were in and out quickly – Cooper is a good kicker! I see soccer in his future! (Even if his daddy opposes =] )

Saturday my Dad came up and he and Tim did a lot of trim work around the house – Erica came over and she and I painted the dresser for Cooper’s room and also assembled a side table to sit beside the rocking chair. Erica got a coat of paint on that as well. That morning I went down to the south side of town to buy the breast pump from my friend Shannon (Thanks Shan!) and visited with her and Jackson for a little while. That boy is such a cutie, and a squirmy one too! Then I went to Andrew’s tennis tourney to check in on him, back home to go and fetch supplies for Dad and Tim, as well as get everyone lunch. I came home to eat then to Andrew’s second match. It was a super super busy day that day! Dad stayed until around 10pm and we finally made him make his trek home for the night!


Sunday Tim and I went to church and when we arrived home, it was to a crowd of neighbors and family and friends to surprise me with a baby shower! Stephanie put the entire thing together, she’s such a sweetheart! We had a great time visiting with everyone and are so thankful to have such great people surrounding us! The remainder of Sunday was spent doing very little except laundry. We were just pooped!


Monday we did our running around town, grocery shopping, haircuts, dropping my ring off at the jewelers for re-dipping and polishing to make it look brand new for when it fits me again! It was a busy night!


Tuesday night Andrew had a tennis match at Lawrence Central, Tim made it for some of the match and I headed home to get dinner going.


Wednesday night was our last child birthing class, so we “graduated” from that and we are glad to have our Wednesday nights free again!

Thursday – Today Andrew goes to Bloomington for another tennis match and that should be a late night for him. Good luck!

Tomorrow is the ultrasound and baby monitoring, Saturday I have my family baby shower and then hopefully some relaxation on Sunday! Busy Busy Busy! Have a great weekend and upcoming week everyone!!!

Week 33!

Cooper was growing and kicking more as we got closer to week 33! He is growing and so am I! My belly button is beginning to pop out more and more, the turkey is getting closer to being done!

This past weekend, we spent Saturday being lazy for the morning, sleeping in until nearly noon! Then we went to get some lunch and spent the rest of the day working on lamps for Cooper’s room and working on fixing up a chest of drawers that we’ll use now for his dresser/changing table.

Sunday we spent with my dad – he came up to help out to visit and to help with some things around the house – cutting Stephanie’s and Cooper’s doors and closet doors down so that they would shut with the new plush carpet! He also helped us replace some outlets and with a few other things Tim had going on, including trying to figure out why our outlet on the back deck wasn’t working. All in all, it was a super nice weekend!

The week was full as usual.

Tuesday morning I had my first non-stress test to measure how active Cooper was – he was VERY active that day, lots of kicking and variability in his heart rate, which is what they hope for, but usually do not see in babies only 32-33 weeks old. The doctor wants me to have another ultrasound next week, so that will be on Friday September 4th. Tuesday evening Andrew had a tennis match, so we went there after work.

Wednesday was the third child birthing class and the tour of the hospital. We really liked St. Vincent’s hospital and I’m glad we will be having Cooper there! It is really nice!

Thursday was a super busy day at work for me, and then Andrew had another tennis match so we got to watch him play again!

Tomorrow I have another non-stress test, those will be twice weekly – Tuesdays and Fridays, with me seeing the doctor on one of those visits….. Super busy week as usual, I’m sure next week will be just as busy!

Below is a picture of the lamps that we worked on for Cooper's room!

Week 32 & Cooper's Room

Another week! 32 down, only 6-7 more to go!! I am growing like a weed; it is getting more difficult to sleep for very long on one side. I feel like a rotisserie chicken – constantly turning over during the night. That along with having to get up to pee so often makes a person pretty tired in the morning!

I had my A1C test done on Monday and it turned out good, it was 5.8 which is down a tenth of a point from last month’s test and my doctor seems to be happy with how I am doing. Finding food to eat for breakfast is becoming more and more difficult, my insulin to carb ratio is pretty low at this point, one unit of insulin to every 3 carbs that I eat. So I try to stick with lower carb foods, which is kind of difficult because I don’t want eggs and bacon – so I mostly end up eating low sugar oatmeal. It’s not too bad.

Cooper is pretty active these days, he’s kicking and moving around all of the time that I’m sitting, and this past week he’s been really good at finding one place and pushing on me pretty hard. So I in turn push back on him, and it is a neat feeling, I don’t know what part of him that I am feeling, but it’s neat to feel his body through my skin. Weird, but neat!

You can see from the pictures below that we finished up all of the painting in Cooper’s room!
We had quite a crowd over on Saturday August 15th to help us, and we are so excited about how well it turned out! Bobbie Bowser, My Mom, Shawn, Erica and Tim and I were all in that room for a majority of the day painting those monkeys and trees! WE LOVE THE ROOM!!!

Andrew worked all day on Saturday after his scrimmage tennis match and Stephanie went to help her friend Lauren move into her apartment at Ball State.

On Sunday, Erica came over and helped paint some more, and Stephanie also helped a ton with the trees! Monday night I painted his name on the wall and the closet so that we could have all of the painting done before the carpet was to be installed on Tuesday morning. Sunday was a big work day around the Johnson household… Tim and Andrew ripped up the existing carpet, took out all of the nails and were general handy-men! Then Andrew mowed the grass, such a hard worker! Stephanie worked hard too she painted a table that Tim had up in the garage and that she is now using as a bedside table. It looks really good!

Tuesday the carpet came and boy is it nice! It is so cushy and plush! IT’S WONDERFUL! The only thing about it is that it is much thicker than the carpet we previously had and so Tim is going to have to trim Stephanie’s and Cooper’s closet doors and also their bedroom doors so that they will shut!

Wednesday night we had our second child birthing class – only two more left. Next week we get to tour the hospital, which should be fun!!

Andrew has his first tennis match of the season in Lebanon today, wish him good luck!

Week 31

We've made it to week 31! Cooper will be here between weeks 38-39, so not too much longer!
I apologize for not posting last week, it has been a busy time in the Johnson household getting ready for school to start, working on the house and especially in Cooper's room.

We've done quite a bit in there, ripped out carpet, primed everything, painted the ceiling, painted the walls, traced up the trees, grass, vines and monkeys and started painting in some of the tracings.

Thanks so much to Shannon & John for getting us the overhead projector!

A picture of Cooper's room in progress is below - this picture was as of Tuesday August 11th.

This week we have been busy bees and expect that to continue through the weekend.

We started off the week on Sunday with a trip down south for my cousin Erica's baby shower. This was a couples shower, so Tim and I went down for that. We arrived early to eat lunch with my dad, we went to Cheddar's! YUM! Then we arrived at the shower and had a great time visiting with family in the 90+ degree heat and humidity! It was great to see everyone and espcially great to see the new babies, Layne and Finn!

Monday night was our only "free" night we spent that painting in Cooper's room.

Tuesday - Tim went to Andrew's fall sports meeting, I stayed home to paint some more.

Wednesday - we had our first child birthing class.

Thursday we are leaving early from work to spend the afternoon/evening at the Indiana State Fair. It should be a good time.

Andrew started school on Tuesday the 11th, Steph is enjoying her last few weeks as a free bird until school starts in late August.

This weekend we are having a few people over to help paint in Cooper's room, Mom and Shawn, and maybe Bobbie and Erica. It will be such a great help for us! We are having our new carpet installed on Tuesday the 18th, so we'd like to have all of the painting done before that happes!

That's it for this week, thanks for reading!

30 weeks & Cooper's Room (in progress)

Never got to post anything for this week, will make sure to not miss another week!

29 weeks!

Well, we've made it to 29 weeks!

Last Saturday, John, Shannon, Jackson, Joni and Erica came over for dinner, we made Shannon's famous pizza on the grill! I thought it was pretty good, however, I doubt that with as long as it takes we'll ever make it because we are too hungry to wait that long!! =) It was good to visit with all of them. Jackson is such a cutie! He slept almost the entire time they were over.

Sunday was running some errands and working a little bit in Cooper's room.

Monday I had another ultrasound, turns out Cooper is measuring a few days early, but nothing to worry about. We found out that we'll probably schedule his arrival anytime between weeks 38-39, which means anytime after October 1.

Tuesday, Andrew had his wisdom teeth taken out, he is still puffy a bit, but recovered nicely :)

Wednesday night, Tim and I attended our breastfeeding class, that was something! Fox 59 came in and taped our class for a little bit, we were on the news for a split second.

That's about it for this week, read more next week, less than 10 weeks to go before Cooper arrives!

Week 28!

I had so much written and then the program timed out!! UGH!

This week was more of the same as previous weeks... Work, sleep, work around the house, a couple of nights off here and there.

Saturday night my friend from school Rachel and her man Dan came over for dinner, it was nice to meet him and visit with the two of them.

Andrew went on Tuesday to the oral surgeon to see when he could get his wisdom teeth out and that will happen on July 28th.

Think that is about it for this week, will post more next week.

Week 27

We've made it to week 27! 13 scheduled weeks left if we can make it that long! This week like all others has been crazy - not much housework going on this week so far.....

Monday night we got our quote for carpet from Home Depot, then picked up the kids and went to eat at O'Charley's. That was it for the night.

Tuesday night - late - Tim & Andrew went to see the latest Harry Potter, so they arrived at the movie theater around 10:15pm and were gone until 3am!! The movie started at midnight - but before that - Tim and I had to stop by Walmart after work to get him a new cell phone, he had dropped his phone in a glass of Crystal Light and it was toast. So we did that, got home, got dinner made and cleaned up, I did a couple of loads of laundry and that was about all for that night.

Wednesday night - Tim & Andrew went golfing with a couple of other guys, Erica and I went to Target, Hot Box Pizza and then to watch the State Fair rehearsal for clogging. After that, I headed home, folded some laundry and watched some tv with Steph.

Thursday - Tim & I both had eye doctor appointments. My eyes were in good shape and hadn't changed prescriptions, Tim's eyes had changed. We then ran a couple of errands and are now home. I'll make dinner soon and then we'll eat and watch some more tv.

Hopefully tomorrow night and Saturday we will get some work done around the house, we are on the count down and Tim would like to be done by September 15th! Lofty goal, but I know he can do it if he sets his mind to it.

News...

We found out this morning that Cooper will be joining us sometime between weeks 38-39 depending on how we are both doing, that is if he doesn't come on his own before that time. We hadn't been told anything like this up to this point, so we were a bit surprised. The full 40 week due date was October 15th, but week 38 starts on October 1 and week 39 starts on October 8th, so we hope he can make it until at least October 1.

I go back to the OB for another ultrasound on July 27th - to check his growth and get some new pictures and measurements. I'll be 28 weeks 4 days at the time of this ultrasound.
I will be going to the doctor every 2 weeks from now on until we start the weekly doc appointments and bi-weekly movement monitoring sessions! This baby/diabetic stuff is high maintenance, but I will do whatever I need to to keep Cooper healthy!!
In other news, had a great and busy weekend, visiting with family, seeing Grandpa for his birthday and Abby and the rest of the babies and prego girls for Abby's shower. Pictures of the shower are below.

Grandma, Mom, Me & Cooper

Casey & Layne, Sherry & Finn, Abby & Oliver, Erica & Evie, Emily & Cooper

Sherry & Finn

Casey & Layne

Casey & Layne, Sherry & Finn, Abby & Oliver, Erica & Evie, Emily & Cooper