Gaining Weight and Eating More

Getting ready to hand Ryder to mom

Daddy and Ryder.. Sorry they are sideways

Ryder gained weight last night yay he has just maintained the last 2 days so we were excited when he finally gained some last night. They are putting some powder in his milk to help him gain weight and it sounds like it's helping lol. He is still using a little bit of oxygen he really only needs it when he's eating because that's when he struggles since he's working so hard to digest his food. He is now at 34 ccs could be more when I get there today. Last night when Clayt was holding him his resp kept going down and his oxygen level and he was so worried it was cute to see his face and how concerned he was. He was eating why he was holding him so he wasn't doing very good the nurses kept telling Clayton to calm down because Ryder can tell how dad is acting so he will do what dad does. It's crazy what these babies know. He's still doing great and getting more cute everyday and doing the funniest things he's so cute has the cutest personality already. He's continuing to progress but we ask you to still keep him in your prayers :)

Oxygen and no more IVs

I finally made it up to the hospital today and when I got there Ryder was back on oxygen :( it's not very much they say it is as if he were riding a power wheel and the wind was blowing in his face lol he is still breathing the same air we are so this is just kinda helping him cause he was starting to struggle last night. The nurse said he has been using all his energy to breath and so now he's getting tired and forgets to take deep breaths now I guess. So they upped his feeding again and now he's at 30 ccs and at his feeding tonight at eleven he will go up to 33 ccs. He get's to go off his IVs today she said she was going to take it out at his feeding time at 5. So he's still progressing and doing good just is needing a little bit of help with his breathing again. She let me hold him why I was there and said Clayt and I both should be able to hold him tonight when we go up together. I love holding him and am glad I can now hold him everyday instead of every other day. After I was done holding him today and the nurse was putting him back in the isolate she was trying to put him on his belly and he stuck his butt in the air and put his knees under him like he was going to crawl away and looked like a stink bug it was so cute. He does the funniest things when we try to move him to different positions he's such a character already. So that's the update for today hopefully things are still good when we go back tonight and get better over the night too.

1 week old

Daddy and Ryder

Sleepy boy.. Sleeps like mom

Hangin out with dad

Ryder and daddy

My 2 little Cubs fans
We have this tiny Cubs helmet we thought we would put on him and it is so big on him it was cute.

Wow I can 't believe my baby boy is already a week old today. He is doing amazing still we all are so surprised. He is now eating 28 ccs of milk and is off the fat and nutrition iv and is just on sugar and water and that is so good that means only maybe one more day of ivs :) I can't wait until he is iv free I hate that stupid thing it makes me sad seeing it jabbed in a body part every day. Well he gained weight the other day and last night he maintained it AWESOME he's such a strong boy. We still only get to hold him an hour a day and just one of us a day kinda sucks. When he progresses to an open crib he will get to wear clothes and we can hold him whenever we want as long as he is tolerating it and I can't wait for that day and at the rate he's going it can be really soon. He's getting more cute every day I love the little guy so much. Clayton is so proud of him and is so cute with him I love it I knew he would be an awesome dad. That's all that is going on with him he's doing awesome and we couldn't ask for a healthier baby he may be small but don't let the size fool you lol

Update

Precious baby boy

Sucking his fingers

Daddy and Ryder

Wide awake.. Looking at his daddy

Sound asleep on his belly

Wow it's been a crazy week around here it seems like it's been a lot longer then a week but we're enjoying being parents. Ryder is doing awesome he is improving everyday. He is now off the antibiotics and caffeine. They gave him a dose of caffeine every day to stimulate his breathing so he didn't forget to take some deep breaths with his little ones. He is getting fed through a feeding tube in his nose. He got to have my milk his first time on Wed. they started him out at 5 ccs and he thought that wasn't enough so that next day they did 10 ccs and he was still hungry they can't feed them a lot because preemies belly's are too small. But yesterday morn they upped him to 14 ccs that morning and then by his afternoon feeding he was at 20 ccs he is progressing so well they are all amazed on how good he's doing. He is still at 20 ccs as far as I know. He still has his ivs for nutrition and fat but as soon as he reaches about 35 ccs he can be taken off all ivs yay he's on his way there quickly. I still won't be able to breast feed for a few weeks most likely. He still needs to learn the suck swallow and breath technique and that's what he would be learning right now if he was still in the womb. Clayton was changing is diaper yesterday and it was a poopy one so he was nervous and he then all of a sudden Ryder just started peeing all over the place. I wasn't in there I was in the nursing room pumping but he comes in with a big grin saying you missed a show Ryder peed all over me all over his bed it was cute. Good job Ryder way to get daddy good lol. I missed out on the best thing lol I guess him my mom and the nurse were laughing so hard wish I could of seen it. So that's the update on Ryder. He's doing awesome and we couldn't ask for a healthier strong baby. We are looking forward to the day we can bring him home with us. We hate to leave the NICU everyday without him and it's hard because only one of us gets to hold him a day :( I'll keep this updated as he progresses more and when I have time :)

Eric Ryder Johnson

Waking up

My little guy

Proud mommy and daddy

His tiny foot

His little hand and arm

Ryder decided he didn't want to live in mommy's tummy any longer and joined us July 27, 2009 at 7:02 am. He is 2 months early and weighed 4 lbs 3 oz and was 17 inches long. It all started at around 12:30 am Monday morn I though it was just my normal back pain that I always get so I just kept holding it off. Finally the front pain started coming on with the back pain and I still wasn't sure what it was. Around 4:30 am Clayton heard my throwing up and crying and said we were going to the hospital. We left at almost 5 and got to the hospital shortly after. I got there and they asked what was going on and then got me on a bed and checked me and the nurse is like your dilated to a 9 we're having a baby. I just remember the look on Clayts face when she said that he was so scared he's like it's too early isn't it? They are like yes but we're having this baby. They called the life flight team and my Dr and they both got there right away. My Dr broke my water at 6:30 am and he was born at 7:02 am. The life flight/preemie team took him from me as soon as Clayt cut his cord. They worked on him in the room for a little while and then let me see him again and took him into the nursery. Clayt was in there with him the whole time and a few hours later they had him stabled and brought him in to see me one last time before they Ambulance him to the IMC in Murray. He was on a ventilator for about the first 3 hours of his life and then they moved him to oxygen cause he was doing so well. Around 8 that night they took him completely off oxygen and was breathing on his own. He is such a strong boy. Yesterday I got released from the hospital and was finally able to see my baby boy. We got to finally hold him and he's so little and precious I love him so much it was so hard to leave not knowing he wasn't coming home with me. Clayton got to care for him yesterday and changed his diaper for the first time and got to take his temperature it was so cute to watch. He is still breathing on his own breathing the air we do witch is so awesome he's doing so good. They tell us he could be in there until his normal due date Sept 23 but since he's doing so good it could just be 3-4 more weeks but we will see. I'm just glad he's as healthy as he is and doing so good. I don't want him to come home until he is ready even tho we would love to have him home now :) Well that's all for now I will keep this updated as time goes on. Thank you everyone for your prayers and comfort we couldn't do it alone. We love you all.

Our New Car

This is our new car. I like it a lot and it's fun but I wish it was my Mazda lol
The pic was taken from my phone so it's kind of small and not the best picture.

Week In Review

Wow what a crazy week it was. Easton, Jaxon and Kavika all had state baseball this last week and they all played at the same time on different fields it was crazy. I stayed at the condo with Davey and Karen Monday and Tuesday night so I could get up early in the morn with them and help them get kids to games since they had only one vehicle. It was insane and very rushing lol but a lot of fun. Clayt was still working nights and days so I just hung out with them Monday- Thursday. Kavika and Jaxon ended up losing out on Wed night but they both played awesome and I think they still had a good time. Easton ended up winning all of his games in the round robin round if that's what it's called lol and on Thursday was the day for the championship and they lost the first game and so it knocked them down into the 3rd and 4th place bracket and they ended up taking 3rd. They only lost that one game out of the 7 they played I believe it was that many anyways. But they played awesome and it was fun to watch but lets say I am ready for the year break of baseball we have had a lot of it with them playing on traveling teams and coming up here almost every weekend this summer and then city league but it was fun and I can't wait until next year and I won't be fat and miserable in the heat :) lol Well good job boys and thanks for giving me something to do since I had the week off.

So Clayton calls me Friday to tell me he's on his way home from work and it was way early cause he was playing in a softball tourney that night. Well not even 1 minute into the convo he says jk I'm not on my way home his truck just died. Oh great so he couldn't get it started back up and him and Cole are thinking it's something to do with the engine that's a big deal. He calls me back and says well get ready to go car shopping tomorrow oh yay we just did that why couldn't the Toyota just wait a few more months oh well I guess. He wants to get it fixed but there is so much work that needs to be done to it and we are hoping to get this condo and we have to have a down payment so we didn't want to use that to fix his truck. So Saturday morning we headed out car shopping first place we stopped we saw a car we liked a red Jetta so we looked at it and it was in the price range we were looking for but decided to keep looking. We stopped at a few other places and test drove some cars there but decided to go back to the first one. So we ended up getting a 2001 VW Jetta. It's a stick shift yay I was happy to have that back lol we will take turns driving the car and the truck whoever has to drive the farthest will take the truck. We decided the car will save us in gas a lot a month so we think it will pay off that way :)

Today we had the opportunity to sub in nursery at church. It was a lot of fun. It's so fun to watch and listen to each little kids different personality not one was a like. There were mean ones, grumpy ones, ones who were shy and then really talkative ones. I think Clayt enjoyed playing with the little ones I love watching him with kids he's going to be such an awesome dad. Clayt ended up having to work all night again last night and then came home for church he kept falling asleep in Sacrament Meeting but nursery kind of woke him up lol he said he could do this job every Sunday lol so I guess if they want to give us a calling that's a good one for us if he says he could do it haha.

So that was our crazy eventful week. The baby and I are doing awesome. My belly grows more and more each day. I am almost 31 weeks so crazy I can't believe how fast it has gone by. We are getting so excited and can't wait to meet him. Also we are supposed to be hearing back this week on the condo we put an offer on about a month ago. I hope we get it and hopefully will get to move in by the end of this month beginning of next month. Wish us luck.