The Johnson Blog

Ramblings of a geek with a few hobbies…

  • The Whole Family

    As this is my first post, I just wanted to say hello to everyone who has been keeping track of our events via the blog. I know that there were many thoughts and prayers that have helped get us through everything these last few months, weeks and especially days. Thank you for your love and support, we appreciate it and know that it made a difference.

    We are now all home and doing very well. As many of you know (or may all know) we have 2 cats that have been treated as our children since we were married. Affectionately known as ‘the boys’, our cats have been a large part of our life and there was much concern as to how they would adjust. Well they are both adjusting in their own ways.

    Neo, the older of the two, has decided he isn’t too sure of the little one. Don’t worry, he isn’t aggressive, just taking an avoidance strategy but also quite upset at me for brining him home. He will allow me to pet him if David is not in the room. He sometimes forgets he’s mad at me and lets me hold him, but the instant there is a reminder (smell, sound, etc) he gets upset and leaves. He’ll come around, he’s my big boy and has been the center of attention for a while so this is hard on him.

    Dozer, also known as Eric’s cat, has impressed us both with his acceptance. While he’s not keeping guard over the little one, he has definitely not given him the cold shoulder. He is doing what he can to make sure his place in the family is still as active. For those who know Dozer, he loves being the center of Eric’s attention, so when Eric is reading to David or holding him, Dozer is on the other side and paying just as much attention. When we were giving David his first bath, he (David) cried the whole time. What surprised us was Dozer’s reaction. Dozer was right there, seeming to be yelling at me to stop hurting him and was very concerned for David during the whole ordeal. It was a touching reminder of my family’s old cat Sandy who used to console Maria and me when we were crying or upset.

    Anyway, we have grown as a family. While we’re not sure if we will be able to break the habit of referring to the cats as ‘the boys’, they will still remain a part of our growing family. David is doing well in his second day at home and I’m doing what I can to take care of the two of us and remember to ask for help instead of trying to over-do it. Hard for me since my mother did a fantastic job of raising her daughters to be independent. Thank you mom, but don’t worry, I’ll ask for your help (and others). Eric is doing a fantastic job of getting everything done and harassing me when I try to do something I shouldn’t be doing.

  • Too young for a domain?

    Nope.  http://www.david-a-johnson.com will be waiting for him when he’s ready 🙂

  • Home!

    David is getting acquainted to his new home!

    And now it’s time for me to shovel some snow.

  • Heading home today

    Our time here in the hospital is coming to a close.  The nurses are getting all of the discharge orders in line so we can hopefully be out of here before 11 this morning.

    It looks like it has snowed quite a bit over night, so I expect getting into our driveway is going to be a bit of a pain in the butt.

  • Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

    Here’s a sample of a few photos I took this morning. A larger set (in full-size) are being uploaded right now, click here to view.

    For the best looking prints, be sure to download the largest image size available.

  • And now, Technology

    Ana’s got David right now, so I’ll take this time to get some things down that have been bouncing around my head lately.

    Blogging all of this has been a blast.  Initially I was going to just use the blog as a tool to keep a small handful of people we knew informed of the day’s progress so they could continue to spread the word for us. Wow, did that explode – relatively speaking.  When it was all said and done, I was hearing about lots of people being glued to the blog anxious for updates.  We surely didn’t expect Ana’s grandmother to be getting the news from the website!

    (more…)

  • Plans

    We’ve been given the option to leave the hospital either Saturday or Sunday.  Following the advice of the many friends and family members we have, we’ve opted for Sunday.  That extra day should really help Ana’s recovery process and will keep the temptation of doing any housework at bay.

    So we’ll be hanging out here for a little while longer.  Heck, it sounds like there’s a little snow storm headed our way tomorrow so we’ll get do dodge that!

    I’d like to thank everyone that’s been in contact with us – your words and prayers have always been positive and reassuring, and the food very filling 🙂  Much appreciated.

  • David

  • A Quick Reflection

    Our first night went very, very well.  Beforehand I hadn’t really thought about what the first night together would be like.  There were a few comments made telling us to enjoy our night together, but in all the brouhaha I didn’t stop to give it a second thought.  And I’m glad – the realization of how special the night was was almost as amazing as the evening itself.  I’ll do my best to elaborate. 

    (I realize this is nothing new to those who’ve gone through all of this, but what the heck, I’ll continue anyway.  It’ll be fun to read in 20 years, right?)

    Once everyone had said their goodbyes for the day and the three of us were left in the room, the adrenaline of the day really started to wear off.  Things finally started to slow down. We could take it all in; 3 months of anxiety were finally washed away in the knowledge that everything was working out great. 

    Speaking for myself (although after watching Ana, I think this rings true for her as well), any nervousness about us being on our own for the first time, to figure even the most basic stuff out, was quickly dispelled when I picked up a crying David and started talking to him.  It was the neatest thing (and one of the many that I’ll remember forever) – he stopped crying, opened his eyes a bit and just looked at me as I talked to him.  The sound was familiar and soothing; and it was my voice. 

    The rest of the time was spent holding and gazing at him in wonder, but without any of the typical working-world time pressures.  It didn’t matter one bit that it was 3:15am – we’ve got nowhere to be but here in the morning.  No job to rush to, no deadlines.  Nope, it was 3:15am and I wanted to sit by the window with my new son.  So I did, and it was awesome.

    I know that’s an extremely unique situation that quickly vanishes once reality resumes, but that’s precisely the point – for that first night, and these coming few days and nights, we have the ability to effectively pause reality for a while and just sit back and enjoy this thing.

    Steph, thanks for your innocent looking comment to make me realize this.  Otherwise I probably wouldn’t have given last night much thought and not really paid attention to the cool stuff coming in the next few days.

     And on that note, I don’t really know what time it is but I’m going to go sit with David for a while.

  • Sounds from the Operating Room

    In addition to the video camera I took into the operating room for the delivery, I placed a voice recorder in my pocket and recorded the whole thing.  While the audio isn’t great because it was beneath a layer of scrubs and something I’ll just refer to as a cape, it did get some good stuff.

    For your listening pleasure, here are two small clips.

    David’s first cry

    Surgeon’s funny statement about David