Grady is here!

Hello world!!!

We are thrilled to announce the arrival of our son Grady Christopher Johnson!  Apparently this little man loves the Olympics as much as his mama and didn't want to miss any of the action.  He was born at 6:54pm on July 29th and weighed in at 7 pounds 7 ounces and was 21 inches long. We are so in love!

39 weeks! The end.

Little stinker came 5 days early.

Right before leaving for the hospital.

Here are some pics from Grady's first 24 hours.  I will hold off on posting the other several hundred pics (only a slight exageration) I've taken since we got home for now and will post them in the next couple of days.

Going home!

Mainly for my own purposes, here is the summary of Grady's birth.

On Saturday night after watching Lochte win gold, we showered and got ready for bed around 11:00 o'clock.  Chris was already in bed when I notified him that "uhhhh, I think my water just broke." We headed to the hospital and were checked into our room by 2:00 a.m.  Upon check in, I was also re-informed by the nurse how small my pelvis is and the likelihood of a delivery by C-section, a reality that I'd come to accept. Something was in the air in Boise because I was the 8th woman who checked in to labor and delivery that night whose water had broken, but hadn't gone in to active labor.  To give perspective, the hospital delivers around 120 babies per month so 8 in one night is a ton and only 8-10% of women have their water break before they go in to labor.

The hospital was short staffed to be able to handle the volume of women that night and so we sat without contractions until 10:30 a.m., when the nursing ratio was at a point where they could give me Pitocin to start contractions.  Once the Pitocin was administered, my contractions came hard and fast.  We seemed to shock our nurses when 2 hours later I was dilated to a 6 and half hour later was at an 8 when I was given the heaven sent epidural (power to the mamas who go all natural, but I am not one of them).  Thank goodness for the epidural because when I reached a 10 within that hour, they made the decision that my best chance of avoiding a C-section was to let my body "labor down".  Laboring down is the process of letting a woman's body try to work a baby through the pelvis on its own when she is otherwise ready to start actively pushing.  So again, there we sat for 3 and a half hours.  Again, I praise whoever invented the epidural because I would not want to have endured that without pain management. 

Finally, we were given the green light to try to push. Things were going well until little G-man's heart rate began to drop with each contraction.  I could tell our nurse was beginning to become alarmed and the next thing I knew 7 nurses and Dr.'s were in the room (remember this is with the short staffing).  At that point I knew they wanted the baby out and wanted him out fast.  They told us that they would try to use a vacuum to assist with labor and that I had two contractions to get him out or else they'd have to do a C-section.  So through tears and prayers and a little help from modern technology,  I avoided a C-Section by the narrowest of margins.  I joke that Grady was born vacuum sealed and kissed by an angel (the mark on his forehead is called an angel kiss - also referred to as a stork bite when it is on the back of the neck).  Our little man had a round yamaka looking bruise on his head, but otherwise came out of his traumatic birth just fine and we couldn't be more grateful.  When they put him on my chest, I totally lost it.  I couldn't believe that he was finally here and Chris proudly announced his name to the nurses, "Grady Christopher Johnson." 

Through it all, Chris was the best support person that a person could ask for.  Our marriage is different, it is better.  Becoming parents has certainly changed things on its own, but going through the process of labor with all of its ups and downs together as a team changed our relationship in a profound way.