Rocking with Roman

Hudson really likes to be held. He hates to even sleep in his bassinet. There have been many nights that I have slept in the recliner with Hudson already. Sunday morning I was getting Roman ready to go to church with Spencer and Hudson was getting a little fussy. So Roman wanted to hold him. He climbed up into the recliner and I gently rocked them while Roman held Hudson. It was so sweet. Roman kept giving Hudson hugs and kisses telling him "It's okay...you're okay." And Hudson calmed right down. He sat there with Roman for about 5 minutes completely happy.

Sunglasses

Last Saturday we were invited to a swim party for my cousin Tiffany's little boy Carter. I wasn't planning to take Hudson in the pool, but I thought it would be cute for him to wear his swim trunks and sunglasses. Well, the swim trunks were still WAY too big (they are 0-3 month) so we tried on the sunglasses and took a few pictures with them on.

In the end he slept through almost the entire party so I guess it didn't matter that we forgot the sunglasses anyway.

Storytime

Hudson has the best big brother. Roman just adores him. He loves laying on the floor talking to him. Sunday morning we got Roman all ready to go to church then he wanted to read Hudson the book I had just finished reading to him. He made sure to hold the book up so that Hudson could see the pictures and everything.

Watching these two together makes me so happy. They are going to be best friends...they are brothers...I just hope they are best friends more then worst enemies.

Brotherly Love

Roman LOVES Hudson. He tells him many times a day that he loves him.

He lays with him...

shares his toys with him....

gives him his binkie...

and his favorite giving him loves (hugs).

Hudson is so lucky to have such a loving big brother.

First Bath

Hudson had his first bath Friday (July 30). We thought he would be more upset then he was. Don't get me wrong, he didn't like it (at all) but he did pretty good. Roman brought his stool over so he could "Help" me give him his bath. Hudson made sure to get the water extra dirty by peeing as soon as we got him in the tub.

Showing his true colors and 2 week stats

At 5 days old Hudson is already on the right path. He's a ute fan through and through!

Last Tuesday Hudson had his 2 week well child check up.

Weight - 7 lbs 7 oz

Height - 20 1/2"

Head circumfrance - (75%)

It's no wonder Hudson seems so much smaller then Roman. Roman was all body and little head, Hudson is all head and a little body!

We had to do a follow-up weight check appointment on Thursday because Hudson was just growing slow. He hadn't regained his birth weight yet. On Thursday he was up to 7 lbs 10 oz so he is working on getting back up there.

We are related

Spencer says he can tell Hudson is my son...

We can both sleep anywhere...

and we do!

Postpartum...

BLISS!

They warn you about postpartum depression, baby blues, and hormone imbalances. No one ever warned me that I would have an overwhelming feeling of joy. An uncontrollable happiness. No one explained the dancing in the kitchen with my boys.

When I was in the hospital they kept asking if I was depressed, anxious, unattached. They didn't once ask if I was happy.

Yes...I am HAPPY!

I have two BEAUTIFUL boys. Miracles! Beautiful blessings! They make me smile just to look at them.

After 2 weeks I am still totally, completely, head over heels in love.

Is there anything better then 2 sweet boys?

BLISS! TOTAL BLISS!

(I have been trying to update my blogs, but I've been busy dancing in the kitchen and watching Green Eggs and Ham. Hopefully more to come soon!)

The first 24 hours

The first twenty-four of Hudson's life were crazy. CRAZY.

As soon as he was born they took him to the nursery. They thought that he just needed to have his lungs deep suctioned because he was grunting but not crying. The respiratory therapist saw him and said that they sounded good. Spencer stayed in the nursery with him until they said he was doing good then he came back to my room to make sure I was okay (and to let me know that Hudson was doing a lot better.) I couldn't wait for them to get us over to the Mother/Baby unit so that we could be with Hudson again.

It was probably another hour (it seemed like forever!) while they got me ready and over there. I sent Spencer into the nursery to check on Hudson and to see how he was doing. They told him that he was doing really well, but they were waiting for the pediatrician to come over to check him. About the time that we went to the Mother/Baby unit my mom, sister Marla, and Roman got to the hospital to visit us.

Spencer came back from the nursery to let us know that he wasn't ready to leave the nursery but they were going to give him his first bath and wondered if we (spencer and me) wanted to come over to watch. He looked so much better. They turned off the lights so he would open his eyes and he was so alert. It was nice to see a cute pink baby looking back at me.



He was NOT a fan of being washed, but when she washed his head, he was so content to lay back and let her just run the warm water over his head.

The pediatrician still hadn't been back to the nursery to check Hudson again and Spencer needed to get Roman home so he could get him ready and to bed so we went back to the room where my mom, Marla, and Roman were still waiting. We told them maybe tomorrow they could see him (Roman was so confused about everything, he didn't really understand if Hudson had come out of my tummy, why couldn't he see him?)

After they had all gone for the night I decided to go back to the nursery to check on Hudson. I was really planning to just go back in and hopefully bring him back to the room with me. I was not prepared for what I found when I went back to the nursery. Hudson was once again surrounded by nurses, they were trying to get an IV in, his blood pressure had taken a nose drive, they had blown 3 veins trying to get the IV in and were just warming his feet to try to get an IV there and were talking about putting a feeding tube in because he wouldn't stay awake to drink the formula and they thought the reason they couldn't get the IV in was because he was dehydrated. After about 2 1/2 hours the nurses asked me to leave the nursery because they needed to check me. I went back to my room and just cried. I hated not knowing what was going on. They kept saying "He's fine, he'll be fine." But things just kept looking worse.

Just over an hour later the nursery nurse came into my room to let me know that they did have to put a feeding tube in to get him some fluids to get the IV in, they were able to get an IV in (they had to put it in his head) but his oxygen saturation was dipping now so they said for me to just get some sleep that night and hopefully he would be able to leave the nursery the next morning.

I finally was able to get a few hours of sleep then first thing the next morning doctors started coming in to talk to me. First was my OB. He said he had been to the nursery and that Hudson looked good then he proceeded to check on me, said everything looked perfect and he was on his way. The next doctor that came was the pediatrician. She explained that she had been talking to the nurses throughout the night and she felt good about where things were going with Hudson, but she wanted to have them watch him a little longer. His blood pressure was much better, his oxygen saturation wasn't dipping anymore but she was a little concerned about his blood sugar levels.

Before I could even get up to go check on Hudson the hospital social worker came in to meet with me. He wanted to talk about how things were going, plans for our/his hospital stay. He told me about hoteling (staying at the hospital after I was released until Hudson was released) and about support that they offer to new mothers. By this point I was getting a little emotional. I hadn't seen Hudson since the night before, and I just wanted to get in and check on him. The social worker then started talking to me about "baby blues" and post partum depression. He asked if I was feeling depressed or anxious. I told him that I hadn't seen my baby yet that morning and as soon as I knew that he was doing okay, I would be fine.

I was finally able to get to the nursery to check on Hudson and I was pleasantly surprised by how much better he looked from the night before. The feeding tube was in his nose, but they had moved his IV to his hand, he was sleeping but he looked so peaceful. Without thinking I rubbed his leg and he woke with a start, and started crying. A nice healthy cry, and he moved his leg away from me (he wasn't reflex responding the previous night, so that was huge). They let me feed him and hold him and finally have some time with my baby. It was just what I needed to see with my own eyes that he was okay. What a relief.

While I was feeding Hudson Spencer got to the hospital with Roman and shortly after that my mom and dad came (Roman went with my mom to see the float preview for that parade on Saturday) and my dad and Spencer gave Hudson a blessing. He really started to look up from there. After they were done we went back to my room to tell Roman goodbye for the day then I went back to the nursery for a bit to be with Hudson. When I got back they said they tried to flush his IV to keep it open and it had clotted so they got clearance from the doctor to take it out.

Next while I was feeding him his next feeding, he would not leave his NG tube (feeding tube) alone, so they called the doctor again and she said as long as he was eating (we were nursing and supplementing) they could take it out. When we were finished feeding him, he had almost completely pulled it off his face. By the time I left the nursery to go back to our room about an hour later, Hudson was able to come back to my room with me.

Hudson's Here - Hudson's Birth story

I wanted to type out Hudson's entire birth story so that I have it to remember. It truly was amazing. The entire pregnancy and birth were. And now that he is here, he is just as amazing. We just love him to pieces.

So I'll start where my story stopped at 39 weeks 4 days. I need to add a few details though...I was a wreck at the appointment. When the doctor told me that everything was okay and we needed to wait until Monday for another appointment I started to cry. Not because I didn't want to be pregnant anymore. I honestly loved being pregnant. I was so worried about Hudson. He had gone from a very active little belly baby, to rarely moving. I would go hours and hours (sometimes the entire day) without feeling hardly any movement. This alone made me nervous. then there was the fact that we were barely passing the NST's, and every one was stressful (why do they call them, non-stress, they are VERY stressful!).

Well, we went to my family reunion and I was trying to just forget about it and have a good time. At just about 5:00 my phone rang and I recognized the phone number as one from my doctors office. I walked away from the majority of the people and took the call. It was my doctor. He said that he had been thinking about me all day. He understood the stress that I was under and after talking to a few of his colleagues and the hospital, had been able to arrange for me to be induced Sunday night at 7:00 if I wanted to. Um, really, if I want to. YES! Once he is out he'll be much better off then he is right now (at least that's what I thought in that moment), I'll be so much less stressed (haha) and I'll KNOW that he's okay.

So we quietly made arrangements for Roman to be taken care of so that I could go in Sunday night. Sunday night finally arrived and the plan was that they would start me on some medicines that would help to soften my cervix and get things ready so that around 7:00 the next morning they would start pitocin and break my water. They said it was usually 4 doses of the first medicine administered every 3 hours throughout the night. Labor and delivery was so slow that night they said there were only 2 other women there when we got there and they were both getting ready to go over to mother/baby. They gave me the first dose around 8:00, we watched some tv, talked, eventually we decided we should get some sleep. Around 11:00 the nurse came in to give me the second dose and she offered me a sleeping pill so I could get some sleep for the big day the next day. I agreed that would be a good idea and before I knew it I was FAST asleep. I was SO fast asleep I don't even remember when she came in and gave me the third dose of the med to ripen my cervix. Around 3:20 I woke up to a "pop" feeling then a little gush. I pushed the nurse call button and said "I think my water might have just broken." So they came in to check, sure enough, it had!

So it was time to change plans. The contractions were MUCH harder after my water broke. The nurse asked me if I wanted an epidural right then or if I wanted to wait. I told her I would wait a bit and see how it went. I think I made it through 3 contractions before I called the nurse back to the room and told her I was ready for my epidural. After that things just sort of took off on their own.

I had the best epidural. I had one little "hot spot" on the top of my stomach where I could still feel the pain, but once he had moved down some it wasn't painful at all. I could still feel my legs and move around on my own to help the nurses, but I didn't feel the pain. And I was able to feel to push. It really was perfect (other then the headache I had afterwards, but that may have been from being so hungry too!)

They were regularly checking my progress and were really happy with the way things were progressing. The biggest problem we were having is that Hudson's heart rate kept dropping when I was having contractions. The nurse said that she thought there was a cord problem (either he was laying on his cord, or that it was wrapped around him somehow.) So they started a fluid inversion to put some fluid back into my uterus and started me on oxygen to see if they could get the cord to shift so his heart rate wouldn't dip.

At 11:43 the nurse checked and I was fully dilated, ready to start pushing. At first that was so exciting. We (meaning I really!) started pushing....every contraction. An hour passed, another half hour and the nurse called the doctor to have him come check how things were progressing. He said things looked good, but we weren't even close....keep pushing. So I kept pushing. I was exhausted. I couldn't even open my eyes between contractions anymore because I was using every ounce of energy I had to push. The nurse said things were going well, but it's hard to tell. Finally after another hour she said that she was going to call the doctor to come over to deliver. I can't say for sure, but I am pretty sure I started to cry a little. I was so relieved to be almost there.

Then they told me "Now, don't push." Okay, I've been pushing for 2 1/2 hours. I can FINALLY feel that he is almost out, and you tell me "now don't push." SERIOUSLY! We waited through a few contractions while the doctor got ready and the second push while the doctor was there he said we had a head. 2 more pushes and he was delivered at 2:45 pm after pushing for almost exactly 3 hours.

I had not looked at the pictures from right after Hudson's birth until last night, and it scared me all over again. He was out, I could see they were wiping him off, but he was completely limp. Not making any noises. Purple and blue. Not breathing. I think this is when I shut down a little. I had been so scared of this. Then I heard the nurses discussing an APGAR score. They were trying to decide if his initial APGAR was a 2 or 3 and this is when I KNOW I just started to cry. Spencer kept asking me if I was okay and all I could say is "He's not crying." He was across the room surrounded by 2 nurses and I heard the head nurse call over her pager "We need a respiratory therapist NOW!" By 10 minutes his APGAR score was up to an 8 but they were still concerned. They wanted to take him straight to the nursery so they could treat him better. I told Spencer I needed him to go make sure Hudson was okay. He finally let out a few squeaks and some grunts. Not ideal sounds, but he was breathing. They finally let me hold him for just a minute before they took him to the nursery. Spencer wanted to stay with me but I NEEDED him to go be with Hudson.

After that I knew my doctor was talking to me, and I know that I was talking to him. But I honestly couldn't tell you a thing that was said. My mind was a few corridors away with my baby. Finally after what seemed like forever Spencer came back from the nursery to tell me he was okay. He weighed 7 lbs 13 oz and was 19 1/2" long (but the doctor said "he might be shorter tomorrow, that includes his cone head")

To be continued with his life so far...