Kathryn as Mom

This is my first time "blogging", but I have wanted to blog about Kathryn and the incredible mother she is to our son.  Very few people get to see this, but more should.  She is not only a natural mother, but she is extremely patient, positive, and loving to this little boy.  From the minute we found out she was pregnant she has made this motherly transformation that has been incredible to witness.  Not that she needed to improve anything, but before she was my best friend, my life partner, my wife, a great sister, daughter and friend.  Now she is a MOM!  There were times where we sat and wondered how we would handle or react to certain things.  We even discussed what we were supposed to do when we got home from the hospital, where I replied "all we have to do is keep him alive".  We wondered how we would deal with certain situations, and what it would be like to truly be sleep deprived.  Since that little man was born and she held him for the first time, there have been no questions for her.  She has totally become Mom and as we all know.....Mom's don't get sick, they know everything, and they can ALWAYS make you feel better.  That's the truth, because she is the ONE person that can always calm him down and make him feel better.

I have shared our birthing story with many of you, and some haven't heard it.  I will spare Kathryn and not post it on the internet, but if you really want to hear it, give me a call because it was the most heroic, bravest things I have ever witnessed.  That woman pushed for 1.5 hours before she started to give up, but that is when it happened.  She morphed into this warrior and powered through it.  The amount of respect that I now have for her, and all other mothers is insurmountable.  Then sitting there watching her (and scrambling to take pictures because the ONE job I had, I screwed up) hold him for the first time made me so happy.  I never knew that a tiny 8 lb. human could make you feel that way.  Hudson will read this post one day and will already know how incredible his mom is, but just in case he doesn't he will now!  The sacrifices and pain (along with 1,000 other side effects, symptoms, and after birth care) that go along with having a child is something I didn't appreciate until now. 

Now that we are watching him grow up it fascinates me how much of a part of his life she truly is.  She is with him 24/7 and has made him the happiest baby that I have ever met.  Every time Hudson sees her, he immediately locks onto her and starts smiling.  He knows who she is and he already feels unconditional love from her.  Sure he laughs and smiles at me, but it is different with her.  She is his momma and she is ALWAYS there for him.

Below are some pictures I have taken with/without her knowing.  Growing up, it was drilled into my head that it wasn't important what I was doing when everyone was looking, but what I was doing when no one was looking.  Seeing her in action when she thinks no one is looking is truly amazing.

Disclaimer!

So I am officially the absolute worst 'Thank You' card writer there ever was. Cliff's office  is moving buildings today so he's at home today and I've planned for today to be the day I got caught up on thank you cards. As I've just sat down to write them I am embarrassed at how many I have to write. For those of you that have been thinking 'gosh, Kathryn is so rude' I feel ya and agree! So, if you get a thank you card in the next week or so I'll go ahead and apologize for being 3-6 months behind. (Yeah, it's that bad!) 

This face can be somewhat distracting! (Still unacceptable though!)

2 months..a week late!

The 24th was actually the 2 month marker for Hudson..oops! We took him to his 2 month dr's visit last Tuesday. He weighs 12 lbs and is 24 1/4 inches long. The doctor said he was really pleased with his growth and that he's a happy healthy boy! 

It's amazing how much he has changed just in the last month. He's so alert and really seems to know who Cliff and I are. He smiles all the time and tries hard to get giggles out every now and then! We keep being afraid we'll jinx ourselves but he really is such a good baby. I'm a pretty laid back person, some (Cliff) might say a little too laid back in some ways! But because of that super strict schedules just don't work out for us. I wanted him to be in a routine but not a strict schedule he has to abide by. So far it seems to be working for all of us. He's sleeping 12-13 hours every night. He usually wakes up between 7AM-8, eats, goes back to sleep for about 30 minutes and then stays awake for about 2 hours. I've started putting him down for a 2-3 hour nap in the early afternoon (instead of holding him). He's done really well with that, most of the time I have to wake him up after 3 hrs. I guess he's like me and loves to nap! Most days he's awake the rest of the afternoon until about 5 then he sleeps for an hour, eats and goes to sleep for the night around 730-8pm. I have been nursing him again around 930 but I'm probably going to cut that out soon and see how he does. 

He's still doing amazingly well with a bottle. I usually give him one every other day sometimes more just depending on what we're doing.  I've found when I'm out and about it's almost harder to rely on a bottle and easier just to park in the back of the parking lot and feed him!

We made it through his first Thanksgiving(s) pretty well! Wednesday night we went to Cliff's parents house for round 1. We had my mom, sister & Robert over to our house on Thursday for our first 'pot luck Thanksgiving' which turned out well! We had Friday off and last night went to my dad's for the last of the eating fest. My grandparents were in town so Hudson got to meet them too! 

Missi turned 3 since I last blogged! One would think that by 3 she would have calmed down significantly. Think again! We tell everyone that comes over 'I promise she'll calm down...eventually!' Our walks have helped a little bit with her want to bolt out the door every time it opens but every once and a while she still feels the need to run around the neighborhood. She always comes back. But, she just marches to the beat of her own drum and goes where ever she feels like. We haven't met every one who has moved in on our street, but she sure has! We will be much better human parents than dog parents..we've definitely failed at that! 

I'll try to keep better updated through the holidays. We've got a lot going on this next month so I'll try to do better! Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! 

2 month picture. He stayed face up this time! 

Thanksgiving at Gram and Poppa's house 

Thanksgiving at our house. Passed out on Cici

He fell asleep on Mimi without even making a peep 

4 generations

Sweet baby didn't even make it a block before passing out on the way home last night. He's definitely pooped today! 

Now Cliff and I are about to start decorating for Christmas! :)

Photo Dump

So I am horrible at this blogging thing. There's just not enough time in the day for me to sit down and focus on it. Sorry! So for now ill do a big photo dump and spare you all the details of our super exciting life. Ha!







I take HJT and Missi on a walk at least a few times a week. Something they're both happy doing!





Cliff and I on date night at the Justin Timberlake concert!


I bought this silly little hat and paw set at Target real quick one day when it was cold out & it continues to make us all laugh when he has it on!


Happy Thanksgiving !!





My 2 favorite boys :)


Turkey coma on Cici (cliff and I renamed her grandma name)


I promise I'll do another real update soon. We took HJT for his 2 month check up last week and the doctor said he's one healthy little man!

Location:Delaware Dr,Brentwood,United States

Newborn Photoshoot

When Hudson was a week old we had a photographer come and take newborn pictures of him. A lot of our friends had used her for their pictures and gave us raving reviews on her. Well, I can't say enough good things about her. She was so incredibly prepared and patient with us and with Hudson. This was the first time I had actually gotten dressed into something other than my pajamas or tried to do anything scheduled with Hudson so I was an anxious wreck. But the shoot went amazingly well because of her! I'm not going to put all the pictures on here but I will share a few :) 

http://www.kmosleyphotography.com/ is where you can find our photographer who I highly recommend! 

Update

So I'm officially a terrible blogger. Sorry! 

Nothing too exciting going on around here just enjoying the day to day. Last week was Cliff and my 2 year anniversary so we hired a babysitter and went out to dinner. Ha, I don't think we'll ever have to hire a babysitter! I think our list of babysitters actually wish we would go out more without Hudson so they can watch him. 

I've been spending the days trying to get Hudson in a pretty good routine. I don't want to be crazy about him being on a set schedule to where we can't be flexible but when we're at home I'd like to get some consistency. He's been sleeping in his crib during nap time but still sleeps in a bassinet in our room at night. Mainly because when he wakes up at 5AM I'm too lazy to walk upstairs and get him. He usually goes down for the night around 930 and sleeps until about 4:30-5, I feed him then he goes back to sleep until 7:30-8. I'm loving that! This week I've noticed he really responds to me talking to him and is smiling all the time! (Well, unless he's hungry!) He loves when his dad comes home from work every night and usually has a good hour or 2 of play time with him before he falls asleep. In the first 4 weeks Cliff and I wished that we could get more awake time from him and knew we only had about an hour of it every day. These days I'm lucky if he goes to sleep for an hour! Not really, he does take two 2-3 hour long naps still but he's spent a few days awake the entire day. 

I'm trying to get us out at least 2-3 times a week so I can be more comfortable with it. He absolutely loves the Moby wrap and is perfectly content going in it when we're out. He doesn't love to get out of it and into his car seat though! 

Most everyone asks how Missi is doing. She's doing okay. She's definitely a little depressed but she's handling it fairly well. I've starting taking both of them on walks every day and that seems to be helping her. However, I'm pretty sure our neighborhood thinks I'm crazy. I don't walk Missi on a leash mainly because she's MUCH better off the leash. Well, last week she had been doing so good staying on the sidewalk right beside me but we had a few days of rain to where we couldn't get out so I guess she'd forgotten what being good was. She was all over the place. Dropping her tennis ball in the holes the workers were digging for trees to be planted. Running in to unfinished houses. Jumping into the fountains in the front of our neighborhood. And, stupid me thought I'd see if she knew what 'squirrel' meant when one ran right past us and sure enough she did and took off after it in front of a car, caught the squirrel by the tail and threw it up in the air. Poor squirrel jumped on the nearest tree probably in cardiac arrest. All that to say... Missi is just fine! 

We're excited it's almost the weekend and we get Cliff home for a few days! I know he misses Hudson during the days but I try to send him pictures and videos often. Here are some from the last few weeks. 

His Halloween costume that no one got to see since it was storming :( 

He loves the bath

We've had a night or 2 where we have to pull out the Moby at home if he's fighting sleep. Works like a champion!

Oscar was much better behaved than Missi!

Happy Birthday!

Happy 29th birthday to my sweet husband! I'm not a mushy share your feelings on the internet/make Facebook statuses about how much I love you kind of girl. But, today (and every day really) this man deserves some serious mush. (I don't feel like I'm using that word right. It looks funny typed out.)
Anyway.
Happy Birthday to the man who knows how to fix anything. Who would help any one at any time if they needed him. The man who is the ultimate son, son-in-law, big brother, husband and most importantly dad. Who gets up at 6AM on the weekends and even on his birthday with our baby just so I can catch a few more hours of sleep. The man who puts up with my crazy self and loves unconditionally. If our son becomes anything like you I will be overjoyed!

One Month

I can't believe it's been a whole month since I had Hudson. I feel like just yesterday I was still pregnant. It's so bittersweet how fast time seems to be going by. In one hand I love how much he's growing into his own little person every day and on the other I don't want it to go by too fast. Ho hum. 

The last month has been the greatest of my life. I've never really been overly good at anything. I was on the Cottonwood Pirates swim team when I was in elementary school where I was disqualified from every single swim meet but I had a lot of fun chatting with my friends during practices. I ran cross country in middle school where I would run until I was out of site from the coaches, hangout for a little bit and then run walk briskly back. (I wasn't trying to get too sweaty) Always being sure never to come in any where close to first. I definitely didn't want them thinking I was actually running that quickly! I cheered also but was the eternal base due to my height and mouthed most of the cheers because my voice was nowhere near as high pitched as everyone else's. I was an average(ish) student, really more concerned with my social life and what my weekend plans were. There was many a time when Stacy's face would pop up in the doorway of whatever class I was in and I knew I was in trouble. The joys of going to high school where your mom taught! 

All that to say, a month ago when Hudson was born I feel like I finally found what I was meant to be in life and I feel so blessed to be able to be this little boy's mama. I'm not claiming I'm going to be the best or even a good one but it feels so good to feel so complete in my life. 

Any way! Hudson's started to finally get on a pretty consistent routine. He's eats pretty much every 3 hours with the exception of night time where he'll sleep for 5 and 6 hours straight. The first time he did it I freaked out a little bit because A. I had been dead asleep and had no idea I'd slept that long B. It had been 6 hours since he'd eaten! The pediatrician said just let him wake himself up to eat at night though so that's what we've been doing.

He's starting to really focus on people and in the last 2 days I've noticed he's smiling at me on purpose not just because of gas! He's been 'talking' to himself every once and a while but when I mimic him he gets offended and stops. 

Unfortunately I came down with a pretty bad cold/cough in the last day or so and have passed it on to him. I've spent the majority of today holding him while he screams. I don't want to be one of those moms who calls the pediatrician 2342349 times but I finally gave in earlier and did once I noticed he was awfully warm and had a temperature at 99. They said just to keep doing what I'm doing unless it got over 100. She recommended I nurse him as much as he wanted to since my body will give him antibodies to get better. That's seemed to help calm him down and he's finally down for a nap now. Poor little guy! I've really got to work on pulling it together since I burst into tears when I realized he had a little fever. 

Last weekend was such a nice fall weekend we had to get out of the house and enjoy it. Saturday morning we went to the Franklin Farmer's Market. We got some local goodies but the best part were the old fashioned doughnuts and apple cider! Sunday we went with Elizabeth and Robert to Gentry Farm where Hudson picked out his first pumpkin. Or he slept in the Moby while Cliff did! Tomorrow is Cliff's birthday so we're going to be celebrating him this weekend! 

Here's our attempt at some 1 month pictures. Maybe we'll do some practicing before 2 months!

Here's a little video of him during his tummy time,  which is his favorite way to be!