Sleep

Tristan has slept through the night two nights in a row now! I am so overwhelmingly happy about this. I know it sounds weird to even be talking about my soon-to-be 18-month old son sleeping through the night since he's slept through the night since he was ridiculously young, but ever since we got home from his surgery he has gotten up at least once a night, sometimes two or three times. We're pretty sure that pain was/is a major factor in this because he seems to get up every 4 hours or so; about the time Tylenol wears off. It's not the type of waking up where he whines and then can go back to sleep. It's the type where he screams bloody murder at the top of his lungs and there is no way he is going to put himself back to sleep, so Josh or I (sometimes both of us) get up, give him Tylenol, rock with him, and then try to convince him it's time to go back to sleep. We've had a wonderful couple of weeks lately. So, you can only imagine how happy I am to have gotten basically two full night's worth of sleep. I'm trying to revel in it before baby boy gets here and disrupts my beauty sleep once again.

Here are some pictures of Tristan playing in the backyard this weekend. He loves it out there. I got him a cheap little golf club set while Daddy was out playing golf last weekend, and he thinks that's pretty cool too.

Oh, it's going to be a sad day when Tristan can't play outside again. Luckily we've still got a bit of summer left.

Wives Tales

It's a boy if:
· You didn't experience morning sickness in early pregnancy
· Your baby's heart rate is less than 140 beats per minute (Tristan's rate was always higher too)
· You are carrying the extra weight out front
· Your belly looks like a basketball
· Your areolas have darkened considerably
· You are carrying low (I can never tell)
· You are craving salty or sour foods
· You are craving protein -- meats and cheese
· Your feet are colder than they were before pregnancy
· The hair on your legs has grown faster during pregnancy (It's actually growing ridiculously slower, same as it did with Tristan)
· Your hands are very dry
· Your pillow faces north when you sleep
· Dad-to-be is gaining weight, right along with you
· Pregnancy has you looking better than ever
· Your urine is bright yellow in color
· Your nose is spreading (Is it? You tell me.)
· You hang your wedding ring over your belly and it moves in circles
· You are having headaches
· You add your age at the time of conception and the number for the month you conceived and the sum is an even number

It's a girl if:
· You had morning sickness early in pregnancy
· Your baby's heart rate is at least 140 beats per minute
· You are carrying the weight in your hips and rear
· Your left breast is larger than your right breast (It always has been though...)
· Your hair develops red highlights (Ummm...my hair is reddish)
· You are carrying high
· Your belly looks like a watermelon
· You are craving sweets
· You are craving fruit
· You crave orange juice
· You don't look quite as good as normal during pregnancy
· You are moodier than usual during pregnancy (Moodier than usual??)
· Your face breaks out more than usual
· You refuse to eat the heel of a loaf of bread (Who eats the heel?)
· Your breasts have really blossomed!
· Your pillow faces south when you sleep
· Your urine is a dull yellow color
· You hang your wedding ring over your belly and it moves from side to side
· You add your age at the time of conception and the number for the month you conceived and the sum is an odd number

Boy wives tales: 8
Girl wives tales: 11

Those darn wives and their tall tales again. What do they know?

Question of the day

76% of voters were correct, not to mention my mother's intuition. The official answer has been received, and there will be no pink decor entering the Johnson household.

The ultrasound tech didn't give me a picture of the money shot, but I saw it with my own two eyes and actually told the tech before she told me, so there is no doubt that baby Johnson #2 is a boy. A healthy-looking, approximately 1lb 12 oz, ridiculously active, yawning, long-legged, transverse baby boy with a seemingly normal four-chamber heart.

Top picture is his face (tilt your head to the left and imagine a skeleton) and the bottom is his profile. Looks like this baby boy has Mommy's nose whereas Tristan has Daddy's.

On to the naming game. I guess Eden is definitely out...

Last day in Minneapolis

It's been awhile now since I've posted, but I've been wanting to put up some pictures of Tristan's last day in the hospital and in Minneapolis. These were very happy days for the Johnson clan so why not share?

Pacing wires out, Holter monitor gone, just waiting for my papers to leave. Don't I look cute in my hospital clothes?

Maybe if I dress in real big boy clothes they'll let me go home.

About 3 hours later...still in civilian clothing and playing in the playroom. Waiting for my papers to go.

Finally got my papers. In my wagon in the lobby of the hospital, waiting for my ride to RMH. I'm a free man boy!

Jerry, the RMH house dog. Such a docile creature. Even Mommy didn't seem to mind him, and she hates dogs.

The coolest lawn ornament ever!

Helping Daddy load up the car so we can leave this place.

2 Weeks Post Op

Today is the two week mark and Tristan is doing great. Every now and then he coughs and that seems to really hurt his chest. I don't blame him for crying when he coughs - I'd throw a royal fit myself. He really isn't on any pain meds except for when Josh and I decide that somethings got to hurt and we give him Tylenol. He's such a trooper.

We saw our regular pediatrician here in Minot today, and everything looks very good. Tristan's breastbone is slightly raised which we're told is swelling. The same with his knobby ribs. The doctor said this should go down. He was very happy when he listened to Tristan's heart and even said that it made him smile (I love our doctor.) He said that the murmur is barely audible and could be missed by someone if they didn't know what to listen for. He also said that he thinks the defect in Tristan's mitral valve is trivial, but he "will always listen very closely to his heart." We can never change pediatricians - I think we've got the best there is!

Other than that we're just trying to get back to business as usual. Tristan has been throwing some pretty impressive temper tantrums lately. We assume it's because he was catered to and overindulged the past couple of weeks, so we're working on breaking him of this. It's hard to just let him scream though because I'm pretty sure the more worked up he gets the more he hurts his chest...and he'll throw up if you let him go on too long (we know from experience.) It's a work in progress right now trying to balance the fine line between spoiling him and disciplining him. We'll get it worked out soon.

Everyone is very happy to be home and sleeping in our own beds, lounging on our own couch, and loving our own house. Only 4 more weeks before we can call him officially healed. The time is flying by.

Discharged

As of 2:45pm CST Tristan was a free man. He got his pacing wires removed first thing this morning, around 9:30-sh, and they made him stay still for an entire hour so they could monitor his heart and do blood pressure readings every 15 minutes to make sure that his heart wasn't bleeding or having any adverse reactions to the wires being removed. They actually only pulled the wires from his ventricles and clipped the wires in his atria leaving them inside. They said that these won't cause any problems staying in place, and it is safer than pulling them out.

Tristan is only on one medication to keep his blood pressure down so his heart won't have to work harder than it needs to while it heals. Other than that, he gets Tylenol for pain, which he doesn't appear to be in right now. If anything, the molars he's working on are hurting him. We'll see our pediatrician sometime next week and then the pediatric cardiologist will be in town in August. That's about it. I'm sure we'll talk with the cardiologist about the followup monitoring Tristan will need for his mitral valve in August.

We plan on heading home first thing tomorrow morning, so we're pretty much just resting at RHM, playing, and planning on going out to dinner as a family tonight to celebrate Tristan's independence. Wish us luck driving home on the fourth of July.

Thank everyone for your thoughts, prayers, and well-wishes during this entire ordeal. They will always be very greatly appreciated, and it is heartwarming to see the love for my little boy. He definitely deserves to be spoiled with all that he's been through, and I plan on doing just that (for a little while longer.)