Meet The Jetson!

In honor of of him turning 4 weeks today, I decided I should catch up my blog and post about his birth (you know, to make it official and all...)

My mom flew in to help May 30th, (Memorial Day). That is also the day I had my last prenatal check-up and talked to the dr about being induced. Betsy was 2 days late. I went into the hospital with regular contractions, but other than that my body was not making any progress into labor. If I hadn't been past my due date, they would have stopped the contractions and sent me home. I was pretty miserable the last month of Jetson's pregnancy and was SO READY to be done. So I talked to the dr about the possibilities of being induced. He said he'll induce after 39 weeks. So Memorial Day I was 38 weeks and 5 days. He said to come in Wednesday to be induced, but I asked to make it Thursday so Eric could just take off Thursday and Friday and be with us for 4 days straight.

So Thursday, June 2 we went into the hospital at 6am to be induced. There were several things about this hospital that I wasn't crazy about, but one good thing is you can have the epidural WHENEVER you want... pretty much as soon as you walk through the door if you want. So they started the pitocin drip to start the contractions and asked if I wanted the epidural, but I said I was fine. With Betsy before the epidural they put me on Stadall (sp?) for the pain and it made me really out of it. Apparently with Jet I wasn't on any pain meds until the epidural. At 8:45am the dr came in to break my water and by asking I found out that is usually when the pain kicks into overdrive. Up to that point I wasn't in any real pain, mostly discomfort. So when he broke my water I went ahead and requested the epidural to try and beat the pain to the punch. Totally worked! After the epidural, during the contractions Jetson's heart rate was dropping so they came in and made me lay on my side and switch sides occasionally to reduce the effects on him. At 1:05pm I was dilated to 5cm and 90% effaced. Shortly thereafter, I started feeling pressure and they told me when they did the epidural if at any point I could feel anything let them know and they would up my dosage. So I buzzed the nurses and told them I was feeling pressure. 40 minutes later no one had come and the pressure was getting pretty strong, so Eric buzzed again. 10 minutes later at 2:50pm they finally came in to check me and were like, "O wow, you're ready!!" Me: Gee, you don't think maybe that could have been the case for the past 40 minutes! So they went to get the dr and at 3:09pm Jetson made his grand entrance into the world weighing 7lbs 12.8oz and 19 1/2" long.

When they discharged us from the hospital he had slightly elevated bilirubin levels, so they told us to stick him in sunlight as much as possible and to bring him back in to have them rechecked at 4 days. When we took him in for his check up at 5 days his levels had risen some, so they sent me to have them checked again. The next day they got the results and they were still rising so on June 7 they readmitted him to the hospital to be under a bili-light to treat the jaundice. We were in the hospital for 36 hours before his levels were back down and we finally got to go home and begin a normal life. At his 2 week check up he weighed 8lbs 8oz and was 20in long. My mom stayed with us until June 18th and was heaven sent. She was the biggest help with Betsy, she helped Eric and I with projects around the house and she took Jetson for the night feedings and let me sleep! I was extremely sad to see her go!

Adjusting to 2 kids has definitely been a challenge. Betsy has been great as far as being a big sister. She absolutely adores Jetson. If anyone refers to him as "their baby" she quickly pipes up with, "No, that MY baby!" We're working on the gentleness factor. She loves to kiss him, hug him, and just touch him in general, but isn't always the softest. She is really helpful and will get anything I need for "baby Jetson".

I'm goin' home...

ok, so I already went, but I'm trying to catch the blog up...

Again back in March, my sister-in-law Johanna and I loaded up the kids and drove the 16 hours sans husbands back to Mississippi to visit. She has two kids, Evan (4) and Lauren (2). The kids traveled A LOT better than we expected! I spent two weeks in Tupelo with my parents and Johanna split her time between my parents and hers in Alabama.

Betsy doing what Betsy does best... sleeping. I'm not saying she was a perfect angel on the trip, but I am so glad she sleeps so well!
This is the only picture I have of Lauren on the trip... She wasn't like this the whole time, but she has trouble sleeping in cars and 16 hours is a LONG trip for anyone, especially a 2 year old.

Evan was amazing! This is what he did the WHOLE trip... sit in the back and stare out the windows.

This is what my mom and dad's living room looked like the WHOLE time we were there... They spoil the grandkids and let them get away with murder...

Even on vacation Betsy can't get away from work... (she's on a toy laptop)

Gillian and Betsy LOVE eachother!

Betsy enjoyed driving the car in Grandma and Papa's front yard.

We went to the Easter Egg hunt at church while we were there.

She played in the pool in April. I wasn't about to get my 8 month pregnant self into a swimsuit, so she had to settle for the little pool.

She played house.

And finally, Fiesty Betsy found herself in Time Out quite frequently during our visit... She coped by watching TV...

Aunt Hi-Yee!

Back in March, Eric's sister Heidi came for a visit. She drove all the way from Utah by herself and brought us many of our belongings we had left behind back in 2007! We had a blast while she was here and Betsy LOVED getting to spend time with her Aunt Hi-Yee! Here is a picture series of the many things we did while she was here:

They fit all this in her little Chevy Malibu!

We went to the park...
We saw Yogi Bear in 3D...

We went to story time at the library...

We swam in the pool...

One day Eric took the day off and we drove to Corpus Christi. We hit up South Padre Island and spent the morning at the beach. It was a BEAUTIFUL day! We played in the ocean...

Aunt Heidi and Betsy built a sandcastle (Betsy still talks about this)...

and we flew kites.

Family picture at the beach.

We went to the Texas State Aquarium right after the beach. Betsy fell asleep on the way and didn't quite get her whole nap in, so at first she was not very excited, but she did warm up as we saw the fish, especially the dolphins. She LOVED the dolphins!

Baby Boy Johnson

OK, I started this entry back in March, but am just getting around to posting it. I know, I'm a slacker... Not much has changed except I am now 34 weeks.

I am currently 29 weeks along with baby boy. The sickness of the 1st/beginning of 2nd trimester is gone and I feel fine aside from being tired all the time. I remember with Betsy after the sickness passed the pregnancy was a breeze. Even up until my due date I had no real complaints and was perfectly fine being pregnant the rest of my life... not so much with this pregnancy. I don't know if it is because this time I have Betsy to chase after all day or what, but I just have ZERO energy, ache a lot, and am ready for this little guy to be OUT!

His official due date is June 8. All of my doctor's visits have gone fine. We had our 4th ultrasound of the little guy yesterday and it was in 3d! It was really neat to see his little features. She said he is measuring perfectly on schedule and weighs about 3lbs right now. He is head down, but was facing my spinal cord yesterday so it made it hard to get a good shot of his face. She spent quite a bit of time prodding my stomach trying to get him to turn around. Anytime he would finally turn over he would put his hands in front of his face like he knew that's what we wanted to see! He's EXTREMELY active, especially anytime I try to lay down whether it be for a nap or at bedtime. If his activeness and stubbornness from the ultrasound are any indication of what to expect from this kid, I'm already starting to get overwhelmed about being a parent of 2! Betsy is already a handful! We are super excited about his arrival and can't wait to hold him in our arms.

Presenting Betsy: The Terrib...errr... Terrific Two Year Old!

Betsy on her 2nd birthday!

Betsy turned 2 on Mar 4th. We had a small birthday party for her at Josh and Amberly's house (we currently don't have a dining table, so it's hard to host things at our house). Her cousins in Laredo were all in attendance. While we were living with Josh and Am last fall Betsy really got into the show Team Umizoomi on Nick Jr. So I decided then I would make her cake the character Milli from the show.

This is Milli from the show... and This is the cake I made.




Betsy, in my unbiased opinion, is a complete doll, FULL of personality, hilarious, and extremely stubborn. She likes to put things inside other things... for instance, toys into the laundry hamper, legos into her purse, etc. She is totally a little girl and LOVES all things princess, to put bows in her hair, dress up, and have her nails painted. That's not to say she doesn't extremely enjoy cars and balls, which makes her daddy happy too. She loves to play with her cousins and asks for them each day, but plays well by herself as well. She finally has the attention span to make it through a movie. Her favorite tv show at the moment is "Duper Why" aka "Super Why" from PBS. She asks for it SEVERAL times a day. She talks up a storm and can say anything you can imagine... she surprises me often with her vocabulary. She LOVES music. She requests that we sing with her often and anytime music comes on TV or radio she just can't help herself and her little hips start shakin'. She's so funny to watch and she has got some moves.

She has many quirks which crack Eric and I up. She is very sensitive to the way things feel. She still doesn't care for sticky things, such as stickers and freaks out if one touches her. She rubs things on her lips absent-mindedly. She HATES tags in her clothes and complains that they "hurt". We try to explain to her that they don't "hurt" they are "itchy"... we're making progress here. She is a child of routine! We started saying prayers before bedtime a couple of months ago. She is very good at repeating them and has even started to add in her own thoughts every now and then and can foresee where you're going and sometimes complete the thought on her own. Last month Eric's parents got us the animated scriptures as part of her b-day present and so we added in reading scriptures each night. She'll repeat anywhere from a few sentences to a paragraph depending on her mood. So each night I'll give her the cue and say "It's time." and she knows to go get her diaper and pjs. As soon as she is changed she says, "skiptures, skiptures" and after we read scriptures, she immediately begins asking for "pers". After prayers she runs to climb into bed. For all the heck she gives me during the day and displays her little defiant personality, she makes nighttime a dream. She has also gotten to where she demands to say prayers before her nap in the afternoon.

As far as her physical appearance goes, she's finally starting to grow a little hair. The back is FULL of curl when it's wet or if I put product in it, but if she sleeps on it she flattens it out and she just has a mullet. She's still a pretty petite child. She weighs 24lbs and can still wear some 12 mo clothes. I just barely moved her out of size 3 diapers and we are hoping to get the potty training thing underway soon.

That is basically my Betsy in a nutshell. She takes up all of my time and I wonder how she will adjust to the new baby... Time will tell. We talk to her about him a lot, but I don't think she really grasps the concept.

I know... You'd written me off as dead, so to prove you wrong....

Here's a post!

Alright, when we last left the Johnsons they were plunging head first into craziness... and not much has changed!

In two weeks time we received a job offer, accepted job offer, rented our house, and packed up and moved 16 hours to Laredo, TX. Here is a fun bulleted list to summarize our lives from then to now.

• We moved in with my brother's family while we looked for a place to live... this arrangement lasted 4 months, which was longer than we actually lived in the house we owned in Tupelo...
• Eric started his new job as office manager for Southern Tire Mart, same company he was working for, just a much better position. He loves his new job and that makes us all happy.
• Laredo is less a city in Texas and more a city in Mexico and Mexico isn't really a stable place right now so we had to be pretty selective in our housing... we decided to stay safe and look for houses in the same neighborhood as my two brothers.
• We found the perfect house on the same street as one of my brothers and just a street over from the other! We closed in December and have been settling in since... Yes, we do own two houses at the moment, not ideal, but something we felt necessary.
• In October, Eric and I celebrated 5 years of marriage by getting away for a weekend to San Antonio... It was fabulous! We had even bought season passes to Six Flags and had planned to spend a whole day there, but...
• The weekend before our anniversary we found out we were expecting baby Numero Dos! We are super excited, but it kinda put a squash on our Six Flags plans... oh well....
• For two weeks after we found out we were pregnant I was feeling just fine and pretty confident I was going to skip the sickness I experienced with Betsy...
• The last week of October the sickness hit and boy did it! I was grateful we were living with my sister-in-law... she took care of Betsy and I everyday on top of her five kids and everything else she does... She was amazing!
• This time the doctor prescribed me some medicine to help with the sickness. It didn't do away with it, but I was able to eat and hold it down most of the time, but the nausea was still ever present.
• As I said earlier, Laredo is pretty much a part of Mexico and if you don't speak Spanish you are in the tiny minority. Eric and my two brothers who live down here speak it, but none of us wives do... it makes things interesting sometimes.
• When we moved down here there were 3 branches in the church in Laredo and we are only a district... I'd never even heard of that before we moved here... Two of the branches were Spanish speaking and one was English. They struggle for leadership down here so if you are white they attack you immediately... Within one month of moving here all of us had at least one calling... poor Eric had 4!
• In November they redid boundaries and added in a 4th branch, now it is two English and two Spanish speaking branches... they are trying to get people to use their English more and quit relying on their Spanish. We are in the branch that used to be Spanish speaking, but is now English speaking (by definition of the Church), but they really struggle with stepping out of their native language, which results in many lessons and talks being given in Spanish, which means Sarah no understandy...

Ok, that gets us pretty close to present day... I'll do separate posts about Betsy and our new house, but just quickly... Betsy is growing like a weed and becoming a little person, not a baby anymore. We spent Christmas in our own home for the first time in our marriage just our little family and it was nice. My parents came to visit for New Year's and it was so good to see them again. Betsy is CRAZY about her Papa and Grandma Brown and was heart-broken when they left at the end of the week. While they were here I had a doctor's appointment and found out Baby #2 is a BOY! We are so excited to have one of each... Eric is on cloud 9. He is due sometime in June, but they keep changing the date, so only time will tell... We do have a name picked out, but are not sharing at this time... My sickness has FINALLY started to subside... Some days are still no fun, but I'll take what I can get. That's it for now and if you made it this far you OBVIOUSLY had nothing to do with your time... haha, j/k. Thanks for caring enough to read!