2 1/2 Weeks Already

Titus and Grandma Mary, he is sporting his new Griz hat that he got at his shower from auntie Nessie & auntie Zoe! How very cute!

Time is flying by quickly, I can't believe Titus is already close to 3 weeks old. We had a nice shower on the 19Th thrown for us, lots of people came and even more had dropped by gifts for Titus. He made out with a lot of loot there!! Thanks to any of you who came :) It was very nice and lots of fun, I was nervous being a new mom and all and being around so many people. My aunt Mary had just made it back to MT the night before from her visit back to IL to see our family and so her and Heidi came and it was both their first time seeing Titus. Heidi had been sick when he was born and couldn't come to the hospital to visit. That was good though, I had her hold him the whole time because I didn't really want him passed around like he's a toy. I will admit that I am kind of paranoid about germs when it comes to him and I think visits at home are much better than large crowds of people because if one person holds him then everyone else will want to get in on it. Anyway enough about that.
My parents made it here on Sunday and their visit has been really enjoyable. I try to let my mom hold him whenever I can which is when he isn't nursing or we are not eating ourselves. I can tell she just really enjoys him and is so happy to finally have a boy in our family. Today Mary actually took them over to Helena to fish for the day, it is beautiful out and the fish are really biting over there on Canyon Ferry Lake I guess. Hope they bring some home, I can never get enough fish to eat.
Well Tom is back to work this week and Titus and I miss him like crazy but I had kind of gotten a little preview of what it would be like here all by myself with Titus the day of my shower. He had gone fishing from 7am to around 8pm and my parents were not here yet. He thought he would be home around 5 but they just kept catching them and I was okay! It was good for him to get out of the house, after two weeks of being home and waiting on me hand and foot and more because he is such a great husband, I was happy for him to get out and enjoy the outdoors doing something else that he loves to do.
Little Titus gets circumcised on this Friday, please pray that it goes well. I of course am a little nervous because I heard how it is done and I am not sure if I will be able to watch or not. I guess they have to strap their legs down which makes sense, you wouldn't want the scalpel blade to cut something it shouldn't but can you imagine. Ugh.

Tom also caught 3 salmon up there too and got to bring them all home because the Olsen's' didn't want any! Mmmmoooorrrreeee for us, we already ate them with Mom and Dad off the grill the other night.

While Titus and I were at our shower, this is the fish Daddy caught with Andy Olsen and his dad with their boat up on Salmon Lake near Seeley, MT. This is the Pike they caught and Tom got to bring 4 of them home. Mmmmmm.

Titus loves getting burped by Daddy, some good "guy time". Sometimes when Titus is fussy we use the exercise ball to bounce him while we hold him and Daddy is the pro at this job too.

Oh the Toes!

See how long they are, they are just like daddy's, I love it. With as much as I love Tom, I'm praying that our son will grow up to be just like him but don't do it too fast Titus, Momma loves her time with him all little and precious.
Tom has been off work and will be until next week. This has been such a blessing because I honestly don't know if I would be eating if Tom was not here. He has made me breakfast in bed several times already and he feeds me so well so that I can keep up with feeding Titus and trying to get some rest between his feedings. I am actually glad that Titus came early (1 week and 5 days) because it has given us our own family time before the grandparents arrive. My parents are leaving WI on Thursday to drive out here for 2 weeks and then Toms parents will be arriving around the time they leave from CO for a couple of weeks. Titus is very excited to meet them all, after all he is the first grandson for both of them and he is also the first great grandson for my grandpa and grandma Berning, who are the only grandparents we have left between the two of us! That is pretty cool little Titus.
I never knew you could love two people so much in my life. I have already cried tears of joy twice on Tom's shoulder because I love Titus so much it is overwhelming. And my sweetheart reminded me that there are three people whom each of us love so much, the Lord, each other and our baby boy. He is right, God has been so good to us, His salvation brings us freedom from sin in our lives and strength to live each day for His glory and blessings like Titus from His own hands.
Must go now, my love has a scrumptious lunch ready for me.

Titus Allen Johnson is here!

Well late Thursday afternoon of the 3rd I knew that Titus was going to be coming sometime over the weekend, things had began to happen and contractions were starting that night, slowly but surely. On Friday evening we had some graduation parties to go to and I was determined to go although my contractions were progressing. Walking for me was the most comforting thing I could do. By about 5:30 am Saturday our contractions had been 5-6 minutes apart for about an hour and a half and we decided to head to the hospital for what seemed the longest day of my life! I was dilated to 4 cm when we got there and we began the process. We walked the halls lots of times and when a contraction would come we would rock. Tom did so well through everything, I couldn't have done it without him. I tried the warm bath but that only lasted til the water cooled off. I also liked the ball for sitting and bouncing, but I could not stand to be in the bed at all, it was just uncomfortable. I had to have IV antibiotics every 4 hours while the labor lasted because I tested positive for Group B Strep and I hated that too. I just didn't like feeling restrained in any way and every time they flushed the IV after the antibiotics it stung my arm so bad.
Well by 3 pm I had only progressed to 6 cm and my water had broke on the ball but I think it was more like a leaking faucet because the doctor checked me and she said I still had like a forebag that she could feel and wanted to break that to see if that would help. My doctor by the way could not deliver Titus because it was graduation Saturday and his son was graduating from high school, so the doctor on call, Dr. Givler delivered him. Thankfully she was very nice and sweet. Well when she did that my contractions definitely intensified but after an hour I was no different! They were getting concerned because they expect you to dilate a cm/hour and they asked me to think about having some sort of drug! I was heart broken because that is not what I wanted and I cried and Tom and I prayed. I knew I didn't want an epidural or Pitosin, my contractions were already painful enough without Pitosin. So they gave me some pain relief IV called Numa?, only half the dose they could have given me and it was supposed to take the edge off my contractions and relax me in between them. It sure did the later of the two, I was dozing in and out of sleep between them and within an hour, which is how long she said that drug would last, I dilated from 6cm to 9cm. Then Titus' heartbeat dropped and the doctor said I needed to start pushing otherwise it was going to have to be a c-section if his heart rate didn't come back up. Well I began for what seemed like the longest hour of my life pushing and finally our baby boy came out and Tom cut the cord. And the doctor said that I basically just had "skid marks" down there and no stitches were needed! God had answered our prayers for that drug to work and for our healthy baby. He was born at 5:22 pm on June 5th, weighing 8.49 lbs. and just under 21 3/4 in. long. He is so amazing and doing well. When we left the hospital he had dropped down to 7.11 lbs. and the next day at his weight check he was 7.15 and then at his first well baby check on Thursday he was up to 8.6 1/2 lbs.! They were so shocked because it usually takes them 2 weeks just to get back to their birth weight! He sleeps well and obviously nurses well although it can take him a while because he is a little Jaundice and falls asleep a lot. Mommy works really hard feeding him every 3 hours.

Titus does not seem to mind his car seat at all, we have gone on a few outings besides his checkups so far, he has been to ShopKo, Target, the Vet Clinic (to be admired!)and to church this morning, the ladies (mostly girls from youth group) were swooning over him! Look at those long fingers, those are from his dad :) Uncle Kevin called them monkey hands! Mommy disagrees of course.

This adorable outfit is from Auntie Daisy, for all those aunties out there, Titus wears it for you!

Even Grandpa Bob was here to see little Titus the next day after his birth, he was on his way to Seattle with a load to deliver there and he came through Missoula just at the perfect time, Thanks Grandpa!

Titus roomed in with us in the hospital, which was great! This helped for breastfeeding for me because you are able to catch on faster to their cues for feeding time so that you get it down before you leave the hospital. With him being with with us there all the time also helped my milk to come in faster. You can't tell from the footprint, but Titus has really long toes just like his daddy also, the actual foot in his newborn socks is too short already!

Daddy helping with his first bath!

38 weeks & Progressing!

Well we are up to 38 weeks now and I did make some progress this week at my appointment. I got to see Dr. Burke which was nice because there were some questions we had since we are getting closer! He said I was still at 2cm dilated but now 90% effaced. And he said the baby's head was still right there along with my bag of waters right there too! He guesstimated the baby's weight to be around 7 1/2 to 8 lbs right now by gently palpating my belly :) So he actually said that if I make it to next Wednesday he would suggest that we go a week early to prevent the baby from getting too big for me to deliver as a first timer! Only baby knows how long it will be though, it may not even be through the weekend here! The days at work are getting long for me, I am still full time at the vet clinic and want to stay that way til the baby comes because I won't be going back. But the nights are even longer, getting up to potty four times in the night drags it out! I am so excited for the next season of my life to be a mom. It is amazing how God works and changes our hearts, we went from being in shock for about 2 months that we were pregnant so soon after getting married to anxiously awaiting our sweet little one's arrival. Actually I think I was in more shock than Tom, he has seemed to be excited from the very beginning. Now I am just anxious for the arrival to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl, most people think it will be a boy and part of me hopes it's a girl only because I think it would be funny if "they" were all wrong. But either way we are both very excited. Anyway I will go for now, if the baby comes sooner than my next appointment I will do my best to post before next week just because I know all will be waiting to see how cute the baby is! Oh and my toes were done by a nice girl at the Modern Beauty School, don't worry I couldn't reach them myself!