Alyse Johnson

Mimi (my mom) and Alyse. My mom is so excited to finally have a granddaughter!

Norm LOVES babies. I think he would be around all day every day if he could

I can not get enough of this cute little bundle!

She has a very scrunchy face which is slowly going away. I will post some more recent photos in a few days.

Despite Kimballs expression, he can not get enough of Alyse.
He is constantly wanting to hold and kiss her.
When he is upset about something Alyse is a great distraction!

Uncle Derek, Aunt Natalie and Aunt Missy.
We were lucky that Missy was in town so she could see Alyse.
Thanks for visiting Missy!

Aunt Kelsey and Alyse.

Well, you probably noticed that she has arrived! Dave has done a fantastic job of letting everyone know that she is here and I absolutely love his post. I have not posted yet because it takes up a lot of time taking care of a baby and two toddlers. A lot more time then I used to spend taking care of my kids, but it is definitely worth it.

Let me tell you a bit about the labor and delivery from my perspective.

As some of you may know I have been very into the whole natural child birth thing. I did it with Kimball and wanted to do it again with Alyse. With both of them I was determined to not be started/induced. With Kimball I could not handle being pregnant anymore and scheduled an induction date which wasn't used because I (thankfully) went into labor about 4 hours before they would have induced me. I had decided with this pregnancy I wasn't going to cave and I would hold on and wait. Well, I guess I forgot how hard pregnancy is and an induction date was scheduled for Alyse.

I was very worried about being induced, I thought the labor would be impossible to endure without an epidural. I had an awful experience with the epidural when I had Patten and I did not want to go down that road again. My midwife had mentioned many times that she could break my water but I had heard of so many women who ended up needing petocin (sp?) to get the contractions going even after their water was broken.

Good news... the water breaking was all I needed. It turned out that when I arrived in the hospital I was nearly dilated to a 5 and 90 % effaced. I guess all the miserableness I was feeling was doing something :) My labor ended up being just over 2 hours and my midwife said that if I had waited to go into labor by my self I might not have made it to the hospital in time (worst fear). I guess it was a good thing I was started!

I decided to do something different for this labor. With my previous pregnancies I only wanted Dave in the delivery room. I just didn't want anyone else there. With this pregnancy I felt really good about inviting both of my moms to the labor. I am so glad I did. They were very supportive and helped the entire experience to be even better than it would have. There was a time when I had all three of them (Dave, my mom, and Julie) tickling me on my back arms or legs. It was so comforting even through the craziness of labor. Thank you moms!

Alyse is a joy. We love her so much. I am so glad she turned out to be only 8lbs 4 oz. I was really afraid I would end up with a ten pound baby after I deliver Kimball at 9lbs 8 oz. Would a ten pound baby actually fit out of my body without a c- section? I don't know... Any way I was thrilled to have something smaller.

We have been home from the hospital now for a few days and are trying to get into some semblance of a schedule (hahaha). Our boys love Alyse and can't get enough of her. We are so glad to have a cute girl added to our family.