Family – Page 2

baby, Family, rainbow baby, Uncategorized

The FULL birth story–details and all

March 22, 2018March 22, 2018by Sheridan Johnson3 Comments

Ok so it started out being my 37 week check-up on January 9th, 2018 and I for sure was hoping that I had dilated more to a 5 by this point since I had been dilated to a 3-4 the past few weeks and I was DETERMINED that this was the THE birth day of my child!

My doctor examined me and said that once he stripped my membranes it would dilate me even more (and I would be around 5cm dilated) and that I could be sent to labor and delivery at Detar North Hopsital in Victoria, Tx. With my bags all packed in my car, and my mom with me, we grabbed a bite to eat (which I couldn’t eat much at this point because I was so nervous/anxious that today would be the day that I would get to meet this precious miracle of mine) and headed to the hospital. Of course they had to examine me once I was admitted (I was just about 5cm dilated), and ask 1,000 questions (or at least it felt like it) that I have already answered when I was in pre-term labor 3 weeks prior, but I did not mind and was ready to get hooked up to pitocin and get this labor started!

It was near 1:15pm or so that I was initially hooked up to pitocin and I estimated that I would have the baby around 5pm (which I was way off) lol but I asked my doctor and the nurses this time if I could go at a slower pace on the pitocin so that I could labor all naturally again and be able to enjoy walking around and talking/playing with my kiddos (and they said yes). During this time I had my step-dad bring up 2 of the kiddos to the hospital and Shane brought the other 2 when he get off work.

Every 2 hours just about I dilated 1 more cm and during this time, the day nurse that was taking care of me was SO sweet and made sure that I had enough ice chips and the super amazing thing she did was find me a wireless monitor so that I could be on the labor ball, and walk around with my kids in the room, etc and just have freedom from the uncomfortable bed. I LOVED this and I will remember that forever!

During the transitional part of labor (about 7cm-10cm) I was doing fine with my breathing techniques and having Shane hold my hand and rub my back throughout the entire labor until this point (and then she broke my water). I had asked to be checked and I was 8cm dilated and 100% effaced and I had nicely (because with Rochelle I was screaming and yelling the entire end of my natural-no pain medication labor) asked the nurse if she had anything that could lessen the pain ( I do this every time I am about to push lol) and she said “sweetie I am so sorry at this point if I give you anything, it could slow the rest of the labor down and you are about to start pushing so right now I don’t think that would be the best option” and I took a deep breath and said “ok thank you, could you please call my doctor right now I feel like I need to push”.

Well, she had come back a minute later and brought all the delivery supplies into the room–at this point my mom had taken Brielle downstairs around 8:45-9pm (She was the only child that stayed because she just HAD to see if I was having a boy or a girl since we had waited to find out until birth and they don’t allow visitors past 9pm in the delivery room) and I knew I was about to have our baby.

I had been in the bed towards the end of the labor because it hurt too much to get up and I REALLY needed to focus on my breathing and working through the intense pain I was feeling. I knew I was going to transition from 8cm to 10cm pretty quickly and was really trying to prepare myself mentally for the actual delivery. Of course (yet again) my doctor did not make it in time because just after all the nurses turned on the warmer for the baby, and got everything ready with my bed (taking it all apart, make sure all the sterilization procedures where in place and put on gloves) and I felt a HUGE sensation to push! All three of the nurses in the room told me “hold the baby in by crossing your legs” so I did just that two times and on the third time I told the nurse that was right in front me ” I NEED TO PUSH RIGHT NOW! I am sorry but I cannot hold this baby in anymore, get ready to catch”!!

Well, let’s just say one push later at 9:22pm weighing in at 7 lb 15 oz and 19 1/4 inch tall baby BOY Malachi Andreas Johnson was born and THEN my doctor arrived (about 3-5 minutes after I delivered) to get out my placenta and to see if I needed any stitching (I think he may have done one stitch to prevent excessive bleeding but no tearing thank goodness).

I was so excited to meet my son right away, and put him directly on my chest and start breast feeding right away (and he latched SO good I didn’t need any help from the lactation consultant this time– even though help was definitely provided). Shane was an AWESOME labor coach the entire time and went over and beyond to make sure I was ok, make sure kids were taken care of ( and tried to help my parents as much as possible with this aspect as well) and I am SO very thankful and amazed at the goodness of God at how everything turned out!

We had to stay in the hospital for a day and a half because they don’t discharge at night so because of his birth time, we left about 39 hours after his was born, and we (Shane and I) were SO ready to head home and see all of the kiddos and be a family of 7!

I will leave you with some pictures of the journey to bring Malachi into this world, and I thank you all for the MANY prayers, support, encouragement, and love that you all have provided us during his pregnancy!

baby, Family, mommy, parenting, photography

Welcome to the WORLD…..

January 10, 2018January 10, 2018by Sheridan Johnson8 Comments

baby new

I cannot believe that after 9 hours of labor, 20 units of pitocin, NO medicine (All natural), and 1 push we finally introduced our baby into this world!!

This morning when I went into my Doctors appointment at 37 weeks I had my ultrasound and then a doctor visit. At first the ultrasound showed that the baby was weighing approximately 8 lb 8 oz. I was definitely ok with that, because Brielle was measuring 10 pounds and when she was born she barley weighed 8.

During the visit with the doctor, he stripped my membranes, and then stated that I was measuring 4 cm and that he wanted to send me over to the hospital to be admitted and have the baby.

I was so nervous going into another all natural birth again, yet so excited. I cannot believe I endured all that pain all over again (for my last time) and got the biggest surprise/reward ever!

A HEALTHY BABY BOY!!!

We are SO proud to introduce our handsome son Malachi Andreas Johnson born at 9:22p.m. weighing 7 pounds 15 oz. and measuring 19 1/4 inches long.

He is HEALTHY, with a nasal bone and a perfectly round head. We are so so thankful God gave us a healthy baby boy, and I know there will be many more pictures in the future!!

Thank you ALL for your sweet prayers and kind messages throughout my delivery!

LOVE YOU ALL!

Adoption, Family, foster

20 weeks and counting!!

September 18, 2017September 18, 2017by Sheridan Johnson7 Comments

halfway

Photo credit: nerdfitness.com

So this past week (Last Thursday 9/14/17) I had my 20 week appointment for the baby! It was a great one because we got to do the full anatomy scan, and I LOVE spending time seeing our precious miracle moving ALL around inside of me!

This time it started with the ultrasound (which we normally do this after I have given them my current weight and a urine sample) so it was a nice surprise to start with seeing the baby first!

This appointment the sonographer measures EVERYTHING about the baby thoroughly (especially given our past) and lets us know if anything appears abnormal (in which the doctor would have to run further tests to determine any abnormalities), and everything she measured and looked at turned out great! Shane got to attend this appointment with me and every time she said “that looks good” after measuring something, Shane gave a sigh of relief and had a smile on his face.

This baby is already 14 oz. and apparently has long legs and arms (just like Brielle did when she was in utero) and is looking great (and very healthy).

She did ask us to turn and look the other way when she had to measure the lower extremities, or at any point when she baby was rolling around and turning over, that it may expose the gender to us on the sonogram (we are still going to wait until we deliver to find out the gender–and yes, we already have names picked out for both genders).

After checking out the baby from the top, they then did this new (at least to me) procedure where they measure your cervix from a wand that they insert inside of you, to make sure that you are not showing early signs of labor, and they also check to see where your placenta is located to see the likelihood of your having a c-section vs. having a vaginal birth. It was amazing to see! (Oh and everything panned out well for me, they said it is a definitely a go to try to have another vaginal birth)! 🙂

I then talked to my doctor about a few concerns, and he was proud of my vitals, and wanted to see me back in 4 weeks.

I also made an appointment to register at the hospital that I will be delivering at after my next appointment as well, which will definitely makes things real!

We know January will be here before we know it, and we will meet our newest addition to the Johnson family before we know it! But for now, we will enjoy the rest of the pregnancy spending time with our 5 precious kiddos who make our life whole!

I will definitely leave you with some pictures of the precious baby, and will keep all of you great followers up to date with how things are going! ♥

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Adoption, Family, foster

The rest is still unwritten..

August 3, 2017by Sheridan Johnson4 Comments

So our foster baby girl, who is now 16 months old, just recently had her permanency planning hearing (to talk about what all is going to happen during her trial on Aug. 31st).

It went different than I expected, and I was actually not allowed in the room (due to construction, and they had to fit about 20 people in a tiny room–including the Judge to discuss the case), and I kind of did not mind.

In the past month, CPS has chosen to fight for termination of parental rights for baby girls mom and dad, and want us (a non-relative) to adopt her. While this news alone sounds amazing, there is so much more that goes into a decision like that, and they only want what’s best for the baby. Up until this point, they have wanted her to be placed back with biological parents. When that didn’t work out, and they returned her 3 weeks later back to our house, they quickly changed their minds.

So as I was waiting anxiously to hear what the parents were going to do I was praying a lot. Praying that God would place her where she needs to be, that He would allow the parents to see what a true blessing of a child they have and that they would want the best for her as well, and just praying over the everyone involved in this case.

Everyone started coming out into the open area (where I was sitting) and the lawyer for baby girls mom came up to me and asked if I/we would be open to communication with mom through letters, and pictures as baby girl was growing up, since she was thinking about relinquishing her rights over, knowing that her baby girl is safe and flourishing in our home right now. So of course (without a doubt) I said yes, and I almost felt like crying in this moment (especially watching the biological mom cry) knowing that this must be the hardest thing in the world to do (give up your child for the sake of their future/success), and I admire her so much for wanting us to raise her child.

I was also waiting to hear that the Dad wanted to do, and he wasn’t sure at the time of the hearing that he wanted to relinquish his rights too, or if he wanted to go all the way with the trial and fight this case.

It wasn’t until 2 days ago that I got an e-mail from our caseworker stating that BOTH of the biological parents are wanting to relinquish their rights, meaning now there is NO trial in August, and once that goes through, we are going to start the process of ADOPTING our baby girl!!

We are so beyond thrilled to be given this news (because with our boys–we are still in the appeals process which is taking forever, so we thought adoption was so far away for our family) and we can’t wait to finally publicly show her pictures, announce her name, and call her a JOHNSON!

Though this process is long, a lot of paperwork, a LOT of sleepless nights worrying about if you are doing what’s best for these precious kids, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I loved baby girl like she was our own from the very first day I met her, and we can’t wait to make it official hopefully this year or early next year!

Thanks for reading and following along still (my life has been a bit chaotic and crazy lately but I was so happy I couldn’t wait to share the news with you all)!