Our Week in Pictures

Will and I had several more photoshoots this week. I think my kid is already developing PCS (Photographer's Child Syndrome)...he'll hardly look at me when I have that darn thing in my hands! I thought I'd get at least a year of him looking at the camera. Oh well!

Monday
I brought out trusty 'ol Mr. Bear for some comparison shots. Think the little stinker has grown at all? Geeze! What happened to my newborn?! (Sorry Mom, the Bear still doesn't have a name. I think he's doomed to be Mr. Bear forever...but he's definitely not a Bill! [or whatever it was that you guys named him for me ;)])

...must not look at the crazy Mama with the camera!




This face gets made a lot in our house :)


Finally got a little eye contact and a smile! Hooray!


Will thought Mr. Bear needed a little hug

Tuesday
Will and I went to a playgroup with a bunch of other babies his age. We both had a great time, but Mommy didn't take any pictures. It's so fun to watch him interact with babies his age...he loves them! He'll talk, smile, and stare at them for a loong time. It's so fun to watch!

Wednesday
God is blessing us SO much...and I am SO grateful for it! We had a two couples come over with their children to check out our place and meet us to see if they'd like me to watch their kids. The first couple has a five month old daughter and they're definitely going to have me watch her...she starts on July 13th! I'm incredibly excited - it's going to be so much fun to watch her and be able to be home with Will all day long. The second couple has a son who is just a few days younger than Will. They're still deciding on things, since his Mama doesn't have to go back to work until August...but I'm hopeful that they'll decide to let me watch their little guy too...I think the three babies would have a great time together and I would be in Heaven watching all of them! :) God is doing some great things over here and I'm so, so thankful that he's blessing us and letting me stay home with Will.

Thursday
I was looking through pictures and realized I hardly had any shots of Will and Greg together, especially not lately. So even though Will was being a fuss-budget, I got the camera and got some adorable pictures. They're not technically the best, but they'll always hold a special place in my heart. Sometimes it's hard being a photographer and looking past the "bad" parts of a picture and realizing that any picture that captures your family as they are is a good picture.

I love those blue eyes and those pouty lips!


Starting to fuss for Mommy


This one just makes me smile!

Friday
Today Will and I joined some ladies I met at the playgroup for Baby Day at the Alamo Drafthouse. We saw The Proposal (second time for me) and I loved it! It's definitely my kind of movie! Afterward, Will and stopped by Greg's office to say hi and then went over to a consignment shop and got him a swimming suit, a few pairs of shorts, and an Exersaucer. The Exersaucer is a HUGE hit! He's not quite big enough for it yet and has to be propped up with blankets, but he loves being able to sit on his own and loves being able to reach for the toys.

We are so, so richly blessed. Sometimes I'm blown away with how lucky I am...I have an amazing husband, a wonderful baby that I adore, a gorgeous house, and a job that I love. Life certainly couldn't get anymore blessed and amazing.

This is hard.

I am definitely not cut out to be a working mom. It's all I can do to focus during the day and get stuff done...I miss my little boy SO much! Today was worse than yesterday and even though I tried to keep myself busy by starting to pack up my classroom while my kids were working, there just wasn't enough to do!

One of my co-workers asked me today if I was going to miss teaching...I will miss it. A lot, actually! But there is nothing in the world worth more to me than being there for Will. My mom used to tell me that she told my dad she'd "eat beans out of a can for the rest of her life" as long as she could stay home with my brother and me. And I can totally relate now. I'd live in an apartment, with no cable, and eat bean burritos forever as long as I could be with him during the day. I'm so, so thankful I only have six more days of school left. Because it seems like I've been working for two weeks, not just two days.

I think it's been hard on Will too...not just me. My aunt told me that he slept all day today, which isn't really like him. He's sleeping on me right now too and hasn't really woken up since I got home at 4. I'm trying hard not to worry about him (easier said than done!) and keep telling myself that this is an adjustment for him too...he needs his Mommy as much as I need him! He cried this morning when I left, which made me feel awful. I know he doesn't know that I'm leaving him, but the timing worked out just to where he started crying when I gave him a kiss and told him goodbye. It broke my heart! I'm so thankful my aunt is staying with him - I would be a MESS if I didn't love and trust the person taking care of him!

Tomorrow is Thursday, thank goodness...2 more days until the weekend!

Long Week

I can't believe it was only last Thursday that I posted last...it's been a long six days! I've got lots to post and lots of pictures. All taken with my point and shoot camera - so glad I have that to capture the everyday stuff! Let's see, where to begin.

Last Thursday we had the final walk-through on our house. Everything looked great, but Will was super fussy the entire time. Not to mention the fact that he screamed bloody murder the entire 15 minute drive over to the house. SCREAMED. I've never heard him like that before - it was awful! When we got there, my mom took him and he still wouldn't really calm down. He didn't want a bottle, he didn't want his paci. We went to dinner and this continued. When we got home (lots of screaming and fussing on the way) I took his temperature because it was so unlike him to cry like that. It was 99.9. Since he'd been crying so hard, I decided to give him a bath and see if he'd calm down some. He did, so after he was all dried off, I took it again. It'd gone up to 100.4...our pediatrician had said we needed to call for anything above 100.4 and this was right at it, so I called. Since he was so little, they wanted us to be seen right away, but of course, it was 8:30 by that time...so we had to go to the ER.

We arrived at S&W and were taken back to an exam room. They took his temp (it had gone down some...I think it was around 99?), checked his heartrate and oxygen levels. His oxygen and heartrate were a little off. We waited around and finally some nurses came in and did a catheter to take urine. We waited around some more, they came back in and did a chest x-ray. They never once listened to his chest and I never mentioned coughing or wheezing, but apparently a chest x-ray was necessary.(I got kicked out of the room, but Greg got to stay). We did some more waiting before FINALLY seeing the on-call doctor. This was around 12am. She wanted to draw blood and do a spinal tap. I declined the spinal tap and she went to get a second opinion on everything. She came back around 1 and said that as long as we followed up with our pediatrician in the morning we didn't have to do the spinal, but they did need to draw blood. Fine, whatever. (Can you tell I was kind of ticked off at the hospital at this point?) The blood draw was probably one of the most traumatic things I've experienced in awhile - same for Will. They blew out his vein and he screamed :( I hated not being able to comfort him! Finally around 2am we were sent home with strict instructions to follow up with the pediatrician in the morning. All three of us were beyond exhausted.

The next morning we followed up at the pediatricians. His fever had gone back up to 100.4. We talked a lot and Dr. Travis said that he figured it was probably viral. We decided to watch him closely for the weekend and wait for the cultures on the blood and urine to come back from Scott & White.

I came home after the pediatrician's, Will ate, and then took a long nap on our bed. Poor thing was so tired from all the poking and prodding :( My mom came over around 12:30 to watch him because I had to go close on our house! In all the craziness of the night before, closing had kind of lost the exciting-ness that it had held before the ER visit. But it was great to sign all those papers and realize that the house was finally ours!

The weekend held lots of running around shopping for appliances, paint, and furniture. Everyone was having GREAT deals because it was Memorial Day weekend so we got a fridge and a microwave for an awesome price and got all our paint for $5 off a gallon! We decided to wait on furniture, even though we found a bedroom set and a dining set at Ashley that we absolutely loved...we'll save up and get it soon :)

Sunday night we had dinner at my parent's house. Yummy grilled chicken and shrimp (thanks Matt!) and then Monday my Aunt Gena flew in from Albuquerque so she could watch Will this week...Today was my first day back at work and it was hard. I was alright as long as I was busy - recess, lunch, planning, and all those little in between moments where I didn't have a lot going on were really tough for me. I missed him like crazy and my heart ached to be home cuddling with him, nursing him instead of pumping, and watching his cute little smiles. The only thing that got me through the day was repeating to myself "seven more days." I'll be honest, though...seven days seems like a LONG time to me right now. :( Will has been nursing non-stop since I got home, which in a weird way makes me feel good. I feel bad for Greg though - he doesn't want to leave his Mama at all!

I'll try to post another update later this week, but it's going to be hard with teaching and all...Seven more days :)

Catching Up

Last Friday, Greg and I had our first "date night." My parents watched Will and we went to see Wolverine at the movie theater. We had a really good time, but man, it was weird being away from him! I missed him so much, even though I knew he was being loved and well taken care of with my mom and dad. I told Greg it was a good thing we were at a movie where I could focus my attention on something other than how much I missed my baby. I have two more weeks left of my maternity leave before I have to return to school to finish up the last 8 days of the year. Can I just say right now how much I'm dreading this? My Aunt is coming to stay with Will for part of the time and I'm SO excited to see her and so glad that she's staying with Will...but there is not anything in this world that could make me want to go back to work for those 8 days. Sigh...I'm going to be a mess, I can already tell! It just makes me even more thankful that I'm going to get to stay home with him :)

Then on Saturday, we headed out to the Round Rock Amphitheater to see our good friend Justin and his band, The Justin Cofield Band, play a benefit concert. We got to see a ton of people from our old church and we had SO much fun! It was the first time that Will had been outside for any significant amount of time and he loved it. He was so alert all night. He also loved the music. My mom was holding him and she said she could feel his chest vibrating as he "sang" along...I'm not sure he was really singing, but I do know that he enjoyed it! ;) I think he's going to be our music baby - he's loved music ever since he was in my tummy. At one point during the concert, he started to get a little bit fussy. But when Justin and the guys started playing again, he hushed up right away! I got asked two questions over and over by our friends that we saw there...the first was if I was breastfeeding and how it was going (yes I am, and it's going really well!) and the second was if I was going to be returning to work. Every time I said that I wasn't going to be, I got told what an awesome decision that was and that God was going to bless us for that. It really makes me feel good to know how much other believers value investing in your family. I know that we'll have people praying for us and I know that God will take care of us. We may not have all the toys and material things that others have (and that at times we may want), but we will always be fed, clothed, and loved. And in the end, that's all that matters. After the concert we bathed Will, I fed him, and then he was out for the count! He slept for 6 1/2 hours straight...it was amazing! He hasn't repeated that performance since then, but it does give me hope that one day the kid will learn how to sleep longer than 3 hours at a time! :)

Will has been going through a growth spurt the past few days. He's been eating non-stop - literally every hour to hour and a half pretty much around the clock. It's been an exhausting few days, but I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Supposedly after growth spurts end, they're followed by lots of sleeping...we'll see! He's outgrown several of his newborn outfits now (I think only one or two still fit him) and is fitting in 0-3 month stuff pretty solidly. I have a feeling that he's not going to fit in 0-3 month clothing for another month and a half! He's also losing a LOT of his hair...and it's being replaced by hair that's a lot lighter. I'm not sure I'd call it blonde, but it's definitely not as dark as we thought it was. His eyes are lightening up every day and I really, really hope they stay blue. They're such a pretty shade! He's been off his reflux medicine since Friday and I can definitely tell a difference in him, at nighttime especially.

So all is well in the Johnson household. I can't believe my baby will be six weeks old on Saturday!

Happy Viability Day, Will!

Today marks 24 weeks of being pregnant...the special thing about that is that Will is now considered "viable" outside the womb if he were to be born today! All his major organs are functioning, and although his lungs aren't working properly, he could live with a respirator. His mommy definitely wants him to stay in there and cook for awhile longer though...no early appearances, please!

Will weighs about 1 1/2 pounds this week and is the length of a foot long hot dog. My baby book said that he looks pretty cramped in there now...I can imagine so! I can feel him moving around very often! It's pretty fun if he's kicking to put my hand over the spot and press down a little bit. He usually goes into a fit of kicking as if to say, "Hey! I'm cramped enough in here already. Please don't make it any smaller!" He also looks like an infant now and the next 16 weeks will be spent accumulating fat (for cute, chubby cheeks!) and continuing to perfect his breathing/organ functions.

This past weekend we painted our Craigslist find dresser...It looks great! It was an exhausting, all day affair, but we managed to get it completely painted, clear-coated, and moved into his room! The silver knobs we bought for it look great too. Now we just need a rocking chair or glider and a bookcase. Our bedding should be here any day (provided JCPenney doesn't mess up our order again!) and his room will really start coming together. I have a bunch of cute decoration ideas and I have a friend who is an interior decorator to help :)


I started my job at Robertson last Wednesday and was in a math training today. I'm slowly getting my room set up and will start teaching my kiddos on Friday! I'm really excited about working there and I'm really enjoying everyone I work with. I think it's going to be a great fit...God is so good to me!