{andersen's birth}

Wow it's been awhile since I've written on our blog. I have a lot of catch up to do! Let's start with the newest addition to our little family. Andersen Robert Johnson was born Friday, June 22nd at 9:25 am at the Utah Valley Regional Hospital here in Provo, UT. The whole thing was a crazy blur but I'll write as much as I can remember...

My contractions started Thursday morning. They were close together but not really intense so I decided to go to work instead of going stir crazy at home. Garett dropped me off and went to help out his uncle five minutes away just in case I needed a quick pick up. I sent an email to my bosses letting them know what was going on. They immediately came out and asked if I was insane. But I reassured them that I was fine and that Garett was only five minutes away. They just laughed and kept a close eye on me. I got through my entire shift just fine and went home. By the time I got home my contractions started slowing down. I was not happy about that because I wanted this baby to come now! So I convinced Garett to take me to the gym. Crazy I know but I had read that exercising could speed things up. And it did indeed...

After the gym my contractions definitely sped up! Thank goodness. We headed to the hospital around midnight. When we got there it was a ghost town. I think I was the only one in the maternity ward. It was awesome. Our room was pretty sweet too. It was huge! We had a flat screen TV and a jetted tub. Utah knows how to treat the laboring mother.

Yeah, I was pretty wide!

Before I knew the pain of child birth!

My plan was to have no epidural. I wanted to be able to walk around and move, plus the idea of a catheter....not pleasing to me. Another reason was pride. Haha. Those who know me know that I am competitive by nature. That being said, I had people tell me that they didn't think I could do a natural birth or that the idea was crazy. Naturally I had to prove them all wrong. To prepare for this supposedly insane quest I read up on the Bradley Method. I'd highly recommend it. I'm not a hippie or anything, which is the label most get when they talk about natural child birth; I just wanted to prove I could do something hard. And holy flip it was hard.

Glad someone was able to sleep!

I spent the night walking around the ward, watching movies and waiting. Garett spent it sleeping : ) Which is good because I needed him awake for the hard part. My mom got there around 1 AM. It was awesome to have her there too. The contractions started to become more than unpleasant around 2 AM. Between checks with the fetal monitor I took a hot bath in the jetted tub. Boy was that nice. Loved it!

My water broke around 7:30 AM Friday morning and it brought the PAIN! The methods I read up on and practiced helped so much but it was still beyond anything I imagined. But I HAD to do it! About a half hour later the nurse was doing a check and looked pretty worried. She told me that the umbilical cord was starting to come out and that if it did I would deliver the placenta before the baby. To prevent that I would need to get an emergency c-section. This freaked me out. I DID NOT want a c-section; but if it meant keeping Anders safe I would do it. The nurse (who was the most amazing nurse ever in my opinion) said she would try something. She pushed the umbilical cord back up and tried to pull the baby down because he was just floating around up there. It worked! She was my new favorite person right then.

Shortly after that I was fully dilated and was told to begin pushing. My doctor (Dr. Anderson coincidentally) showed up and 45 minutes later Garett cut the cord and I had Anders in my arms. I was so in shock I keep saying "Oh my gosh" over and over for a minute or so. I had a runner's high, you know that feeling after a hard workout or run where endorphins are being released like crazy. It was amazing seeing this little infant in our arms at last and he was so perfect. His little face was adorable. I was on cloud nine.

I'm one hot mess here!

Admiring him!

Complete shock!      

Andersen weighed 7 lb 13 oz and was 19.5 inches long. He had to spend about a week in the NICU due to some under developed lungs and a few other minor issues. It was hard seeing our little man under so many wires and monitors. He was such a trooper. All the nurses loved him and were great. It was really an awesome experience and we feel so blessed to have Andersen in our lives.

First day home!

Anders with Grandma and Grandpa Plumb

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