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!

Well, Hudson and I survived our first week just the two of us at home!

I realized I had gotten too spoiled with Cliff being home first thing on Monday morning when he wasn't there to entertain Hudson while I went back to sleep after his 6AM feeding. But, it wasn't anything a little giant cup of coffee didn't fix. 

We had a pretty busy week for his second week of life. On Monday we had a follow up appointment back at the hospital. This was my first time driving HJT alone so I was a little nervous but luckily he slept through the whole thing, including the appointment and the ride back home. On Tuesday he had his 2 wk appointment at the pediatrician where he weighed 9 lbs 1 oz and is 20 inches (75th percentile). I'm pretty sure Cliff is already planning what position he'll be playing in football. 

Sleeping through his appointment 

Missi is obsessed. 

Wednesday we snuggled all day.

On Thursday my heart was so full to have my grandparents come in for the afternoon to meet him. I feel beyond blessed to have grown up knowing both sets of my grandparents and great-grandparents and I'm so happy for Hudson to be able to know his too. My Mom-Mom and Dad-dad used to actually live in Brentwood and I miss them being so close all the time. But we're glad they're only about 2 hrs away so that they're able to come have visits like this. 

On Friday we had workers in and out so we snuggled all day again :) I did finally give in and put in him in his crib for a nap so that I could lay down and he did great. I had to wake him up after 3 hrs to eat! 

I'm loving spending my days with him and watching him grow which he's doing way too fast! I'm already seeing his face start to fill out and look less like a brand new baby. He's starting to stay awake for longer periods at a time during the day and he loves to look around. Tomorrow we're going to take him to pick out his first pumpkin! Or to hangout in his moby while Cliff and I pick one for him :)

A little bit of everything

As to be expected blogging has fallen to the wayside and baby snuggles have quickly become my only priority. But, while HJT is sleeping I'll try to give one big update on the last 2 weeks. 
Fyi- If you're not into reading novels don't continue. Or if you're not into birth stories definitely don't keep reading!

Birth Story: 
So for all 4 of you that read my last blog before he was born knew that I was scheduled to be induced on 9/26 which was the day before my actual due date. As much as I wanted him out of my belly I really struggled as the 26th got closer and closer and he still hadn't come on his own. I can't really explain why I felt so strongly about being induced but second to a c-section it was the last thing I wanted. But, I had come to terms with the fact that this stubborn little person wasn't budging on his own and an induction really wasn't a bad thing. I went to work on Monday feeling absolutely no contractions or signs of labor. And for those that had to be around me in the last few weeks of my pregnancy I'll go ahead and apologize for my insane moodiness! I think everyone at work was just as ready for me to have him as I was. 
At 1:48 am on Tuesday (i'm weird about remembering exact times) I woke up and while sparing you all the details I thought that possibly my water was slowly breaking although still no contractions. So, I went back to sleep until my alarm went off for work. At that point I was 90% sure that's what was happening but I still didn't know for sure. I wanted it to be like the movies with one giant water breaking moment so I would know for sure. I got up, ate breakfast, got ready for work and finally decided maybe I should mention this to Cliff. We talked it over and I had finally decided just to go to work and if anything else happened I'd just walk to the hospital, the perk of working next door. However, I had a last minute change of heart and after vacuuming and cleaning the floors Cliff and I went on to the hospital. We arrived there at 8:30am.
After the nurse determined that indeed my water had broken they took me to a delivery room. By this point we had let all of our family and close friends know HJT was on his way but not to rush as I was still only dilated to a 2 but contractions had started. My mom and dad were both there within 30 minutes and Cliff's parents weren't far behind! Once I got labor and delivery they started me on a pitocin drip. I labored for about 3 hours with no epidural and sill no progression. I had really wanted to wait until I was much further dilated to get an epidural but with each contraction I was having my body was tensing up immensely which the nurse said could be why I wasn't progressing at all. So, anesthesia came in and after 4 attempts were finally able to get the epidural in. Best. decision. Ever. I really admire those who choose to do everything all naturally but I just am not that person! For the next several hours my contractions picked up and I finally started to progress. But, unfortunately they progressed too much too quickly. I had a series of contractions that lasted for about 3 minutes which left Hudson no time to recover in between contractions. I had just dozed off when my nurse came in to check me. The next thing I knew 7 more nurses were in the room, my doctor was being paged and I had an oxygen mask on my face. I didn't really know what was going on but I knew when I had looked at the monitor Hudson's heartbeat was down to 79 and wasn't going back up. My doctor was in the room in no time and after what felt like an eternity his heartbeat finally started to go back up. Needless to say Cliff and I were extremely shaken up afterward. They turned my pitocin off and let me labor on my own from that point on. Side note: I can't say enough good things about the nurses we had or my doctor. She was watching the monitors on her computer in her office (same building I work in) and came before they even paged her then sat outside my room until I was ready to start pushing. At about 7pm I was at a 6 so we were able to talk our parents in to going to get something to eat. Well, not mine. Mom and dad did not leave my side unless the nurses or doctor came in to check me which was actually fine with me. 
I went from a 6 to an 8 within the hour. We then kicked everyone out to where it was just the two of us. At that point my pain level was getting increasingly worse. I thought maybe just because I was getting so close but turned out my epidural had worn off. I wanted to hug the anesthesiologist who came and gave me a 'delivery dose' after that. It took another hour or so to finally make it to a 10. Once I started pushing the nurse told me most first time moms push for about an hour - 2 hours but that and I quote 'you won't take that long'....2 hours later I'm still pushing and wanting to kick that woman. I finally found some extra energy from within and at 10:54pm my sweet boy was born. 

All the grandparents and their electronics!

Our first night home was pretty rough. I have a bassinet next to our bed that HJT just didn't seem to like being in. The next night I tried changing some things around and he slept through the night. I had to wake him up to feed him every 3 hours! Since then he's done great, we haven't been able to establish an exact routine but most days he's done really well about eating at scheduled times. The nurses in the hospital told me whenever he seems to want it, offer it to him so I did. We went to see the pediatrician the Monday after we got home and he was already back up to his birth weight! The doctor recommended I stretch his feedings out and stop letting him 'graze'...oops! 

Cliff was home with us all last week which was so nice. He's done such an amazing job with Hudson and helped us be able to start getting into some sort of daily routine. I really did not want him to go back to work on Monday! I'm pretty sure HJT has Cliff wrapped around his tiny finger. Which, who am I kidding, so am I. 

Ok, I'll wrap this novel up for now and I'll try to get better about updates (that aren't so long!)

Here's some pictures from the last week

Coming home 

This is what said 'routine' consists of :)

For those that aren't on Instagram and have wondered about Missi and him. She LOVES him. Just a little too much. She does great if it's just Cliff and I here but she's used to being the center of everyone's our attention so she doesn't like when visitors are talking to him and not her. She's very worried about him though and doesn't like to let him out of her sight.

This little person  has completely stolen my heart. It's really amazing to me how much you can love someone. Needless to say he has a lot of people in his life that love him. He's one lucky guy!