haPPy to be a big brother!

On Thursday, Michael finally showed an interest in Major and wanted to hold him. So I had him sit in one of the living room chairs, put the boppy around him and put Major in his lap. He looked at Major lovingly and it was a perfect moment.


After about 2 minutes Michael said “Umm… I think he peed on me.” I told him of course he had not. I was sure that Major was just warm from laying on me. After a few more minutes, Major got fussy and mom brought him to me. Michael followed and showed me his shirt.

About Me

I got put back on bed rest on Thursday. I had my Dr appointment. I went in and they weighed me - I've lost about 30 lbs since last Monday. Then they took my blood pressure. It was 169/124, so they had me lay down for 10 minutes and took it again and it was down to 120/104. So she told me that she didn't want to put me back in the hospital or have a stroke, so we would start with a medication and staying in bed. I went back on Friday morning to have it checked again. The meds made it a lot better.

Mom rushed over from Christy’s, spent the night and went to the Dr with me. She went to the appointment with me. The meds make me weak. I was so weak going to the Dr, dad had to get a wheel chair for me. The Dr said that I have “post-partum hypertension.” I also am anemic. She expects me be on the blood pressure meds for 5 or 6 weeks. She put me on some iron pills, said I would probably lose a few more pounds and it would take about 90 days for my body to replenish the blood that I need.

I have also been dealing with the baby blues the last few days... well, since last Friday. It seems that after I delivered Major, my uterus didn’t realize that I had delivered and kept pushing blood through. After a delivery the nurses push on your uterus to make sure it is contracting and that pushes out any extra blood. Over about a 2 hour period, I almost bled to death. I only remember a few things from the entire event. I remember that I had a Mr Pibb and threw up… the nurse pushed my stomach and I felt a gush come out…Mark put the oxygen mask on my face…I heard my mom praying, standing over my right shoulder…someone gave me a shot on the leg…my Dr told me she was going to give me a blood transfusion because I had lost a lot of blood and calling for 4 bags… That’s it. Maybe 5 minutes of 2 hours. I would pass out. I was gone.

So, all of this is understandably disturbing to me. As if finding out that I nearly bled to death after child birth wasn’t enough, then I was dealing with the thought of my kids, my precious babies, growing up with out a mother… with baby Major never knowing me… with Mark raising 3 kids by himself… my parents losing another child. It has been terrible. I haven’t wanted to talk to people. When I would go upstairs and into the boys room I would ball. Just thinking about how much I need them and how much they need me. I got back on my happy pills on Sunday after I was having panic attacks.

Now, a week later, I am feeling better. Last night I had a headache, I took Tylenol at 2 and at 9, and still went to bed praying that I wouldn’t have a stroke or die in my sleep. It will just take some time. I know some of this is natural. I remember after Michael and Mavrick were born, having similar feelings. My prayer life has certainly increased.

Anyway, thank you to all of you who have prayed me through the last two weeks. I am certain that there are many life lessons that God is trying to show me through this. I have a habit of saying “I’m done.” when I am tired of a situation or task. I have learned I am not done, and I would rather be doing something I am not wild about than to miss this great life I have.

First Outings

First trips out of the house were on Monday to Major’s Dr. He is doing great. The Dr. said he is perfect. I knew that, but certainly glad that other people recognize that too. Today we went back to the hospital for his follow-up PKU test. He cried just a little but was fine and slept without complaints. He just eats too much. Really, he will eat till he burps and milk comes out his nose. He will typically only do that around his 1:00 feeding.



Michael and Mavrick love their little brother. Mavrick wants to hold him and kiss him and squeeze him and love him. Michael is ok just looking at him. Overall, I think they are doing good and becoming accustomed to being big brothers. I am a little worried that they may never find their “inside voice.” Surely that will come too.

Major Delivery!

What is today? Everything still seems to be speeding by, yet I feel like I am in slow motion. Baby Major Trey Pittard was born on Wednesday, April 16th at 9:11 pm, weighing in at 7 lbs. and 15 oz, and was 20.5 inches long. He took the long rough road into town. It was over 24 hours from the time we arrived at the hospital on Tuesday night and the time he was delivered on Wednesday evening.

Upon checking in to the hospital, I was given something to help to soften my cervix. At 4:00 Wednesday morning, there was pretty much no change in my cervix. A few hours later, I was dilated to a 2, but the baby was still very high. By noon there was virtually no change. The Dr tried to break my water, but later we found out that my cervix was tilted and the water was not broken. In the mean time, the nurse moved me from one side to another to get my cervix back in place. I want to say around 4-ish, the Dr broke my water–for real this time. It seems like that was the time that things started to happen. And was really one of the times that we thought a c-section may be necessary. I was really having a lot of pain and the anesthesiologist was called back into up my epidural medication.

I had received an epidural earlier in the day, and it worked great for a while. But when they had to start tilting me back and forth, it must have pulled on the epi enough to where it was not working any more. As the contractions finally got more frequent and stronger, so did the pain. For the second delivery in a row, I found myself in full blown labor with full blown pain. The anesthesiologist came back in and gave me a new one with a bigger tube and more meds. In this process I cried till I had to have oxygen because it hurt so bad. I remember telling Mark that it was just “too much at one time.” Too much pain, too many people, too many directions to follow, too much out of my control, just too much. When the epidural was finally back to work it was full strength. And it was also time to push – finally!

I could still fell the contractions coming, but nowhere near like I was prior to the new epi. We first had to get the baby down before we could get him out. The nurse had me push with each contraction. Deep breath, push for a count of 10, doing so four times per contraction. The oxygen was obviously still on. We did this several times, then the Dr came in and we were ready to push. By this time I was already exhausted. I couldn’t tell where I was pushing. I had so much anesthesia that I could not focus on just one area of my body. It was difficult, and again, I was out of control. We continued with the same pushing routine for what seemed like 30 minutes. Major was finally in a position that the Dr could help work him out and after a few more contractions, he was finally in this world with us.

He broke his collar bone on the way out. My Dr didn’t know if it was me ripping or his bone breaking, but she knew something had happened. He was very quite, and I was so thankful that Mark was there with me and could go check and me sure he was ok. Mark reported that he had 10 fingers and 10 toes and looked wonderful. The team of nurses looked him over and said he was fine and that they would give him to me in just a few minutes after a once over.

Too Fat For A Bath!

I have been on bed rest for 8 ½ days now. I have been out of the house a few times with my mom, but definitely got more rest than activity. I have had more headaches this week, but I don’t know if it is because I have been in bed so long, or if I should be worried about it… anyway, I decided that tonight would be a good night to soak in a hot bath. The kids are at my mom and dad’s spending the night, Mark is working on one of his many projects. A hot soak is just what I needed.

I run the water, put in some fragrant bubbles, and started to get in. It quickly became apparent that there was not a snowballs chance that my entire belly would be able to “soak.” It was crazy difficult to just sit down! Of course, when I finally got seated, the water level doubled and got so high that most of it went out the top drain. My belly stuck out like an island in the middle of the ocean. I couldn’t get comfortable at all. So much for trying to relax! It was more like a “sits bath” that they tell you to take after delivery so your stitches will heal. I am officially too fat for a bath.

Sweet Bedrest

Bed rest :) We all knew it was just a matter of time… at my Dr appointment on March 28th everything looked good. My blood pressure was a little on the high side, but lower than it had been 2 weeks before. My feet were swollen to high heaven and I was fatigued, but that had been going on for some time. My Dr wanted me to call her immediately if I started seeing spots, had blurred vision or headaches that would not go away with Tylenol.

Last week I started seeing black spots on Monday, then again on Tuesday, again on Wednesday. On Wednesday night I mentioned it to my mom and she “strongly encouraged” me to call the Dr on Thursday. I did and they wanted me to come in immediately. I wrapped up some things and went in. They weighed me and I had gained 4 pounds (since the previous Friday), and I was very swollen. They did a urine test that did not have protein in it – YEA! They put me on the fetal monitor and said that the baby wasn’t moving enough, so I had to drink some juice and try to wake him up a little. They also did a blood test and told me they would have the results on Friday. The Dr said “but you are done. You’re on bed rest.” Apparently she noticed that my eyeballs were about to fall out of my head and she added “at least today and tomorrow.” I said, “Oh good, I thought you were talking about until I had the baby.” And she said “Well, maybe, but at least for the next few days.” OMG! She told me that all of this was precursors to Toxemia, and we are just trying to stay one step ahead.

On Friday I found out that my potassium level was low. This can cause fatigue and an irregular heart rate. Well, there you go! So I missed most of the events of the weekend. Michael’s basketball game on Friday, and opening day for Mavrick and his t-ball game. But, my ankles were looking good by the end of the weekend.

Monday was my regularly scheduled appointment and I was 36 weeks that day. Mom went with me because I don’t ask enough questions to please her or Mark. Come to find out, the black dots were not believed to be caused by my blood pressure, but related to the low potassium and the swelling/fluid retention. Thanks for your questions mom! They put me back on the fetal monitor and we had to do the juice again because Major wasn’t moving enough. Then they did a sonogram – It’s still a boy, and he’s not shy. He looked good! She measured him and said that he is probably 7 to 7 ½ pounds right now, but some of that is based on his head, which is I am sure the “big Johnston head” that both Michael and Mavrick both have… Anyway, they did another blood test and she said that she had to induce a patient last week how was at 37 weeks with my same issues, but that she wanted to go ahead and plan for 38 weeks which would be April 21st. OMG!

As of today, I still don’t know the results of the blood test from Monday. Yesterday they had not received the results back by close of business. And I didn’t get a call back today. I figure that it’s not bad enough to have the baby today, but not good enough to go back to work. Now, after 6 ½ days in bed, I am still “tired” so I am thinking that my potassium horse pills are not making a big difference.

My next Dr appointment is on Monday. My sister is still scheduled for a C-Section on the 17th. So my parents are going to try to be superman and superwoman. Keep them in your prayers.

Twins!

No, not our babies! I am talking about Christy and me. For as long as I can remember people have told us how much we look alike. I never really saw it, especially since I went with my natural hair color. But right now, with both of us 15 months pregnant, I can see it. It is funny! And it makes me wonder if our babies will look anything alike. When Bella was born, so many people thought she looked like Michael. This was funny because Michael looks exactly like his dad, and Bella looks exactly like her dad – and they are not the ones related!



The shower was amazing! We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends. And we both received so many wonderful gifts! It was really unbelievable and overwhelming! It was held at my aunt and uncle’s home in Frisco. We could not have asked for a more perfect baby shower!

Umm... that would be Henry Ford

On Friday the 28th, Mavrick’s class held their “Readers Theater.” His historic personality was Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company. He insisted on having gray hair. I think he will be a very handsome older man in 50 years. Of course I will be 87 by then, so I am certain I won’t remember. He was so cute, he got up and read his report to the class and room full of parents. He had a display board that he worked with me on, giving strict instructions as to where all the pictures needed to go.

I did notice that I am evolving as a mother because I gave him much more freedom to do his own thing than I did with Michael last year. I even, kind of, let him write his own report – at least phrase things the way he wanted to.

Who's feet are these?

OMG! Is this nasty or what? I cannot believe these are my legs and feet. This kind of big is certainly not beautiful. My leg/feet have been doing this for the last week-and-a-half, and there seems to be no end in sight. I can leave them up at work all day long and they don’t go down. They are only going somewhat down at night now. You can’t get stretch marks on your ankles can you?