It's a.......GIRL!!!

Shaylyn Kennedy Johansen was born August 7th, 2012 at 3:55pm!

6 pounds 15 ounces

21.5 inches long

Oh boy is there a lot to write about between the hours of 1:00am August 6th and 3:55pm August 7th! Not to mention the minutes, hours, days, and now weeks that have gone by since then!!

Chad and I plan to sit down and write out her birth story sometime soon but we just haven't got the chance to do it yet. Actually, that's kind of a lie. We have probably had the chance to do it, but it's such an emotional thing for us to think about that we've been putting it off. Because I was in labor for so long and so much happened during that time and then after she was born, there were holes in both our stories of things that went on and what we each experienced. We sat down for about an hour one morning when we were still in the hospital and talked through everything that happened. I don't remember the last time I cried that hard. Especially for it being deliriously happy and sad tears at the same time. Anyway, it's important to me that we write it down when it's still "fresh" so we can remember everything and look back on it down the road. I think it will also be pretty cool for Shaylyn to hear some day too. Hear about how dramatic she was even when she came into the world and maybe if she hears how rough she was on her parents during those first few minutes/hours/days, she'll ease up on us during the teenage years. What do you mean it doesn't work like that? :)

She is such a healthy and happy 2 week old now. And we think she's pretty perfect. Our hearts are completely full having her a part of our lives. We love you so much Shaylyn Kennedy Johansen!!!

xo,
Shaylyn's Mommy

p.s. I just re-read my last post I put on here at 10pm August 5th. Although I didn't know it (even then) but I actually started early labor just 3 hours later. Haha!! Life is funny, huh? :)

33 weeks - Kicks and Hiccups

33 weeks!

(June 17th)

I realize I'm a first timer and this is the only pregnancy I've ever known, but since the beginning I've felt like baby is SUPER active. Ever since I felt the first flutter at 16 weeks....this kid has. not. stopped. Chad felt the first movement on the outside the week after that (or maybe week 18?) and even he has probably felt something every day since then. I'm starting to get a little nervous about what that may mean for our little nug once he (boy today) is out in this world. Will he ever sleep? Will he kick and punch and roll even in his sleep? Will he grow like a weed and never stop moving? Speaking of moving...when he starts walking/crawling, how will I ever keep up? How many grey hairs will he give me in the next year?

Some days already completely wear me out. I usually wake up feeling pretty good in the mornings and have lots of energy until around the end of the work day, about 4pm. By then I'm feeling a little achy from sitting at my desk all day (yes, I do get up and stretch my legs and take breaks) but I still have some energy and I'm usually very excited to get home and change clothes. Or change clothes and go to yoga and get some stretching and exercising out that way. In fact, as long as it involves getting out of my work clothes I'm good. But then we eat dinner, I'm full, baby is full of crazy energy and pounding my internal organs like no other. And after literally getting beat up from the inside all day, my body has kind of had enough by this point and is sore and just wants to relax. Oh how this kid hates to relax and sit still! These are really the only times that the kicks and punches actually hurt and I may or may not plead with him to please lay still for a minute so I don't barf our dinner all over the couch. Sometimes I moan and whine to Chad (or most recently Momma and Tracy when they spent the week here). One night me and the baby even got to gross Auntie Tracy out quite a bit when she had her hand on my belly and she felt a whole leg go across it and then a foot poke out on my side. She had to pull her hand away because it gave her the chills and kind of made her wanna gag. That was fun. But seriously, I very much enjoyed that.

I may make it sound like I'm complaining about all of this movement, so I should backtrack here. I absolutely love it. Chad likes to remind me of this when I'm moaning and whining around about a foot jabbing me in my right side (ALWAYSSSS my right side...that's where his feet like to hang out). "Don't act like you don't love it," he says. Because I do. I think this kid knows me so well already that he knew I would freak out that something was wrong if I wasn't constantly feeling movement in there. I haven't had one moment that I've considered calling the doctor because I'm not feeling enough. Books and online articles will tell you around 28 weeks you should monitor "kick counts," making sure you feel at least 10 movements an hour during baby's active time. Because I feel so much going on in there throughout the whole day, I've never once even thought about counting. (Knock on wood for that continuing!) So thank you for that little baby...I really appreciate you movin' and shakin' so much for your momma. :)

Speaking of shaking.....let's talk about the hiccups. Oh boyyyy does baby get the hiccups! If I had to give it an average...I probably feel the baby with hiccups about 5 times a day. It's pretty cute and I can't even see him with them yet. Even though my books tell me that hiccups don't bother a baby in the womb or even a baby outside of the womb....I have a feeling this one isn't a huge fan. Hiccups in there usually lead to a lot of movement. I imagine in my head that they annoy him more than anything because he gets them so much so he has to move around and adjust himself to get comfortable. I'm interested to see if the baby gets them as much on the outside as he did on the inside!

Now I leave you with a couple of fun things! Starting at 33 weeks Chad and I started doing a frontal prego belly pic. Mostly because we took the one below, freaked out at how crazy it looked, then thought it was fun to see how it's changing each week. I look at those pictures and think...seriously? How is it possible my belly looks like that? I know I see myself in a mirror every day but to see it in a picture is somehow different. And it makes me giggle. Because I'm really real life pregnant and that's just silly. Silly awesome.

33 week frontal. Whoa. Just whoa.

Remember those hiccups I was telling you about? Here is a little video I took one day of them. Can't you just imagine a sweet little baby making tiny little hiccup noises every time you see my belly jump? :)

And one more video I took today (July 12th - so at 36 weeks). Don't be confused by the background noise...I was at work at the time and a coworker was on a conference call speaking Hebrew. 

It gets really exciting around the :30 second mark. :) Enjoy!

We're getting so close to meeting you Baby J! Your mommy and daddy love you SO much and are SO proud of all that growing you're doing in there!!

xo,

Baby Momma

10 weeks.

1/10/12

Week 10 - Is there something there or am I bloated? It's a toss up.

What the heck is a kumquat? The all knowing wikipedia tells me a kumquat is a citrus-like fruit that's peel is sweet and center is sour and it's mostly used to make marmalade and jelly.

Why do I care what a kumquat is, you ask? I get weekly updates on what's going on in the good ole uterus (and what's going on with me) from babycenter.com and this week (Week 10/Month 3) it tells me Baby J is the size of a kumquat. This cannot be possible because the adorable little round faced baby I am surely growing in my belly could never be associated with such a gross word. "Kumquat" sounds more like something a jr. high boy would call another jr. high boy in the locker room after basketball practice. I do not like that name, do not like it one bit. Too bad because if you look at a picture of one of those things, they're actually pretty cute looking. Poor thing just has to have a dumb name. Kinda like Beyonce and Jay-Z's new baby, Blue. My first thought hearing that this morning was the baby being born and Beyonce yelling, "You're my baby, Blue!!" Just like Will Ferrell yells "You're my boy, Blue!!" in Old School. Good thing all celebrities name their kids something ridiculous or she might be made fun of at school. To which she could always reply, "Whatever, my parents are Beyonce and Jay-Z." Which would pretty much trump any coolness there could ever be so there's always that in Blue's back pocket.

What was I talking about? Oh right, it's week 10 for me and the babe! I say that line quite often these days, "What was I talking about?" I don't feel like it's pregnancy brain so much as I'm overwhelmed sometimes thinking about the fact that I'm growing a human and going to have a baby who will call me "mommy" and whose life will depend on me and Chad. Sometimes I'll be talking to Chad about {insert unimportant matter here} and for a tiny split second I won't be thinking about the fact that I'm pregnant and going to be a mother. And just like that all of those realizations come flooding in at me while I'm trying to tell him about {insert unimportant matter here}. Then my mind is all...."Holy shit balls this is crazy, am I even old enough to do this?" "Is there going to be some kind of test before they let us go home alone with the baby?" "Oh man I'm sure we won't pass it and then we'll have to give the baby back." "Oh no it would be even worse if they DON'T give a written/oral/multiple choice test because then they'd actually send us home with an infant without even knowing how clueless we are!" Usual procedure after that involves me forgetting my name so trying to figure out what I was saying in conversation is completely out of the question.

What was I saying? Oh right, I'm feeling pretty good on the mark of week 10! Some fun activities this week include: being extra tired, yawning all day long, working to keep my eyes open while at work, and trying to stay awake past 8pm at night. I fell asleep last night on the couch at 8:15pm (to the sound of Chad washing and putting away dishes AFTER he had made us dinner in the first place, goodness I love that man), Chad woke me up to get in bed at 9:30pm, then I had to drag myself out of bed to my alarm at 7am. It's a good thing I had to pee really bad or else I might have stayed there an extra hour.

Recently I've been on the hunt for a good yoga studio that offers Prenatal Yoga, but haven't found what I'm looking for. The yoga studio I like to go to as a "normal" person is hot yoga and now that's off limits. I'm actually having a hard time finding a place that offers classes after working hours or only on weekends. I feel like it shouldn't be this difficult to find given I'm in the state of California (we love hippy yoga stuff here) and there are a LOT of working moms/moms-to-be in the area. Anyway, still on the hunt because I really like doing yoga and want to continue it throughout my pregnancy.

In other news.....anxious for our next appointment on the 19th! Excited to see the little kumquat again and make sure everything is okay in there. (That sentence just made me laugh A LOT.) I think we get to hear the heartbeat at that appointment and we're both VERY excited about that!! The whole pregnancy thing became a whole lot more real last night when I was thinking about being 10 weeks into a 40 week pregnancy (that is if I go until the due date). This means I'm essentially 1/4 of the way there to having our baby in my arms. CRAZY, AWESOME, TERRIFYING, AMAZING, EXCITING don't really describe what that feels like. I'm also a couple weeks away from being in the 2nd trimester. Also very surreal, since I feel like this whole process just started but I also already feel like I've been pregnant forever. :) It's all so fun and makes me giggle a lot. I've been so lucky so far not having a nightmare of a 1st trimester and I hope it all continues to go smoothly! I've been holding back saying this outloud (or typing it) because I've been afraid I'm going to jinx something but.....I really love being pregnant. And from what I hear...it gets even better in the 2nd trimester!! :)

xo,
Baby Momma

7 :) weeks!

12/19/11

7 is my favorite number. 7 is Chad's favorite number, well some might even call it borderline obsessive problem with the number 7 for him....  He only sets his alarm to wake up in the morning with a time that includes a 7. 5:47am, 6:37am, 7:07am. We got married on June 12th, 2010 at 5:07pm. (Well at least our invitations clearly stated it...the rain held us back a little though.) I wore #7 in college and so did he. Since our whole friendship started because we played softball/baseball at Woods and then grew into something more...it feels like the number seven has always been a part of our relationship together. Here's a picture we took for Table 7 at our wedding reception: :)

Anyway.....here we are on week 7 (2 months) of being pregnant! :) My first appointment with the doctor last week was great!! We met with Dr. S (who Chad really liked too, so that was good!)...she asked us questions, we asked her questions, she explained how procedure goes for her office (where I will deliver, how to get a hold of her in an emergency, etc), she also said she delivers about 90% of her patients which I thought was a pretty good number! If it's not her it's the other doctor in the same office which she'll have me make an appointment with later in the pregnancy to get to know her as well. I explained to her that we would be leaving for Missouri on the 22nd and be gone for 6 days (and that I was VERY anxious and excited to share the news with my family at that time.) She said traveling wasn't a problem and suggested drinking a lot of water and pack snacks for the flight to help ward off sickness. Once she realized I would be at 7 weeks this week, she suggested we come back in today to see if we can find a heartbeat from the baby. I almost jumped out of my skin I was so excited to hear that! Dr. S thinks it will help give everyone peace of mind while traveling (aka being away from her office this early in my pregnancy) if we can hear that beautiful "thump thump" and know that everything is going okay in there. Dr. S also said it might be fun to give the family a cute little picture while she's checking things out too. Oh yes, I already love you Dr. S. :) She made sure to warn us that we may not be able to find a heartbeat this early though....and to not freak out if we don't, it just may mean that we're off on how far along we are.

After they asked for a urine sample before my appointment, I was fully expecting the nurse/doctor to come in the room and say "Congratulations, you're definitely pregnant!" Or maybe I was just hoping, rather than expecting it.... But that didn't happen, so the whole appointment I kept thinking, "so they're just going by the fact that I told them I got a positive result in my bathroom 2 weeks ago?" I was really wanting someone else to confirm the fact that I'm not crazy and there really is something going on in there. As we were leaving and making my next appointment....I asked if they tested and the nurse said "Oh yes honey, you are very pregnant!!" Whew, thanks! Next thought as we walked out...."Wait, what did she mean by very pregnant? Are my hCG levels higher than they normally are in a 7 week pregnancy, meaning there could be something in there 'doubling' those levels??" Insert small panic.

My mom (and within the last year Chad's mom) have been having these weird feelings and dreams that Chad and I are going to have twins some day. I've always laughed about it and thought that would be pretty fun to have 2 at the same time knowing the kind of bond they would always have together (and how cute they would look when I dressed them alike every day of their lives.) My mom has identical twin sisters who I have always adored and who are the best of friends to each other. But this was the first time since being pregnant that I thought about it. Holy crap....it seriously overwhelms me to think about what the heck I would do if we had twins. It blows my mind to think about a doctor telling us we can leave the hospital with one baby.....let alone having two! The past few days these thoughts have been sneaking in my mind more and more since I realized we could possibly find out if there's 2 in there TODAY. Holy. Balls. Well....whatever happens I suppose there is a reason for it and my main focus and concern is that whoever is in there is healthy and happy!!!

Yay for Week 7!! There is a lot of good energy and prayers going into hearing a healthy heartbeat today and getting to see that little booger in there!! Which in reality is about the size of a large booger. :)

Update: I must have forgot to take bump pictures in weeks 7-10. But don't worry nothing seemed to change at all for my belly during those weeks so you can just check out my week 6 picture if you're curious. :)

"You like that daddy?"

11/30/11

No, the title of this post isn't a line from a dirty movie. It's something Chad has been saying for the past 5 years in this high pitched Spanish accent, mostly to my BFF Melis. And mostly because she's the only one that laughs at it every time he says it. :)

Anywayyyy........Chad is now aware that he'll be a daddy in 9 months. And he likes that. (You get the play on words there?? You like that daddy...Chad liking that he is going to be a daddy... Oh man, sometimes I'm just too much for myself. I digress....)

Sometime in August I was at a wine and art festival in Mountain View with a friend. There were lots of vendor booths and a little onesie caught my eye. I bought it knowing Chad and I were planning to start a family soon enough or if nothing else it would make a cute gift for someone who was expecting. Not sure why but I never told Chad (or anyone else) that I bought it at the time....and it ended up coming in handy last night when deciding how to tell him I was knockered up. I stopped by Target on my way home from work, picked up "What To Expect When You're Expecting" for myself and a candy bar for Chad. He didn't get home until 6ish so I made myself busy by wrapping Christmas presents in the meantime. I made a quick change on his candy bar and I decided to wrap it too.....so it would seem like an early Christmas present. Which it pretty much is. :)

His early Christmas present

What was inside the box. :)

When he finally got home I could barely say hello and act semi interested in how his day was before I was trying to be cool about saying I had an early present for him. He picked up his box on the couch and said, "Well, we aren't planning to do much for each other for Christmas so maybe I should just wait." I insisted that he "shouldn't wait...it was just a little something and not a big deal...you know me, I just like to wrap things." (Later on I found out he was expecting it was something golf related because he is golfing at a really nice course for work on Friday.) So he opens it up and holds up the onesie and looks at the candy....and then just looks at me with the most confused look on his face. Kind of like, "What in the hell am I supposed to do with this?" Apparently the baby attire and the "Baby Johansen" candy bar weren't big enough clues. :) I just say, "Sooooo.......I'm pregnant." Then he gets what's going on, throws the box across the room and gives me the biggest smile and hug I think I've ever seen. We laughed and cried and he kept saying "are you sure?" "what?" "when?" "are you sure?" It was a memory I will keep forever. :)

After talking for a while we decided making dinner ourselves was way too much work so we went out for Italian. While we were driving there Chad says, "I feel so weird driving right now...like I have to be extra cautious and stuff..." I laugh and say "I know I felt like that this morning too. We'll never get home from the hospital with a baby in our backseat....it's going to take us 4 hours to drive 3 miles."

I love my Baby Daddy.

xo
Baby Momma

Today is a good day. A very good day. (Part 2)

....picking up where I left off on yesterday's post....

11/29/11

At 6:53am that beautiful little digital test went from a timer display to "Pregnant" in about 2 minutes.

It was kind of funny that my first reaction after seeing it was not to freak out....I just said, "No I'm not." I even said it out loud. I kept looking at the test waiting for the "Not" to show up before the 2nd word. I've taken a digital test like that before and I know that the 2 words ('Not' and 'Pregnant') show up together....but for some reason I was so shocked by only seeing 1 word that I couldn't even believe it. So I sat and waited for what seemed like forever (but probably 30 seconds max) waiting for "Not" to show up....but it never did.

I don't get it...where is the 'Not'?

Then I just kept looking at the test, looking at myself in the mirror smiling like a goofball, looking at the test, looking at myself in the mirror smiling like a goofball. I went back and forth like this for a while. I silently danced and screamed in the bathroom while Chad sat working on his computer in the next room.

Evidence of my "smiling like a goofball." Please excuse my bedhead...it was 6:53am people.

I took a shower and went about my normal morning routine. I had a few more dance parties while in the shower and had my first "conversation" with my belly. :) Once out of the shower, I tried super hard to play it cool and act normal to Chad. I don't think he picked up on anything...but I absolutely could not look him in the eyes. I just knew he would figure me out if he looked hard enough. Plus...it's impossible for me to lie to him when I see his eyes so I had to avoid them. I most definitely had an extra pep in my step this morning so I tried toning it down in front of him. I know what you're thinking "Whaaaat?! You didn't tell him right away?! You're the devil!!!" I knew I want to tell Chad in a special way and because we were both leaving for work so soon...I didn't want to rush it. And I knew he had a day full of meetings and would have a lot on his mind today...so I'll steal his full attention tonight. Then we can talk about it for as long as we want, rather than have to rush out the door. Plus....he got to take me off guard when he proposed, this gets to be my surprise for him. :) He's going to be SO excited. He might even do his little girl scream that I love so much. I cannot WAIT to see the look on his face.

I was about 15 minutes late to work this morning because I just couldn't really focus on anything I needed to do without dazing off into space thinking about how awesome all of this is. There is an extra brightness in my face and eyes that even I can see in the mirror...and no, I don't think I have the "pregnancy glow" thing going on.... :) the cause of this is absolute and complete happiness. In fact I can't even remember the last time I felt this happy. Oh wait...yes I do...I felt this same way on June 12th, 2010. :)

To the baby that is growing inside of me- (Sidenote: Holy crap sack that's weird.) Please know that I love you already. I have wanted you my entire life. I hope you can feel the love I'm sending to you every second of every day from now on.

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Today is a good day. A very good day. (Part 1)

11/29/11

I'm pregnant.

I'm going to have a baby.

Chad and I are going to be parents.

I'm growing a human inside of me.

HOLY. BALLS.

I could just scream!!!!!!!! I have a permanent smile plastered to my face this morning.

The best part? Chad doesn't even know yet. No one but this girl knows the secret (well and this blog I'm saving as a draft). I'm going to tell Chad tonight. I could burst with excitement about it...I hope this day goes by fast or I'll never make it!!

However...it is fun having this huge enormous gigantic monstrous crazy awesome secret all to myself for now. It's making me feel this crazy and beautiful connection with this baby already. :) Omg...I'm going to have a baby.

So how come I know and Chad doesn't yet? Well, I found out this morning. I've had a sneaking suspicion just over the last couple of days that maybe...just maybe I really could be. But they were kind of the same symptoms I get when I'm going to start my period. Only magnified. My boobs are sore...so very sore. But that's usual this time of the month, although never this sore. I've been very sleepy. I didn't notice that until Sunday and I thought it was because of the Thanksgiving holiday and traveling. We had the drive down to southern California, then Black Friday shopping with my sister-in-laws Donna and Rachel and a friend from 12am-6am (but I caught up on sleep the next day), then we drove 7 hours home on Sunday and I slept just about the whole drive, then went to bed at 10pm and got up 9 hours later STILL tired, then finally last night I called it a night at 8:30pm because I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. I mentioned to Chad on the drive home on Sunday that I didn't think this month was "our" month because I was feeling a little bit of cramping like I normally do a couple days before. But then I noticed yesterday that I had NO cramping...and usually the days leading up are pretty rough. I contemplated taking a test last night but decided I should wait until the morning.

At 6:53am the exciting thing I was hoping for happened in my bathroom.

Part 2 of the story coming up tomorrow! Ahh...cliffhangers. So fun. :) In the meantime...here is a picture I took that morning before I left for work as my first official pregnant picture.

xo
Brooke