Welcome Baby Cole!!!

Cole Michael Johnson has arrived! He was born Friday, February 20, 2009 at 3:46 pm, less than 24 hours after Jeff finally made it home from Iraq! Our little guy weighed in at 5 lbs, 12.5 ounces and is 19.5 inches long. He is perfect in every way!!! We are so thrilled to have a healthy, precious baby boy and grateful to have Jeff here to share in the miracle.

For those of you who like details, here is a detailed account of our very busy week leading up to the big birthday...

Tuesday Feb. 17, 2009
I had my check-up with Dr. Nowitzky in which she repeated all of the testing from the previous week and measured Cole's growth. While he scored a "perfect 10" again on the BPP and NST and appeared to be strong and healthy, he had only gained 4 ounces in 2 weeks, while he should have gained about 16 ounces. This weight put him below the 10th percentile, which means Dr. Nowitzky felt it was necessary to induce. However, she agreed to wait for Jeff to get home, just one more day, or so we thought! I had to be admitted immediately to the hospital so that he could be monitored and delivered early if any complications arose.

Wednesday Feb 18, 2009
The big day was finally here!!! Jeff was due to land at 10:10 p.m. and the induction was to begin by midnight! Of course, things never seem to go as planned, and Jeff's flight was unable to land due to heavy fog! After circling the runway in Corpus Christi, his plane took him back to Houston with no hope of returning until the next day. Little did Jeff know, he had a huge crew waiting for him at the airport, including many of our dear friends, squadron mates, and even the Patriot Guard! Fortunately, Dr. Nowitzky agreed to hold off yet again since Cole's condition was stable! Here's some of the crew that waited for Jeff on Wednesday night...


Thursday Feb. 19, 2009
Jeff finally made it to Corpus at 1:00 pm! No big welcome party this time...just Gabe on strict orders to bring Jeff straight to the hospital!!! What a relief it was to see him at last! Jeff had been traveling for nearly 60 hours straight by this point! After spending some time with me at the hospital, I sent him home to get some rest before our long night and day ahead. He returned that evening in time for the nurse to start me on Cervidel, and we both attempted to get our last full night's rest in a long time!



Friday Feb. 20, 2009
Around 4:30 a.m. we were given quite a scare! Cole's heart rate dropped to 80 (from the 140's), and before we knew what was going on, three nurses were suddenly in the room starting me on an IV and giving me oxygen. It was a scary moment that was very brief...Cole's heart rate shot right back up to the normal range. We would later find out that Cole's umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck.


At 7:00 a.m. the nurse woke me up to start me on Pitocin. By 8:00 a.m., Dr. Nowitzky arrived to break my water, confining me to my bed for the duration of labor. The contractions started moving along very quickly and by 11:00 a.m. I was at 4 cm. This is when I decided to get the epidural! I was not in terrible pain yet, and I planned to keep it that way! Having the epidural allowed me to relax and catch a nap rather than watching the clock and wondering how much longer this was going to take!

Around 12:00, Cole's heart rate began to drop again. The nurse cut my dose of Pitocin in half in case he was reacting badly to it. As his heart rate stabilized, we slowly increased the dosage every half hour. However, this really slowed my progress and I was still at a 4 c.m. at 2:00 p.m. I was bummed! The nurse told me to expect the labor to take at least another 6 hours. However, when I started complaining of pelvic pressure just 45 minutes later, she decided to check me again. What a surprise...I was ready! I had gone from 4 cm to 10 cm in under 1 hour! Cole was ready to join our world!

I still can not get over how extremely blessed I was to have such a pleasant experience. I only had to push for 12 minutes and 5 contractions! Even my doctor was amazed and she started telling jokes to make me laugh during those 12 mintues! I never thought I'd be laughing and joking around in the midst of delivering a baby, but they were the happiest and most exciting moments of my life!

When Cole was born, the doctor calmly talked to me as she untangled the cord from around his neck. I was scared that he wasn't crying yet, but I could tell that Jeff was staying calm, so I knew everything would be ok. Sure enough, we finally heard his beautiful (loud) cries, and we knew our baby boy was healthy!



We called my mom in right away, who had arrived at the hospital minutes before he was born. She had gone back to my house to let the dogs out when we thought we still had hours to spare! Jeff proudly snapped photos and we took turns holding our little bundle of joy.


Since I've rambled on long enough, I won't give a detailed account of what happened from there on out. But, needless to say, Jeff and I were very eager to bring Cole home and get out of the hospital. Jeff had not spent the night in his own bed in months, and I had been in the hospital for 4 nights. We were discharged the very next day and began the next phase of our lives...as parents to a beautiful, precious little boy!