The Story

Sorry the pictures are almost a month late. Wow that month went by fast! For those that haven't heard the story already...here ya go.

I woke up on March 31 at about 7:15 am to either me peeing my pants or my water breaking. Taft had just left for work and I wasn't sure what to do. I ran to the bathroom and when...stuff wouldn't stop coming out I knew something was wrong. I called my sister, but she was no help since her water had always been broken at the hospital so she didn't know what it was like. After her Googeling it, and realizing that's what was going on, I called Taft and told him to get home now. Seeing how this all happened 5 weeks early, we weren't prepared at all. I was too worried about not looking like a peed my pants when I got the hospital that I didn't think to pack a bag or anything. About halfway to Landstuhl, the contractions started. Oh dang. And of course all the idiots decided to be driving in front of us that day. Taft got us there in record time (about 10 minutes instead of the normal 30). I was sitting on towels so my pants would be dry. But of course as soon as I put them on and got out of the car, they were instantly soaked. I felt like a total idiot. Anyway...I got admitted and all hooked up. My contractions would happen regularly for about an hour, then stop. I was stuck at a 2. They started me on Patosin, and then decided to give me the epidural. Sure wish they would've done it the other way around! That afternoon I still wasn't going anywhere. So they upped the dosage and I fell asleep. I woke up at about 6:30 to really bad contractions again. I told the nurse who wasn't expecting me to have progressed at all. She checked me out and sure enough, his head was right there ready to come out. I pushed for about 10 minutes and ta da! Little Parker Taft Johnson was born. The doctor had Taft cut the chord (which he did NOT want to do) but the doc had it clamped weird and when he cut it, blood went everywhere. The nurses would look very concerned when they'd come to check on me after the delivery and asked if anything went wrong. We only got to hold Parker for a few minutes before they took him away to the NICU. He was doing good at first, but since he was so early, they had to check him out anyway and his oxygen levels were dropping. He ended up spending 3 days in the NICU, which were absolute hell for me, and on oxygen and an IV for about a day and a half. He was released to the Pediatric ward for more monitoring. His first night went well, but by the morning his billirubin levels were at 18. Normal is about 10. So he spent the next two days as a fly baby doing light therapy. He even had a pad he had to lay on when I nursed him. We all got to come home Easter Sunday.

Parker is such a little champ. It's very rare that a baby that premature gets to come home that soon. He's such an angel and blessing. I can't help but just stare at him. It's amazing to me how much personality he already has. It's fun for me and Taft to notice little things he does or features he has that come from one of us. I can't believe how fast time's going and how old and big he already is. Granted "big" is relative. The newborn stuff still drowns him for the most part.

Enjoy the pics! Sorry there's tons, but that's what happens when you have a baby overseas and your family wants to see the new baby!