Goodbye...

My parents moved to California from Minnesota about three years ago. We've loved having them visit us and us visiting them over those years. I mean, seriously, who wouldn't want to go to CA a couple times a year? We have so much fun when we are all together. It's always hard to say goodbye, but this time was so different. My mom has been in MN for the past six weeks. She was here for two weeks before Vivienne was born and stayed extra long because my sister, Stacey, was graduating from college. She didn't want to come for the birth of Viv, go back to CA for a week or two, and then fly back... so she stayed! It was so fun! My dad was able to come for the past eleven days. We have all played games, gotten coffee, shopped and taken turns snuggling Vivie. So needless to say, when Viv and I dropped them off at the airport this morning, there were tears. I don't know when we will see them next which makes it extra hard. I am praying that I book a ton of weddings so that we can fly out to CA more. Vivienne is going to change so much in the next several months! I caught my mom smelling the top of Vivienne's tiny head over brunch and I about lost it because I knew she was taking in her sweet baby scent in her memory. Then mom and I got the giggles as we cried. I know we will text, chat on the phone and skype often, but its not the same as them being able to pop by and hold her every now and then.

We all had brunch this morning before their plane left so we did a mini photo shoot in the restaurant. Brian was gracious enough to take a million photos for us. Too bad we couldn't get one of us all, but we had limited time and Brian was sweaty and was still wearing his helmet from his 30 miles bike ride. Yet another reason we need to make our way to CA soon... a family photo with everyone!

Grandma and Grandpa - we miss you already!!! Viv cried when she woke up from her nap and saw that you were gone! Well, that and she had a dirty diaper and was hungry... but she really does miss you! Lord willing, we'll see you soon!

Vivienne's Birth Story: Part I

April 11, 2012 was almost any old day. I met up with my mom and sister for coffee at Wilde Roast Cafe. We chatted and laughed. We wondered who was in my belly. We took a photo of the three of us - the last photo of us all while I was pregnant! Then mom dropped me off at Brian's work so that I could hitch a ride home with him while she went back to stay at my brother's house. Brian and I ran a couple errands and talked about how we should go out for dinner and have a little date. By the time we were done with errands I was so exhausted that Brian suggested we simply order a pizza and spend the night chilling at home with pizza and a movie. Although slightly disappointed at the time that we weren't going out on a date, in hindsight, I am so glad we decided to stay in instead of going out because of what was about to happen...

At 5:04 we were snuggled on the couch watching a movie and I had just finished my last piece of pizza. I felt a funky "pop" feeling and then a gush of warm liquid. I jumped up and ran to the bathroom, embarrassed that I had possibly wet my pants! I had thought maybe my water had broken, but (TMI alert!) the liquid was yellow/greenish instead of clear. Confused and embarrassed, I changed my clothes and sat on the giant yoga ball "just in case". Thirty mins later, there was a (TMI alert!) HUGE gush of liquid and I ran to the bathroom again and jumped in the tub. There was no denying it... my water had just broken! Again, it was yellow/greenish and resembled swamp water more than tap water. At that point I knew that Baby Bird had pooped in my tummy! Not a good sign. Contractions still hadn't started so Brian prayed for us and then I took a warm bath while he read aloud to me from the Hobbit. At 5:45 I had four "normal" contractions - the one's that are tightening, but not painful. The next contraction took my breath away and I moaned in pain. Everyone told me that when true labor started, I would have no doubt. As soon as that contraction hit... I knew! Thus labor began! From that moment, I had extremely painful contractions and back labor that came every 2 mins without fully relaxing to rest in between. I took a hot shower while Brian grabbed all the last minute hospital items. We originally planned to labor at home as long as possible before heading to the hospital, but when my water broke with poop in it and contractions began that close together and that painful, I knew we were throwing our birth plan out the window!

Brian was surprisingly calm as we loaded up the car. We took one last pregnant photo in front of the car as we embarked for the hospital. The 20 minute drive to Fairview Southdale Hospital never felt so long! Every contraction took complete concentration to get through. Brian held my hand and reminded me to take deep breaths. With each exhale I shook my head back and forth and made long vowel noises, "oooooo" or "aaaaahhhh" and on the really strong ones, "oooowwwwww!" When we got to the hospital around 7pm, Brian ran in to get a wheel chair and dropped me off at the door while he parked the car and grabbed my hospital bag. I felt pretty dumb sitting by the entrance to the hospital, leaking amniotic fluid (apparently, you continue to even after your water has broken because you body is continually producing more fluid), shaking my head back and forth while moaning with no one accompanying. People exiting the hospital asked if they could do anything to help me. I squeezed out a simple "no" in between contractions. Within minutes, Brian had run up and started pushing the chair to the Maternal Assessment area. The poor nurses kept trying to ask me information for their records and I couldn't answer. The contractions were increasing in strength and it took all my energy and mental strength to focus on getting through each one. Brian answered the nurses on my behalf. The nurses had to make sure that I was in true labor (as if it wasn't obvious) so they put me in a room and had me change into my hospital gown and hooked me up to a fetal and contraction monitor. I asked for an epidural right away. I had planned on laboring as long as possible without one for the sake of being more mobile to progress in labor naturally, but I simply couldn't do it. The contractions were too strong and only a minute or two apart. When they checked my cervix just before moving us to our labor room, I was dilated to 4cm...

My First Mother's Day

This was my very first Mother's Day!

I used to think that Mother's Day must be meant for people who aren't close to their moms and needed a reminder to love and appreciate their moms. I never thought that I was in that category because my mom and I are so close and I tell her I love her daily! Turns out that being a mom is a full time job and, while full of amazing benefits, it's a lot of work! I now love and appreciate my mom even more!

Brian spent the whole day telling me how much he appreciated me and was thankful that his baby girl has me for her Mom. I felt so loved! Vivienne woke me up at 4:30 am because she was so excited to be the first to wish me a Happy Mother's Day and to tell me how much she loves me with sweet baby coo's (and cries). Even though it was early, I feel so honored that the Lord has given me the sweetest baby girl to love, cherish and care for. I was on the verge of tears and bursting with love all day! Brian bought me a fun pair of purple TOMS and another gift is on it's way. He was bummed that it didn't come in time. Oh the suspense!

It also was amazing that my mom was able to be in town for Mother's Day! I loved that I could celebrate with her in person. She wrote and illustrated the sweetest book for Vivienne ever! I got so chocked up as she read it to Vivienne. It's a love story between Songbird and Ladybird and the birth of their little Baby Bird! She should honestly publish it and make millions! I love my Mommy so much! I am so sad to see her and my dad go back to CA tomorrow. It's been so sweet to have her here for the first month of Vivienne's life! She will be so missed! I'm already counting the days until we can make our way out to CA to see them again! Love you Mommy and Daddy! Vivie will miss her grandparents dearly!

1 month

Vivienne Ruth Johnson is one month old! Where did the time go? It seems like just yesterday that I saw two pink lines on a pregnancy test and now here I am... about to celebrate my very first Mother's Day with my adorable one month and one day old daughter, Viv! My heart is bursting with joy! I guess it's true what they say, time flies when you're having fun. Who would've thought that recovering from a c-section and adjusting to motherhood would be this much fun? My mom and I have had a blast taking our "little buddy" to all sorts of cafes and shops all around the cities. Vivienne is going to go through coffee shop withdrawal as much as I will when my parents head home on Tuesday. It's been beyond a blessing to have them here! My heart is already breaking at the thought that they won't see her again for months. She's going to change so much! So each month on Vivienne's "monthly birthday", we will take photos of her with her "V" to see how much she's grown and changed!

At one month, Vivienne's favorite things are: nursing, sleeping, being tickled lightly, being swaddled tightly, any type of motion especially being bounced on Grandpa's knees, and bath time. She dislikes pee in her diaper, being "forced" to take her pacifier, getting out of the bath when bath time is over, hiccups, when mommy drink's caffeine, and waking up. She is such a sweet baby. She's been sleeping through the night (11pm - 6am) since she was ten days old! She's had a couple "off" nights, but for the most part, sleeps awesome. She rarely cries and when she gets upset it's easy to figure out the problem and console her. Only two times has she been so upset she was inconsolable for a bit and it was related to when I accidentally drank full caffeinated coffee. She loves to nurse and we've definitely figured out our rhythm so both of us love it. She loves her Papi's voice and will stare at him when he talks. She sleeps like her Mommy - out like a light, is not a morning person, and glares when you try to wake her. She eats like her Papi - gets really excited for meals and gets really fussy when they are late.

Vivienne, we love you so much! This month has been full of so many sweet memories and we look forward to months and years of more. You are a sweet blessing from the Lord!

New header

Now that I am no longer pregnant, I decided it's time to change the header of this blog. It used to look like this:

 And now we have a sweet baby girl so now...

Wide Eyed & Bushy Tailed

This morning, I was so wide awake at 8am after a full nights rest, yummy milk breakfast and a diaper change, that my mommy couldn't resist taking 50 million photos of me! It's true what people say... I'm going to be the world's most photographed baby. Mommy took these on her iPhoto using her favorite app, Instagram. It's pretty neat that she ALWAYS has a camera around to capture sweet mornings like this because I am growing up so  quickly!

Baby Bird Gender/Date winner!

Vivienne is 4 weeks old today! It's gone by so quickly, yet it feels like I've been a mommy forever!  It's high time that we announced the winner of the $5 Starbucks card from all the guesses we received from this poll. Of course, out of the 60 people who guessed (well, actually 59 because someone... ahem, Stacey... guessed twice!) there can only be one winner. Baby Bird was born on 4/12/12. We had six people guess that date. Baby Bird was born a girl! Of those six, three guessed Vivienne. So then we factored in the time that Vivienne was born in order to narrow it down to a winner. Vivienne was born at 12:08 am and the winner guessed 4:32 am.

Who is this winner??? Drum-roll please....... Sarah Houser! Congrats Sarah! I hope that they have Starbucks in South Korea! Email me at mindyr.johnson (at) gmail (dot) com and we'll figure out where to send your prize.

And because I hate blog posts without something visual, here is a cute video of Vivienne enjoying her nightly bath. She really loves it! Not matter how tired or hungry she is, she will stop fussing and sit wide eyed in the warm water. It's pretty much adorable and one of her favorite parts of the day... after eating and sleeping.

Vivienne's Newborn session

One of my favorite things about photographing newborns is capturing their personality! Most people think that tiny babies just eat, sleep and poop. And while that is mostly true, each baby is so unique and it comes out in their photos. I especially love editing newborn sessions. The more time I spend looking at their sweet little faces, the more I fall in love with my client's tiny ones. Now I have my own tiny baby to photograph! I love snuggling Vivienne and taking care of her and kissing her tiny cheeks, but there is something so fun about having some freeze frame photos of her lovely sweet little self that melts my heart and makes me fall even deeper in love with her. Plus she has quite the personality! She is always making us laugh with her goofy faces and she loves to smile (not sure if they are real smiles or just gas, but she loves to do it).

These photos have been a work in process. A newborn session usually takes a couple hours because of the diaper changing, the posing, the feeding and the rocking to sleep. Imagine how much harder it is to do all that AND be the one taking the photos! Especially after giving birth via c-section. The day that we did the photos in the mailbox, I just let her nap inside the mailbox when we were done taking photos because I didn't want to disturb her once again by taking her out! We've done a little bit here and there instead of one day devoted to Vivie's newborn photos. One day I was concerned that I'd miss getting photos of her at this age because she was a little uncooperative one day and my mom said, "That's ok. Just take more photos tomorrow. You own her!" So true! So good luck, little miss Viv! You're a photographer's daughter... that means that everyday is a photo shoot day!!!

I made this tiny hat because I thought it would be colder when Baby Bird was born, she's only worn it for photos haha

 Mid sneeze

 I also made this tiny hat. Viv looks like a boy in these photos so...

 ... I gave her a flower to make her more girly!

Johnson Family!

One of the perks of being a photographer is training my sister, Stacey, to be my second shooter. While this is super awesome for weddings and portrait sessions, it's even more awesome for personal sessions like our maternity session and our fun first family photos! We had about twenty minutes on a fantastic spring evening, so I called Stacey and had her meet us in Como Park. I am so happy with these photos! Vivienne is changing so quickly. I hate how fast she is growing up already! I used to laugh when new parents would say ridiculous things like, "My baby is already more of an infant than a newborn!" But now I totally understand! I've become one of those kooky parents! My baby is growing up.