welcoming peyton reese johnson!

on april fourth, two thousand eleven, josh and i were blessed with our precious little miracle, peyton reese.

the day was nothing less than thrilling. it was long, and yes, parts of it were painful and uncomfortable, but i wouldn't trade any of it, as we got to meet our beautiful baby girl when all was said and done.

this was our day, in bulletpoints.
* admitted to the hospital for an induction early in the morning
* managed about 2 hours of contractions without an epidural, then "gave in"... (best decision of my life, btw...)
* had about a thousand and seven visitors (which we LOVED, although entertaining was not easy for me, but everyone seemed to entertain each other quite well!!)
* ate ice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner
* the nurses must've liked me because they snuck me a blue popsicle. HIGHLIGHT OF MY DAY :-)
* watched josh tweet every hour
* made "progress", then didn't make "progress", then made LOTS of "progress" and all of the sudden it was TIME TO PUSH!
* pushed for about an hour
* drove our anxious family and friends nuts as they waited outside for the "big news"
* at 9:50pm, josh grinned and said "IT'S A GIRL!!!" (which we totally weren't expecting...but what an amazing surprise, and just about the greatest thing everrrr!)
* at 9:51pm, fell in love like never before... my heart just hurt.

peyton reese, at 7 pounds, 13 ounces, and 20 and a half inches, was immediately cared for by the NICU team as she was born with meconium in her lungs. as they worked to stimulate her and suction her lungs, we waited a very long, and very quiet 20 minutes before getting to meet her, hold her, and be assured she was okay. it was tough, but josh and the doctors were all handling things so well and so calmly that i had no choice but to stay calm and trust that everything would be alright. and our strong little girl was a total trooper and made it through okay. thank the Lord!

I WANT SO BADLY TO SHARE THE FEELINGS I FELT ON THAT DAY, BUT I CAN'T PUT THEM INTO WORDS. of course, seeing our baby girl for the very first time was the most amazing experience ever, but it was also SO MUCH MORE than that. i want nothing bad to happen to her, ever. i don't even like hearing her cry, struggle or fuss, not even for a minute. i want her to be more than happy and joyful every second of every day. and i want her to know how much she is loved by her parents, and by all the wonderful people in our lives. i am beginning to understand the love of a parent, and it truly is indescribable and like no other love...

josh and i are thrilled to have baby girl peyton in our lives. forgive us if we can't express our love for her in our blog. but know that we are spending every minute showing our love to our baby girl. and we hope our friends and family get tons of opportunities to love her, too!

What A Glorious Day!

All I can say is WOW! Words cannot express the joy a baby brings. After a long 15 hour day in the hospital little Peyton Reese Johnson was born. At 7 lbs. 13 oz. and 20.5 inches long, she had all the doctors, and especially Mom and Dad, saying, "She's BEAUTIFUL!!" Announcing her to a group of people waiting not-so-patiently in the hall, was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I am so glad we were able to share the day with so many wonderful friends and family. Thank you to everyone who was here in the hospital, sharing their encouragement on Facebook and Twitter, and sending up prayers on our behalf. We wouldn't have wanted the day to go any other way.

And now for the part everyone wants to see. Let me introduce you all to Peyton Reese Johnson!

The baby is coming! The baby is coming!

Baby J is due in 4 days. FOUR DAYS!!!! Lately the baby has been moving like crazy. I've spent hours holding Gigi's stomach feeling the baby's movement. A few times I thought for sure it was trying to figure out an escape route. It is seriously the most excited I have ever been. The anticipation of his or her arrival is killing me. I cannot wait to see it, let alone hold it! While I know it will turn my world on it's head, I am looking forward to it more every day.

Okay, enough of the doting dad going on about how excited he is, let's get on with the fun stuff. There are only a few days left to submit your guess for the baby pool! While some of you have submitted your guess, there are still quite a few of you who haven't. Let's get those guesses in people!!! You don't want to miss out on changing the first diaper the prize we have for the winner! If you need a refresher on the rules, click here for the orignal post.

Since we can't tell everyone everything all of the time, if you are wanting up to the minute updates you can follow one or both of us on Twitter. Click here for Gigi's page and click here for Josh's page. If you aren't so curious about our mostly meaningless ramblings, just keep checking back here and we'll keep posting pictures and sharing what we can!

rounding third...!

i absolutely cannot BELIEVE that we are just a mere 3 weeks away from welcoming baby j into the world. we are excited, to say the least, but still have lots to do before baby comes! keeps it interesting, in my opinion.

i have felt surprisingly good this last trimester. i know the next 3 weeks really have the ability to change my mind about how well these last few months have gone, but i really feel like i can handle another 3 or 4 weeks of this thing called pregnancy (which is good, because from what i hear, first time moms usually deliver up to a week late)! although not as active as i'd like to be, josh, june and i still manage to squeeze in a 30 minute walk 4 or 5 times a week, and i'm not scared of stairs or long walks through parking lots and malls. i see joggers taking advantage of this great weather lately, and it makes me miss working out, but i'll have no excuses to not want to work out after baby comes, since it's been so long since i've had a good, sweaty workout!

sleeping is a bit harder these days--the bathroom calls my name a few times per night, and my mind races with predictions of what life-after-baby will be like. i DO miss sleeping on my back and stomach, but i've never been more thankful to have a tempurpedic bed than i've been these last few months. that bed makes sleeping feel like a 7 hour trip to the clouds and back. (have i mentioned i'd recommend this bed to ANYONE? that's right, even YOU. no, i'm not getting paid--i just really believe that bed is the best one ever made... i'll probably send this post to tempurpedic soon, though, just to see if i can get a little dough of out it...... hey, anything helps, right?)

i'm still not a huge fan of this pregnancy thing--i'd prefer to be more mobile, active, and fit in my normal clothes, but i must say, feeling baby j all day long is pretty dang incredible. this little one has a mind of it's own. between the punches, kicks, hiccups, rolls, turns, stretches, and nap times, i already feel like i'm getting to know the munchkin's habits and schedule. and it's sweeeeet. i am beyond excited to meet baby soon--to see if we've got a little boy or a little girl joining our family, to see who he/she looks like, to wrap my hands around it's little body, and to cuddle with the bundle of joy for hours on end. i'm already falling in love with him/her, but am greatly anticipating getting to know every little thing about this baby. not to mention, i think seeing baby j with his/her dad is going to be incredible. josh is already so great with babies and kids, but when he gets to hold, love, and cuddle his own, i'll just get to watch and relish in the beauty of it all.

overall, this third trimester has brought incredible experiences with it. i'm ready for it to come to a close, mostly so we can begin life together as a family, with everyone OUTSIDE the womb... (my womb, to be exact.........)

thanks for following the quirky little stories of my pregnancy. hopefully the next pregnancy post will be about being done with it, and welcoming baby j into our lives.

belly: revealed (big time!)

a lovely friend of mine, the talented mr. kevin kach, graciously spent his saturday morning snapping away at my belly, my baby's-daddy, and me. 7 1/2 months of baking a kiddo, and this is what we have to show for it!

i absolutely ADORE every single one of these photos. they were taken at a trail and stream behind our house that josh, june and i walk all the time. i cannot wait for baby j to join us on these walks in just a couple months...!

kevin, you rock, buddy.

thanks a million, from the bottom of my heart...

now we've just got that one, classic photo left to take. shhhhh!

oh, and i mustn't forget to thank kevin's lovely assistant, and one of my all-time besties, "auntie dani". LOVED that you were able to join us and help kev, and i think these pics are of us are priceless!!

a mental breakdown or two, just in time for baby...

my, oh my... have we been on a little roller coaster or what?

i don't know if it's the ticking time bomb in my belly, the time of the year that brings with it all the leftover holidays, or the many changes looming ahead, but i must say josh and i are more thankful than ever to be tag-teaming life these days. this past week brought a culmination of events that, while individually assessed, seem like pancakes, but when taken together and under consideration of "ahhhhhhhhhhhh! there's a baby on the way, too??!! are you kidding me?!?!?!", we were knocked off our feet nice and hard. go ahead, take a moment to picture josh and i with our hands in the air running circles around the living room, heads bouncing back and forth between our arms like macaulley caulkin in home alone (1, 2, OR 3)... yup, fun stuff.

this may come as a shock to you, but i enjoy feeling like i have a certain sense of control in my life. whoa, i know, right?

i manage projects for a living. schedule, budget, process--all these those things are important to me, and somewhat define what it means to feel like i have things "under control". therefore, when i'm presented with unexpected budget busts (i.e. potentially having to spend thousands of dollars on a plumbing disaster...), unexpected schedule adjustments (i.e. not REALLY knowing when baby j will arrive...early? late? on time?), or an out-of-whack process (i.e. where do we put all this new stuff that we have absolutely no space for?!), i often begin to--what do you call it--stress out. i don't mean to, and i KNOW it's not good for baby j, but sometimes i can't help it. that being said, i had a fantastically cliche pregnant-woman-breakdown driving to a client's office last thursday, in which i was forced to speed-dial the husband, as i knew he was one of the few that could really understand what i was going through. amidst my tears and frustrations, he was able to calm me down enough so i could show up to my meeting free of blood shot eyes. (thanks, again, honey...)

josh, although not as uptight detail oriented as me, still likes to have a handle on those everyday life things. (thankfully so, too, because if not, i don't think we'd be married.) but, in knowing how stressed out i've been with work, he's taken the reigns on everything house-related...including managing the 4 different repairmen that continue to show up for our bathroom, the crazy HOA office that is entirely unresponsive, the uverse installation guy who had to reinstall his original installation, the remodeler that's throwing new ceiling lights in for us, and the folks coming to pick up craigslist items as we try to make room for baby. on top of that, he works during the day, has school at night, and tries to stay sane with the occassional visit to the rockcliming gym. oh, and his love for cuddling takes up some of his free time, as well, especially since our cuddle time lately includes a love-kick from our little one... so when he hit a wall on an unusually tough assignment sunday night and was up until 3:30am, he was not a happy camper the next day. but josh came to me that night looking for a little pep-talk from me (probably in return for his on thursday), and although there wasn't much i could do to physically (or educationally) help, i was able to just be there for him, tell him i loved him, and encourage him a little bit.

thankfully some of the stressors have subsided as this week has progressed, but there's no denying that an overwhelming sense of "can this nonsense be over yet and can we just have our baby now???" has made itself known. OF COURSE baby j will make our lives more busy, our daily activities more challenging, and our ability to jump back on our feet a little more difficult, but he/she will also bring incredible joy, excitement, and fulfillment to our lives, and for that, we cannot wait! the recent curve balls thrown our way are wonderfully frustrating examples of God's little life lessons, but they are helping us prepare for the insanity we will soon experience. so with that said, we'll continue to take 'em, one by one, and do our best to knock 'em out of the park.

The Happiest Place on Earth

For a while now, Gigi and I have been trying to figure out how to get away. Every weekend we think about turning off cell phones, piling into the car and driving away for a couple of days. We talk about it every week it seems, then the weekend comes and goes and we haven’t gone farther than Irvine. When Thanksgiving came and we had an extra day we decided that we weren’t going to go anywhere. We would just stay home, but we would do something fun to make it an a-typical weekend. We decided we would go to Disneyland! Lately Gigi had been telling me how “magical” Disneyland had sounded so it was a perfect thing to do. A good friend of ours (Hi Jim!) works for the park and graciously took time on his day off to lend a hand with the admission costs and warned us that the day after the holiday would likely be CROWDED. We were up to the challenge though and braved our way into California Adventure.

Gigi and I have always had different thoughts about Disneyland. She goes for the roller coasters (of which Disneyland has few of), and I go for the experience the park has to offer. This trip I was determined to show her the experience side of things. Especially since she is pregnant and there really aren’t too many rides we could even go on. We had about an hour before our dinner reservations so we took a little stroll through the Bugs Life area of California Adventure. I mentioned to Gigi that I loved the details like that the building that housed the restrooms was made to look like an upside down box of tissues and the signs for the rides were discarded plastic spoons. She gave me a weird look and said, “I don’t get it.” I gave her a weird look back and said, “Honey we are bugs in a bug world.” She looked around a bit and as she did her eyes got bigger and bigger, then her smile got bigger and bigger. “OH MY GOSH! You’re right!” Her eyes had been opened and from that point in the night she started realizing that Disneyland wasn’t all about the rides.

Thanks to our friend Jim, I know my way around the parks pretty well, and I dragged Gigi all over the park that night. Much to our surprise the park was EMPTY. The longest wait we had was for the Toy Story ride and that was only about 45 min. The rest of the rides we went on, we practically walked right to the front of the line. One of our favorite areas was in California Adventure. It had a netted suspension bridge, a rock-climbing wall, tire swing races (we didn’t do that, but it looked like a TON of fun), and a nature trail. We will definitely have to go back there when we are a bit more free to behave a little more recklessly.

As the night progressed, we realized exactly why the parks were empty; it was about 40 degrees out! Luckily, we dressed warm, but we never imagined it would get that cold. By 11 pm we were cold to the bone and ready to head home. As we walked back to the car we talked about how much fun the whole night was and how much we want to go back… soon! I had so much fun showing Gigi all the little things that make Disneyland fun for me and she had a ton of fun enjoying the park in a whole new way. Together we just enjoyed a night of goofing off together getting away from the same old thing. It was a much needed and much loved night out.

rounding second

Everyone and Their Mothers said it best. "you'll feel great during your second trimester." months ago, that was all i could think of, and even hope for. and i am BEYOND thankful that They were right!

month 6 is soon approaching (christmas day = 2/3 of this crazy journey down, 1/3 to go!). the past few months really have been much more pleasant than the first. for example, food tastes good again, sleeping seems to only be necessary at night, and nausea only makes itself known when i regretfully skip a meal. as a matter of fact, i feel so good so often, that a whole week will go by without me even noticing. so although i'm not constantly reminded that i'm pregnant because i'm feeling so good, the definition of the "second trimester" seems to be that OTHER people are realizing and being constantly reminded that i'm pregnant. i can no longer hide it...

josh and i will be walking the dog together, and a neighbor will come up and say, "oh, wow, when are you expecting?!" i have yet to respond with the awkward line of, "me? expecting? expecting what? do i look pregnant??? oh my goshhhhh, i look pregnant!! i'm not pregnant....!! (LONG PAUSE) just kidding, due in march!" i just can't get myself to take it there. but everytime we walk away from that person, josh shakes his head in disappointment and says, "bold. so bold. just TOO SOON, in my opinion." i often think he says that just to make me feel better (i'm definitely becoming self concious about my growing self...) but he seriously thinks people should NOT be guessing...in the mere case they are just way wrong. it's humorous to me, especially because it really gets him going sometimes.... hehe

the pants no longer zip. my regular tops are...phasing out. jackets don't button. and. AND. i bought a new bra today. :-/

i can ONLY IMAGINE what the next 3 months have in store for me.

They say it will be uncomfortable. They say i won't be able to see my toes. They say i won't want to walk anywhere or do anything. They say getting off the couch will be hard. They say i'll start waddling soon. and you know what? i don't doubt Them. They've been right so far.

so i'll raise my sparkling water glass to a solid 2nd trimester down, and do my best to welcome the upcoming third "semester", as my mom would call it--until it finally clicks and she decides to correct herself--with open arms.

oh, and baby j says hello from the depths of my tummy!! see, he/she is waving at you! :-)

--YUP, STILL NOT FINDING OUT THE SEX. RELAX, YA'LL. WE'LL KNOW SOON ENOUGH!--

(21 week ultrasound)

rounding first

when i was a baby, i got my ears pierced. i don't remember the event. when i got older, however, i chose to get them pierced again. 2 minutes after the intense pain and suffering (!!!!!!), i found myself purposely sprawled out across the cold tile floor of the mall, doing everything in my power to not pass out. yes, i made a scene. shocking, i know. i simply couldn't fathom the fact that there were two foreign pieces of metal embedded in my skin, and they weren't coming out anytime soon. i absolutely loathe the thought of metal, or any foreign object, just hanging out in or under my skin. needles, for example, are a no-no.

fast forward to a few months ago --> WHAT? there's a small person inside of me?!?

i was strangely okay with it. i didn't have to find cold tile. i didn't have to throw my head between my knees, or lay down with my toes in the air. i didn't even need OJ or a Capri Sun. as a matter of fact, it all seemed extremely surreal. so i handled it like a big girl, because, heck, in a few short months, i'll be a mom, so i gosh-darn better grow up.

days ago we got to see this:

and yes, we are very much appreciative of his/her sense of humor already. really, baby j? pulling the "i'm trapped in a glass box of emotion" stunt already? love it, sweet one!!! gosh, you're cute! (i could see how your crazy face bones may freak a few people out, but we love you tons, regardless!)

i still haven't freaked out :-)

him/her. he/she. it's only twelve weeks, so don't spend your time trying to figure out if you can "see anything". that stuff won't show up for another month or so. and even then, we don't plan to find out, so don't bank on seeing any pics that may hint at it, because we don't even want them in our possession. and seriously, what fun would voting be if you got to find out the sex of the baby way in advance?! I KNOW! yes, the baby pool is still open for business, and will remain so until we arbitrarily decide to close it. because i said so. (HA! GOOD AT THAT ALREADY!)

disclaimer: this whole waiting-to-find-out-the-sex-of-the-baby thing was my idea, and josh isn't totally sold. YET. i mean, he's up for it, but i can't help thinking it's mostly because he feels bad for me and the cruddy morning sickness i've been experiencing, so he's happy to go along with anything that will lift my spirits and perhaps make me feel a bit better. i told him if he really couldn't wait, and just HAD to know, i'd be up for it. we'll all just have to see how this plays out... thanks for coming along for the ride.

bottom line, i coming to a close on trimester number 1. i'l be 13 weeks on sunday, and as much as i told myself i'd try not to count the weeks, its proven difficult, as i'm given some sort of reminder i'm pregnant just about 17 times a day. so for now, it's one day at a time.

for those of you wondering, no, i haven't found myself making kissy faces with the toilet. but morning sickness has most definitely made itself known. i've been nauseous for almost 6 full weeks now, and have finally figured out how to spell "nausea" on my own. bye-bye spellcheck. i got you now, word! (doesn't looking at the word make you just wanna spew?!)

i'm ALWAYS hungry, but rarely in the mood to eat. i never thought forcing food down would be so un-fun. i'm typically the last to turn down food, let alone sweets, restaurant food, or even fast food, but my limited pallet has me choosing cream of wheat and peanut butter toast these days. i'm turning into a total water drinker (it's about freaking time, gigi) and i do heart pickles :-) other than that, the occasional yogurtland finds itself on my mind during the closest thing i can consider a "craving".

i'm looking forward to the 2nd trimester, which is when Everyone And Their Mothers start to say you feel better. okay, i'm PRAYING i feel better. there's room on this bandwagon--jump on! i could use the extra prayers. thanks :-)