It's Pat!

Things are moving along here. I'm now 27 weeks into this pregnancy and everything has been good for the most part. Yesterday however, I spent 3 hours in the hospital. I was out of the office on a home visit when my back started hurting. It was on and off for the hour I was there, but when I got in the car and started driving, it got much worse. I was to the point where I thought I might have to pull over when I called the doctor. After explaining what was going on, they said they wanted me to go to the hospital to make sure everything was okay. So they checked me out on the maternity ward and hooked me up to a heartrate and contraction monitor. The doctor on duty was one I knew from my practice so that was nice. The baby was fine but I was having some small contractions. First they were concerned that I might have a kidney infection, which the doctor said would be "really bad", but the tests came back clear. He did say that my back was really tight and spazing and that I should see a chiropractor or massage therapist. In the midst of this, nurse Pat got on my case about not drinking enough water. She also got mad when I ate something (we were there for 3 hours) even though nobody told me I wasn't supposed to eat anything! Bottom line is that I'm supposed to get lots of rest, drink tons of water, and take the next 2 days off of work. BLAH. I'm very thankful it wasn't anything more than that though because I did not want Ava to make a dramatic entrance yesterday! Here is a pic from last Friday, at 26 weeks:

Another stinker

So stinkin' sweet

This video, more than anything else, has made us super excited to have a little girl. Enjoy the sweetness.

The Best Christmas Present Ever

I've always had good Christmases. I was very fortunate to grow up with parents who were able to make Christmas wonderful each year. We never went lacking. But this year.....this year was especially wonderful. Two days before Christmas, we had an ultrasound which showed us that we were having a little girl! At first I was a little shocked and scared. For whatever reason, I thought it was a boy and all the pictures that had been streaming through my head of a little baby were all of a baby boy. But now that I know it's a girl and it's had a few days to sink in, I am SO excited. And I just can't wait to meet her. I'm ready for her to be here NOW. But patience....is a virtue. Here are some Christmas pics. We got about 6 inches of snow in little Washington. Enjoy.

I'm not an anxious person...

I'm really not. Although it seriously runs in my family. However, I'm finding it hard not to be anxious about EVERYTHING having to do with this baby. Is it a boy or girl? What will we name it? How will we prepare the house? What do we need to buy? And when do you start doing that?

We had a doctor's appointment this week and they wanted to hear the heartbeat. A nurse came in with the doppler thing and clearly stated that she was no expert at this and may need to get someone else to help her. Ummm...ok? So she starts moving the thing around on my belly and nothing is coming up except my own heartbeat. She asked if we knew what we were having yet. We said no. She said, "well little girls like to hide from this". I'm just going to chalk that up to the fact that she clearly sucks at her job and did indeed have to get someone else to find the heartbeat. Just another thought to run through my mind for the next month before we actually get to find out the sex.

I hate that I can't feel the baby move yet. I read somewhere that some people can feel the baby this early, but usually not first time mothers. However, I also read that if you hold a flashlight up to your belly, the baby will run away from the light. I think I might try this and see if I can feel any "flutters". Has anyone else tried this before? Probably not because it sounds kind of ridiculous, but I'm not above that. Okay maybe I am above that.

Exciting News in the Johnson Household

Well, things have been awfully busy around here. Tom has been busy getting another year of Young Life rolling. And while I have been helping him with that, I've mainly been busy growing a baby in my belly. WHAT??! Yes. You heard right. Tom and I are expecting our first bundle of joy in May. We have already had several high school students offer to babysit, to which I have quickly replied, "not a chance". Well maybe one of MY girls could do it, but definitely not one of Tom's boys. Am I being protective already? Anyway, we are definitely excited, but I don't think it has really sunk in yet. I have been reading some books, magazines, etc. which have been mostly helpful, but I have read several things which made me think "WHY WOULD YOU TELL ANYBODY THAT?" On one hand I want to be prepared, but on the other I don't want fear and anxiety to rule my pregnancy. I do wish somebody had warned me about the *aahhemm* "internal" ultrasound. For those of you who had children awhile ago, they may not have had this lovely technology around then, but for you newer moms: shame on you for not warning every fertile woman about this! HOWEVER, it did allow us to hear the baby's heartbeat at only 8 weeks, which was pretty incredible. Needless to say, I am a busy lady working 40+ hours a week, being a Young Life & Young Lives leader, committee member, and sane person in Washington. I'm going to try my best to keep up the blog during this exciting time though. Here is a pic of a cute little sign my co-workers posted on my office door after I told them the news.

Finding humor in hard places.

I went back to work full time in August. This time around I am doing foster care and adoptions. It is super busy all the time. On my second day back I already had 15 children on my caseload. Ahhh!! The thing that makes this job bearable is the great group of people that I work with. We always help each other out and vent in our offices about the ridiculous situations we deal with. In a job where you hear about horrific things on a daily basis, you have to find some time to laugh. Here are two little gems from last week: A father told his social worker that he had a medical condition which made marijuana stay in his system longer than 30 days. Yeah....I'm gonna need a doctor's note on that one. A little girl was surprised at the diversity in her new school. She said "I don't know if I should call them, the people with dark skin, or black people". Her therapist suggested, "Why don't you just call them by their names?".....Good call.