Friday, May 21, 2010

Introducing...Baby Berg!

May 17th our 5th baby was born. We named him Berg Taylor Johnson. (It means rock in Swedish.) Here is the story of his birth:

The 2 weeks prior to May 17th I had not slept well. My hips had separated and laying down did not help. So on May 16th Peter suggested that I sleep in his big dada leather recliner - sitting up. He slept next to me on the couch. It worked great until 3am when I woke up with a numb rear end from sitting all night. So we went down to our bed. I, however, could not fall back asleep. At four I got up feeling restless and realized all the things I had not yet accomplished before our baby was to be born. So I went around the house, finding the video camera and looking for baby clothes kind of stuff. I remembered Peter saying I stayed awaked the night before our other births and I thought, "This baby might come today".
So at 4:45am I woke up Peter and told him, "I know it's early, but I think were going to have a baby today." Which shocked and startled him and got him out of bed really fast. A little bit later I had a contraction and went down onto the ground in what Peter calls the "it's happening" position. So I called the Birthing Inn, where we were going to have the baby. Then I have another contraction. Peter automatically switches gears. He decides to start the bathtub. We've been down this road before. And I'm so proud of him. In the past he would've tried to get me in the car. But he knows. So I put on a swim suit top, get in the tub and Peter calls Shari to come take pictures, cause this thing is gonna happen here. 3 more contractions and out comes a beautiful baby boy at 5:35am! He was perfect. The delivery was perfect. God is so good! I prayed through each contraction, praising Him, thanking him for our baby that was coming and asking for a quick, painless birth. We were truly blessed! I don't know how it could have gone any faster or more smoothly. Shari even got there in time to take pictures and video tape!

Here's Berg just coming out of the water. I still think he's a girl at this point. I kept saying, "she" and "her".


The rest of the day, from there on out, was very strange. No one knew what to do with us. From the Birthing Inn not letting us come, to the firefighters originally not wanting to transport us to the hospital and the hospital not knowing what to do with us. They wouldn't admit Berg or even look at him, they said only the mama would be the patient. Finally we asked if we could just have him weighed and they said ok, as long as we realized anything they did for him was complimentary. So strange. So we mainly went to the hospital for a really expensive breakfast and then came home before noon.


Dada and Mama and our new baby boy. Later Shari and Crystal came to St. Joe's where they both had worked before and then we got lots of things, like footprints, height and head size, and lots of pads. By the way he weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces, was 19 inches long and had a 13 inch head.


We came home around noon and the kids were so excited to see their new baby brother.


They each took turns holding him and kissing him and trying to get used to his new name.


He is such a sweet baby. So content, quiet, a good eater, and he's let us sleep for 6 hours straight every night!


We are so excited that he's here and he's a part of our family!


Thank you God for our beautiful baby Berg!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Nesting

The last few weeks have been "nesting" time for us. Priority for me was to get furniture! Peter was done with our flowered couches and ready for something different, plus, they were starting to deteriorate rapidly. So we sold them in one day with no new furniture plans. We went a couple of weeks sitting on lawn chairs and then I, highly pregnant, was ready for something soft to sit on. We found these:


Peter got the big daddy leather recliner he's always wanted, I got a cute paisley mama chair and we actually made $100 selling our couches and buying new ones!


Peter built a huge chicken coop for our now large birds. It's two levels, one to nest and roost in and the bottom is covered with wire so they can scratch in the sand. The kids let them out every day and shepherd them back in the evening. They are great at it and love playing outside with them.


This is our new family vehicle! It's a bus! We got it on May 14th in Seattle and went to go see my sis who just moved up here from California. Our first stop in Pioneer Square in our brand new bus and we had a man try to get on and get a ride!


I've also been doing a ton of gardening! I love it! My latest project is clearing our all the ivy between our house and the lake. It's a ton of ivy! Hopefully one day we can plant a vegetable garden there.


Also, I haven't shown any pictures of our beautiful cement counter top, which my magnificent hubby made himself! It's been a really long process, but soooo worth it! They are perfect! Recently he's been working on putting the slate backsplash in, so it's finally looking finished in our kitchen!


We also got the nine month sibling/belly picture taken! My photographer sister Shmee came down from Seattle, where she now resides, and somehow got all the kids to smile. Hurray!