Johnson, Johnson, and Johnson: Happy Birthday, Hannah Rose!

Welcome to the world ~ Hannah Rose Johnson at one week old

Our beautiful baby girl, Hannah Rose Johnson, was born on Monday, August 26th. It has been an amazing past few weeks! Here is a wonderful note from Rob summing it up...

Hannah’s due date was August 19th, or 20th, or 21st depending on the day that you asked Dr. Bohmke, but it was somewhere right in there. Naturally she was born on the 26th. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Sometime in July we were told that this baby was low, Katie was starting to dilate, and that all signs pointed towards her coming early, like a month early. We thought about reliving what it meant having babies born early, not great eaters, maybe having to be in the NICU or ISCU, generally needing a little extra TLC. But Hannah knew what she was doing, being the third kid and all. She was just having a little fun with us.

So back when all this early stuff happened we asked our nanny Maria to take a month off and we said, how about the last two weeks of August, no matter what, and if she’s early the two weeks prior to that, and if she’s late, the two weeks after. She said yes and away we went getting all the car seats installed and rearranged, making plans with the grandparents, and generally living on edge every day thinking maybe this is the day!

This went on for a month - still no Hannah.

Then comes August 19th, the week she’s supposed to be born, but isn’t yet and someone needs to stay home with the kids. Since it is easier for Katie to be at work than home chasing around two crazy 2 ½ year olds I decided to start my month of leave that week. And I tried to wear those girls out. They’re going to nap mark my words! Didn’t happen.

What did happen was a week of great memories. Our first (and second!) trip to the Children’s Museum, including lots of good hours at Seattle Center near the fountain, lunches at the Armory, and touching the Space Needle. We took a couple of trips on the Monorail and lots of trips on the bus. There were two outings to Trader Joe’s/the Ave, and three to the library. Not to mention a trip to the zoo to hang out with Tyler, Noah, and Kathy – we missed you Natalie, Julie, and Geoff! Edmonds beach on Monday and Magnusson Park beach on Friday.

Fast forward to Monday the 26th. Jeff and Trisha (Nona and Bompa Jeff) were watching the twins so we could head to the doctor’s office for what we were sure was a routine check up that would see us sent home again with instructions to return back to the hospital on Saturday the 31st (our drop dead induction date per Dr. Bohmke). We waltzed through the day. Quick acupuncture appointment to get labor started. Wandering through downtown looking for good books and spices. Leisurely lunch at Shanik. Even time for a quick haircut and to the doctor’s by 1:00. And what does Dr. Bohmke say? I think we’re going to keep you. Wait, what? And me without my bags packed.

So Dr. Bohmke says, but we can’t do an elective induction until you’re officially past 41 weeks and you’re 40 weeks 6 days today. Oh, you know the date of conception? So that means she should have been due on the 15th. Well that puts us at almost 42 weeks right there so let’s see if they have room over in labor and delivery. As a matter of fact it’s surprisingly quiet over there, so stop for a snack on the way over and get settled because you’re having this baby today.

We sneak outside to make the requisite phone calls. Cary and Pat. Jeff and Trisha. Dave. AJ and Malia. Jimmy. And of course the twins. After a few high 5’s from people in the Starbucks – you look like you’re going to pop – I am...we’re on our way now to have this baby! – etc and suddenly we’re in a room and ordering another snack and on the IV by 3:30. And we wait. The nurses say stuff like after the twins, this will seem like a snap. I say, if we can get past the epidural we’re home free.

The epidural is at 5:30 and goes off without a hitch and only a few tears, so at 6:00 I head to Honey Hole for a sandwich not long after Trisha’s arrival. In retrospect, the French dip may not have been the best option but Katie wants a celebratory turkey sandwich for when it’s all over and some au jus sounded good to me at the time. At 7:30 they start the pitocin and we send Jeff and Trisha out to dinner at Machiavelli and tell them to go home and we’ll call them when things get heated up, but that doesn’t seem like it will be for quite a while – we think this is going to be a middle of the night delivery.

Suddenly it’s 9:00 and the nurse says, oh by the way Dr. Bohmke’s going to be here soon to break your water. Oh wait, it looks like it’s already broken, maybe we should turn down your pitocin? And two hours later they say why don’t you try a little push…never mind don’t push that’s a head we’re seeing and if you keep pushing this baby is going to be born and we don’t want that to happen without a doctor in the room and we should really get on the phone to Dr. Bohmke to make sure she gets over here in time. Meanwhile, I’m running to the bathroom down the hall to throw up a nice combination of au jus, roast beef, and stomach lining because I am nervous, and not good at these situations.

I get back to find a distressed Katie who is really just concerned that I’ve been gone and not at all concerned that she’s about to have a baby. And Dr. Bohmke is instructing me to sit down, not pass out, and be glad I made it back in time. Four pushes and 10 minutes later the whole thing is over. Hannah came out with a good set of lungs (unlike her big sisters) right around 11:19pm. We hung out for a solid hour before they moved us to a post-partum room and phone calls/text messages could be sent. She weighed in at 9.5lbs and 21 inches, a good solid healthy baby girl.

That’s when the party really started. We got visits the next morning from Cary and the twins, Jeff and Trisha, AJ, Malia and baby Q, and a lunchtime visit from Bompa Dave and Hannah’s doctor Dr. Sheridan while I was home with the twins changing clothes and taking a shower. That night we had a great time getting Little Uncle for dinner and enjoying our time with our sweet sleepy girl and fun visits from Joy and Aunt Callie. After a quick check the next morning, suddenly we’re kicked out and headed home.

The last three weeks have been a blur, but a blast. We’ve had lots of fun adventures. Mostly it’s been Margaret, Eileen, and Dad running around town so Mom and Hannah can have some good bonding time. But we’ve also had a lot of wonderful visits from many friends and relatives. And now the fun is coming to a close. I’m back to work on Tuesday the 17th. But this has been one of the best months of our lives getting to spend so much great time together as a family. It’s not over yet though. September brings a couple of great weekend adventures that will force all five (5!!!) of us to get out of the house and cut down on how looonnnggg it takes to get everyone dressed, fed, corralled, buckled up, and ready. And then in October we get our first visit from Uncle Jim since March, and his first time with Hannah. Plus then there’s Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, the twins 3rd birthday, and before you know it we’ll be looking back and wondering how quickly Hannah turned 1.

But for now, as we’re almost in week 3, it’s been nothing but fun.