{camden's birth story}

This week has been a whirlwind of awesomeness. It has all gone by so fast I figure I better sit down now and write it all down before I forget anything. 

Camden Gunner Johnson was born Tuesday, May 5th at 6:35pm. I have to say the laboring process and everything after was really different than Andersen's. I couldn't really compare them. Read Anders' birth story here.

My due date was May 15th. Contractions started Saturday morning, May 2nd, the day of my baby shower. Before I ran out the door to my baby shower I threw together my hospital bag because I figured with Anders I had him a little less than 24 hours after my contractions started. Not so with Camden. All day Saturday and Sunday I had sporadic contractions. So I chalked them up to Braxton Hicks and kind of resigned myself to thinking this was just my body getting ready for my due date. 

Though secretly, I still hoped that he would come Monday, May 4th.....Star Wars Day. (May the Fouth Be With You...heehee.) I am a huge Star Wars fan. But again, all day Monday, I just had little cramps and for hours at a time felt nothing at all. I even went to the gym and hopped on the stair stepper hoping that I could get things rolling. No luck. Midnight rolled around and I was a little sad my little guy's birthday wouldn't be Star Wars Day.

Tuesday morning I noticed the contractions were happening a little more frequently than Monday. But still not reliably enough to time them or anything. Around noon they were timing worthy and were soon about 4 minutes apart but only 20-30 seconds long and not terribly painful. So I kept working on orders that I had to ship out that day. When Garett got home from school around 3 pm the contractions were becoming more intense but still not terrible. We worked on orders and around 4:30 pm the contractions were only 2 minutes apart. 

I figured I should call my doctor and let them know and see if I should head to the hospital. They said go. I hopped in the shower (because I was super sweaty from working the heat press; that thing is a workout!), shaved, washed my hair that I hadn't washed in 3 days and just relaxed as best I could. Garett was loading up the car and secretly freaking out. We weren't mentally prepared yet; we thought we still had almost 2 weeks! Anders only came 2 days early.

While Garett was doing his thing I figured I could straighten my hair. So I started that and Garett came back to the bathroom with an expression on his face that basically said "Woman! Ain't nobody got time for that!". With him coaxing me to hurry it along I rapidly finished and got dressed. I found my checklist and started ticking through the items, yelling random things at Garett so he'd grab them. Then we made sure Anders had everything he needed and that my cousin Tony, who was watching him, had everything he needed too. 

By the time we left around 5:50ish, the contractions were definitely stronger and more intense. Since my water hadn't broken yet Garett was kind enough to lay out a towel and garbage bag on the seat so I wouldn't soil our new car. It was pretty dignifying sitting there like a potty training toddler. 

Thankfully we live literally 4 minutes from the hospital. Garett dropped me off at the door and he went to park the car. I wandered into the hospital to the front desk, asked where I was suppose to go and waited for Garett. We went up and got to our room and I got into the sexy hospital gown and waited to be "inspected". The nurse came in and explained that if I was under 4 cm dilated that they would keep me for an hour and see if I progressed and if I didn't that I could go home. She "inspected" me and said that we were definitely staying because I was 8 cm dilated and she sent someone to call my doctor immediately. This was at about 6:05ish. 

Around 6:15 I could feel that trickling sensation of my water breaking. It was really slow and not a whole lot of fluid. But the contractions now required all my focus and breathing abilities. About 6:25 Dr. Andersen walked in! He's in Payson, UT so he drove about 19-20 miles in less than 20 minutes! Don't worry, we had a discussion about his speeding later : )

As soon as he was in the room and asking if he had time to change I said that I felt the baby shift down and the urge to push was coming. He checked me and I was fully dilated. He broke my water the rest of the way and I positioned myself into the stirrups. It was about to go down.

Garett grabbed my hand as I said I had to push. I don't remember if we waited for a contraction to come but I pushed. And stopped when he apparently was at his widest. Yeah not an ideal place to stop. I was torn between waiting for a contraction (honestly I wanted a chance to catch my breath) or just to give it one more big push to end the burning pressure down there. I think I caught a breath and pushed. Out was his head. I looked down as saw it. It was truly amazing. I wasn't in the pain I was 2 seconds before so I was mentally there and calm and was able to take in what I was seeing. Then they said one more push to get the rest of him out! I took a breath and pushed that guy out. It was over before I think I realized it had begun. 

I wasn't in shock like I was with Anders. I was fully aware and again, because I don't know how else to explain it, mentally there experiencing it like any other moment I would normally experience. I absorbed every second as they handed my baby boy to me. I watched Garett cut the cord. I was concerned as they rubbed Camden and tried to get him to cry. He was really purple. Apparently the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck. He cried a bit on my chest but not as well as they wanted so they took him to the warmer/cleaning station and as they did whatever they do, he let out a hearty cry.  

 

After they cleaned him up they gave him back to me! I got to experience skin on skin contact with my baby. I missed out on this amazing feeling with Anders because they took him to the NICU right away. 

Then I figured Garett should have a turn. I mean he is the daddy; he should have a turn too : )

I sure love this handsome devil!

While Garett was holding Anders I got my after "inspection". Everything looked good. I tore a bit but didn't need stitches. I have to say the worst part for me after is when they push on your belly! They push so hard and you feel stuff coming out of you and it hurts! I literally pushed the nurse's hand away as she was pushing because it was so uncomfortable. I think it was natural reflex....I apologized after. She laughed because it wasn't the first time that happened to her.

One thing I love about natural labor/delivery (no epidural) is the ability to get up right after. I walked myself to the bathroom and got cleaned and changed just fine. Another difference I noticed between my two deliveries was my pain level after. 

With Anders I felt like my lady-bits were hit by a semi-truck and left as road-kill. I was on narcotics for 2 days and Motrin for a week after. I couldn't go number 2 for a couple days and when I did it was like delivering another small child. 

With Camden; nothing. I took zero pain medications because I felt zero pain. Unreal, I know! I was not expecting that AT ALL! I was fully prepared to feel like a mangled mess down there. I even made padcicles (I'll talk about these in a future post) to ease my suffering. I was tender for a few hours and it stung a bit where I tore but that was it. I used a few of my padcicles just because they felt amazing whether or not there was pain haha. After using a couple of those I felt completely normal down there. 

I believe I can attribute that miracle to two things: fitness and the rapid birth. I am working on a post outlining my pregnancy fitness routine. But the two things that I personally think made all the difference in my after-birth pain levels is squats and spinning. I did thousands of squats this pregnancy. Thousands. And all different types so I could reach a wide variety of muscles down there. Then I also was on a bike 2-3 times a week my whole pregnancy and a year before. Anyone that rides a bike regularly will tell you that the first couple of weeks of biking are not pleasant on the lower regions. You are sore and it hurts like a mother sometimes when you hop back on the bike. But once you spend time on the bike I really think it "calluses" your private region. It gets tougher and can with stand harder/longer workouts. Maybe that makes no sense but in my mind it does and I will discuss it more in depth in a future post.      

Anyway, back to Camden. We then were taken to our post-delivery room downstairs. Garett and Camden went to the nursery and I got another "inspection" then went to find my boys. I wanted to walk but since there weren't 2 nurses around at the time to witness my ability to hold myself up the one nurse made me take the wheel chair the 20 steps down the hall to the nursery. I took a million pictures but I managed to select a few to bombard you with.

I treated myself to a "Gownie" hospital gown. It's the same one they wear in "What To Expect When You Are Expecting" and Pam wears one in "The Office". When I saw it in those shows I thought "no hospital has that cute of a gown" and I freaking love it because it has polka dots. I had forgotten about it until I just happened upon it on Pinterest back in February. Find it here. 

I kind of got buyer's remorse when it arrived. I thought that it would just get dirty and stained. But after the fact I am so glad I had it!

A) it's cute and B) it's functional. I did just wear a hospital-provided gown for the delivery; that way my cute one wouldn't get bloody and gross. After, when I was cleaning myself up I put on my cute gown. Everyone wanted it and asked where I got it. It is all snaps so there is no trying to tie it up. And it has snaps all down the back instead of like 3 ties, so you get full coverage and there is no backside hanging out. 

My favorite thing about it were the snaps in the front. Amazing. They make breastfeeding and pumping so easy. And it was super comfortable to sleep in. All in all, I loved it and it was worth the money to me. Plus I can use it for future hospitalizations (not that I forsee any besides more deliveries). I just threw it in the wash when I got home, hung it to dry and now it's ready to go for next time, looking good as new!

Now back to Camden again. They did a few tests in the nursery and the pediatrician decided to have him sent to the NICU to be monitored more closely because his red blood cell count was too high. Ugh. I thought we had avoided the NICU this time around. 

So up in the NICU they monitored his counts and because they didn't go down any after a few hours they decided to do a procedure where they would extract blood going through his umbilical cord and replace it with saline solution; which would, in theory, thin out the remaining blood and lower the red blood cell count to a normal level. 

The procedure worked and around 4 am Camden was sent back down to the nursery and brought to our room shortly after. That morning my mom brought Andersen to hospital to finally meet his little brother! It was so cute. My heart melted just a bit. 

Not the best quality picture (lighting in hospital rooms are horrible) but it's the only one we have of the four of us!

We are all healthy and home now! We feel so blessed to have Camden join our family!

   

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{how pinterest can strengthen your marriage}

It's Monday. Man Crush Monday. I love my man. He's my everything. I mean who could not love this stud?

We have been married almost 4 years this summer. It's been awesome. Really. We are so compatible. I am competitive, he's not at all. We both are go-with-the-flow and pretty laid back about the little things. I think I can count on 2 fingers the number of fights we have had. We are lovers not fighters I guess : ) 

However, we are reaching the point in our marriage where familiarity, school/work, children and routine are all taking it's toll on our relationship. We aren't struggling or anything but we are noticing that we have to actually put forth effort to connect with each other. 

That was the one thing we heard over and over as newlyweds; that we would reach a point, 3-4 years out, where the flame of passion (yes someone actually used that phrase) would not be enough to sustain us. And of course as newlyweds we were like "puhlease, our honeymoon phase will never end!" But honestly they were right. Marriage after time, becomes work no matter how compatible you are. 

On top of reaching the 3-4 year "honeymoon's over" phase, Garett spent 3 months in Dallas for his internship while Anders and I stayed in Provo. A lot of effort was needed to help us still feel connected over that time period.

During that time I spent a lot of time thinking about the different things I could be doing to reach out to him and let him know I was thinking about him. So naturally I hopped on Pinterest and I created a board just for him and on it I pinned fun ideas, marriage articles, little gift ideas, etc that I thought Garett would appreciate.   

It was awesome. I kept remembering little things that Garett loves and I would search out ideas and find a million different things I could do. For example, I know that Garett loves thought provoking "Would You Rather" questions and since I was going to be driving 19 hours back with him from Texas I found a bunch of links to questions and pinned them to my board so I could just pull them up in the car. That is why Pinterest is a rockstar. I honestly don't have time to be that creative. All I have to do is think of one idea then Pinterest shows me so many ways to accomplish it. 

After all the articles I have read and ideas I have seen here are just a few ideas that you can do right away to surprise your man and let him know you are still in love!

1. Flirt

This is how you fell in love in the first place! The prolonged staring, the lingering touch, etc. Anytime you get the chance you should flirt. Garett is a champion flirter. My favorite is when we are out in public just doing everyday routines like grocery shopping and I catch Garett staring at me as I'm loading the cart with produce. Then he quickly grabs my butt! (Sorry if that's too much but I'm not going to lie it's sexy when he does that!). We have been caught once. A coworker once told me she laughed out loud at the grocery store when she saw Garett make that move. Oops! 

Click here to read a great article I pinned on flirting when married. 

2. Date/Quality Time

This is the advice I see the most. Date your spouse regularly. Set aside a day or time every week that is for you two. We don't always go out for our date. The reality is sometimes children, budgets, etc make going out every week unrealistic. But you should still have your special time. 

Garett and I probably go out on an actual date 2-3 times a month. But we do stuff together at home. Just this Saturday night we were both working on separate things in separate rooms after we had put Anders to bed. I looked at the clock and it was 9:55 pm. I got up, walked to Garett in the dining room and said, "you, me, Prison Break and leftover cupcakes at 10:30?" It was a date; in our pjs, on our couch with a couple of cupcakes. We like that sort of thing though. We ended up giving each other massages too which was nice; and yes it ended at massages ; )

Click here to read a great article about strengthening your marriage after the baby goes to bed. 

3. Write notes to each other

I'm not talking about texts. I mean actual handwritten notes. Garett and I did this for quite some time before Anders was born. We'd leave them in random places in the house. My favorite though was passing off notes between each other in church. We would each write a letter to each other during the 2nd hour of church then when we went to our separate classes during 3rd hour we would have a lengthy note to read. I was always grinning like a fool in class and would even have to stifle a laugh every once and a while. People probably thought I was special or something.

It reminds me of a time before cell phones, when you had to pass notes to talk to your friends during class. There's something old school and romantic about it. Try it. You'll enjoy it. 

Along with handwritten notes you can send flirty/loving texts too! Click here to read a great article with ideas for texting your spouse.

Those are just some of the fun marriage strengthening ideas you can find on Pinterest. Create your own board for you and your spouse and start collecting fun and different ideas that work for you!

And because I said this blog is also about Ander's Attic I thought I'd post a couple of my creations that relate to this topic : ) Enjoy! Again, use code NEWBLOG for 10% off!

***This one is a perfect way to let your spouse know whether or not "it" is going to happen tonight : ) I've given this one as a bridal shower gift and it's always a hit!

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{no motivation...is it the weekend yet?}

Well I knew that this would be a great day when first thing this morning I went grocery shopping and had everything out of the cart and on the conveyor belt when I realized I forgot my blasted wallet....good thing I was way too tired to be super ticked. Last night was awful. Actually the last few nights have been awful. Anders has been sick again and so my nights are looooong. Since Garett is in school and going to be taking mid-terms here soon I don't make him wake up (because he sleeps through anything). Then last night I had this stupid tickle in my throat that makes me feel like I can't fully swallow...warning sign that I am getting sick too. Awesome. What the heck happened to my immune system?! I used to never get sick now I'm sick all the time! Maybe it has something to do with Anders' coughing directly on my eyeball or into my mouth everyday....hmmm not sure.

Thank goodness he's happy today!

So with that great start to the day I literally have no motivation to do anything and I am dead tired. I am sitting here on my couch, just pressed play for the 3rd time for Baby Einstein for Anders, and am blogging my less than lucid thoughts. Here's what's on my mind....

Remember that family room makeover I announced I was doing awhile ago? Well that is no longer happening. Why? We are moving.....upstairs! Hallelujah. I've seriously entertained the thought of harming my upstairs neighbors. They are up at all hours, no joke, all hours, everyday. Their common area is situated directly above our master bedroom and Anders' room. So you can see why their stomping around at all hours is annoying. Garett has gone up there multiple times. Apparently they love to hear the sound of their enormous high heels on their wood floor at 2 in the morning. That's what they were wearing when Garett went up there. But everything we say to them goes in one ear and out the other because it happens every night. I do have something on them though. Since it is BYU housing boys aren't allowed to be over past midnight on weekdays. When Garett went up there at 2am there were boys. Tsk tsk. Next time we go up there and there are boys I am turning them in. I'm not their manager and I'm not the type of person that would normally do that but these girls are driving me up the wall!

So this move is more than welcome! We will be on the third floor with no one above us! It is also a two story apartment. All 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and the laundry room are up stairs. On the main level is the kitchen, family room, dining room and a half bath. I am so excited. The unit is beautiful. We are just planning on repainting all the trim and hopefully the red walls....the accent walls are painted red. I am not a huge fan of red. I really want to paint them a slate grey. I'll have to clear it with my aunt first : )

Also on my mind is my awesome hubby! Every wife should publicly brag about their husbands. It keeps the marriage strong. I love Garett. He is literally my best friend. He is my eternal companion. Knowing that he and I will be together forever (Anders too : ) ) makes even the most crappy days, like today, an wonderful day. I am completely 100% me when I'm with him. And the 100% is not always pretty. Like right now.....my old soccer sweats and over sized soccer shirt are lookin so hot. Right now he's at school. Most days he's there all day. But he's working hard to get into the accounting program at BYU so I will try to be understanding ; ) BYU's accounting program is number one or two (I'm not sure) in the nation! He's finishing up the prerequisites this semester and applying for the program in May. Since he's pretty much 4.0ed all his prerequisites I know he'll get in!

Well Valentine's day is around the corner! I told Garett I'm in charge of dinner this year. Plus he's at school all day Thursday and has a test so he didn't need that extra stress. I've got fun plans! But I can't tell you because Garett reads this. Sorry honey it's a surprise!

So a little blast from the past, this was me last Valentine's Day! I was 5 months pregnant. Crazy, it seems so long ago. Ahhhh I am a mommy! That is crazy. It has been such a fun journey. I am learning so much!

I am out out of thoughts right now....I just put the little man in bed and I'm thinking I need a nap too. It is seriously taking all of the focus I can muster to wrap this up. Hopefully I can get some motivation to do something productive today. Fingers crossed.

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{vista house}

A couple of weekends ago Garett took me up to the Vista house up on Mt. Spokane to go camping. Let me preface this weekend fun with a story.

A long, long time ago in a land far away.....haha ok so not very long ago here in Spokane a guy named Garett Johnson proposed to me. Let me recap how that happened. Officially this went down on May 24th.....unofficially, about a week before hand. About mid May we both knew where this relationship was heading and so we talked about the "M" word. For awhile neither of us actually said the "M" word, just things like "Oh I could see you and me like this forever" yadada. Finally, one night we both said the word and the ball started rolling from there. Now that I had a verbal commitment from him I went to work. That Friday I went to a dress shop tried on a handful of dresses and found one I loved! Saturday morning I brought my roommates back to confirm my decision and I bought the dress. After that Garett and I went ring shopping all the rest of the day. I pointed out a couple I liked and basically said surprise me. So now that he knew what rings I liked I was getting antsy, wondering when he was going to pop the question. I kept myself busy with other wedding plans to keep my mind occupied. I managed to get a photographer whilst I waited. We also nailed down a date which gradually kept being moved forward to accommodate everyone....which was perfectly ok with us; we would have gotten married in a week if we could.

This brings my tale to a Tuesday morning about a week later. I called the temple and reserved the date for our sealing....still ringless. Garett later asked me what I wanted to do that night and I said I'm good with whatever. So he told me that his dad, who is a park ranger on Mt. Spokane, said we could go snowmobiling up on the mountain if we wanted to......of course I wanted to! So he picked me up and we went to his house and got all of our snow gear on. Now let me insert here that I was suspicious that something might be in the works; I'm a pretty hard person to surprise. We left his house and followed his dad up to the shed. His dad hopped on one snowmobile and Garett and I got on the other. At this point I was beginning to doubt that anything was going to happen; I didn't think he would propose with his dad there too. So we rode up the mountain and got to the top. Garett asked if I wanted to drive so we drove back to the bottom leaving his dad at the top and I drove us up to the top again. We found his dad and Garett asked him if he could show me the Vista House (this really old, cool stone house on the very top of the mountain). His dad gave us the key and said that he was going to start heading home. We went up to the house and I was so mesmerized by the view that I didn't even notice the house. Finally, I looked at the house and noticed a fire buring inside.....huge red flag went up in my noggin and I froze. I looked at Garett and asked him what was going on to which he helpfully responded with "What is going on???" So we went inside and there was a path of rose petals and candles leading to the fire. There was a blanket in front of the fire and large amounts of food (me knows me well haha) and dozens of roses. As I was processing all of this he got down on one knee and asked the question I've been dying to hear him ask! He pulled out the most beautiful ring and slid it on my finger! Officially official!

So that's the story. Now for the weekend update....Garett told me that we could go camping up at the Vista House Sunday night! So we packed up all of our camping gear that we got from the wedding, a dutch oven and food. We took a bag of Costco pot stickers for dinner and potatoes, bacon and eggs for breakfast. Delicious! We drove up Sunday night around 6:30 and it was pretty dang cold! Garett started a fire and I set up the beds. My boss gave us these self inflating sleep pads that are 2.5 inches thick and super comfy. We zipped our sleeping bags together and it was really warm. So warm that around one in the morning I had to go to the bathroom and suck my head out of the sleeping bag I didn't want to get out. But there's no sleeping when you have to pee. I debated with myself for about ten minutes and finally looked over to see that Garett was awake too so I told him that I had to go to the bathroom. Bracing ourselves for the frigid cold air we ran to the car and drove down to the outhouse. Needless to say I slept much better after that.

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