4 month stats

Today Hudson had his 4 month check up. On Monday I looked at the paper from Roman's 4 month well child checkup because I wanted to see how they compare. I kept saying all week "Hudson's a lot bigger then Roman was at this age." Apparently my memory is failing me. At 4 months old Roman was 14 lbs (even) and 24 3/4".



Today at Hudson's appointment he was

Weight - 13 lbs 5 oz (20%)
Height - 25" (53%)
Head Circumfrence - 45 mm (19%)

So much for my guesses. Seems like he is following big brother's lead on size. Growing consistantly a little smaller then Roman was at every age.

Our miracle, one year later.

One year ago today I found out that I was pregnant with Hudson. I started to say that I found out that we were expecting him, but really after all that we had been through, I really was too scared to expect a baby just yet. It's been such a roller coaster year. One year ago I didn't really dare to believe that we may really have another sweet baby. As he sits here on my lap as I type, holding onto my arm, my hearts is very full. There are times that I still can't believe that we made it. One year ago today was my first visit to the OB office for my pregnancy. As soon as I processed that two pink lines means pregnant I called the OB office to see when they could get me in for a blood draw. They had me come that afternoon and we had our first of many ultrasounds the following Monday (November 16, 2009) to see our little bean.

They didn't give us copies of the ultrasounds at every appointment, if I remember correctly we had 8 ultrasounds, most of them were early. So early he just looked like a little blob, but I loved seeing my little blob. Every time we saw his little heart beating away my heart would skip a few beats. That little heartbeat, that little baby was ours. There was only one person that could help us make it to the end and that was Heavenly Father. We said so many prayers for that little tiny baby. All our family was praying, our friends were praying. We felt those prayers. When you have a doctor tell you that you have less then a 20% chance to get pregnant even if you did IVF and to carry to term, you start to think it's impossible. Really, the odds were against us. We have learned time and time again that God doesn't care about odds. This little man needed to be a part of our family, and Heavenly Father got him here.

This is the first ultrasound that they gave us a copy of on November 24, 2009. It was two days before Thanksgiving and we were getting ready to go to Arizona. We had one more thing to be thankful for last year at Thanksgiving, at that appointment we were able to hear his little heart beat for the first time. It was so quiet it didn't even really register on the print out, but it shows in the bottom right corner that it was 115 bpm.




The next appointment on December 1 we were able to see a nice heartbeat at 122 bpm. He was beating the odds one appointment at a time.



After the ultrasound on December 1 we were given the all clear that we didn't need to come back until my "first" OB appointment. Things didn't work out that way so we were able to see him again on December 6 (we didn't get any pictures from that, it was a Sunday and my OB didn't know how to print them) then again December 10. When we went in on December 6 I was sure that we had lost him. The OB put the ultrasound sensor on my stomach and said "do you hear that? There's your Christmas music, a nice healthy heartbeat." It was beautiful Christmas music!

When we went back on December 10 there he was a beautiful heartbeat of 162 bpm.

It's amazing to look back over the last year. Look at all these first ultrasound pictures and know that miracles happen. We have 2 in our family. Just another reminder that His plans are usually better then mine.

Loved you once...love you still...always have...always will!

First tram ride at Snowbird

Every year in October we go to Snowbird on their customer appreciation day to ride the tram. They ask that you donate one can of food for each person that is going to ride the tram. We got Hudson all bundled up and were ready for anything...or so we thought. We weren't ready for a blizzard! As soon as we got to the top of the mountain I went into the warming hut with Hudson to stay warm. We spent the entire time in the warming hut with others coming and going. We watched them all play out the window. Maybe next year Hudson will be old enough that he'll want to be out there playing in the snow with all the others.


I thought it was so funny that his hand was sticking out the bottom of his coat.

I put Hudson up by the window so you could see that we were really there, and there was snow swirling behind us, but we were nice and warm inside.

The cute little snowman that Uncle Paul made on the picnic table.

Watching TV with big brother

These are the times that I can tell these two are just going to be great friends when they grow up. One morning I put Hudson on the couch to watch tv while I ran to the bathroom really fast. When I came back Roman had gotten a blanket and covered them both with it and they were sitting happily watching tv together.

The Captian and his first mate

When Hudson was about a month old Roman decided he wanted to be a pirate for Halloween. I thought it would be fun for them to have matching costumes and one day I was in the VF store and saw a little pirate sleeper costume. It was less then $10 so I picked it up and thought "That was easy."




Well, I just keep throwing around the idea of Roman's costume in my head and finally in September I decided to do something about it. I went over to the fabric store and found the cutest costume pattern and it has a second pattern on it, that was SO adorable. I was wandering through the fabric store. Hudson was in the front carrier sleeping peacefully, Roman was at school and I thought "Hey I can just make both costumes. It will be so much cuter." So I found all the fabric and supplies for both costumes and got home before I thought "What am I THINKING? I have a baby that's not even 2 months old, isn't sleeping through the night, a 3 year old that's crazy...sure I can make 2 costumes...no problem. HA!"

So I started cutting out the pattern that day. I got it pinned to the fabric...and it sat like that for another week. I finally got Roman's costume cut out and the jacket put together and I thought "Okay, I can do this, it's really not THAT hard."

Then it was time to start Hudson's costume...the smallest size the pattern went down to was 1/2 (basically 6 months) so I had to size it down quite a bit for it to fit my 3 month old. I wasn't sure if it was really going to work at all. I was pleasantly surprised when I tried it on him and it fit. Not old did it fit, but it was adorable.

Then there was the quest for the perfect boots. I had an idea in my mind what I wanted, and after searching 3 or 4 stores in a last attempt I ran into Kmart and found the perfect boots. They completed the costume perfectly.



After all that work I decided I needed a professional picture just to show how cute these adorable little pirates were.

Rolling over

Skipping ahead to today (Still need to get caught up) but Daddy is out of town, and we wnated to show him Hudson's new trick.

Britax Marathon

Roman has a Britax Marathon car seat. Before Hudson was even born I knew that we NEEDED another Marathon. Roman didn't ever really love the carrier car seat. Labor day weekend I found a fabulous deal on a Britax Marathon so I bought Hudson's. Apparently Roman told Hudson how much better the Marathon car seat was because ever since our trip to California Hudson will just scream when we put him in the car in his carrier seat. Since we had it already I decided I would try it out. The Marathon goes down to 5 lbs rear facing so it definitely fits him. He was happy right away. The only problem. It's not nearly as convenient as a carrier car seat. So I put the carrier seat back in the car. And the screaming started again. So I tried the Britax again...happy again. So, I bit the bullet and Hudson is no longer in a carrier car seat. (I do take it in the back of the car when we are going grocery shopping so I can put him in it in the cart. He doesn't seem to mind the carrier as long as he isn't in the car.)

Sweet Slumber

It doesn't happen very often, so it's always worth documenting when both boys take a nap, at the same time. Ah, sweet slumber. And a nice little break for mommy.

How Hudson feels about hiking...

Hudson LOVES going hiking. Last Sunday we decided to go up Little Cottonwood Canyon to see the fall colors and to do a little hiking as a family.

As long as Hudson is warm and snuggled in the front carrier. He will doze right off ...

...and not much can wake him. Not even taking him out of the carrier and letting big brother hold him for a picture.

It was a beautiful day to be in the mountains. The sun was shining, it was warm (but not hot) and we had a great time together as a family.

Last year we got a picture taken in this same spot. I love that we were able to get another one...with Hudson!

And last but definitely not least, a picture of my with my favorite little men. (look Hudson's awake!)

On our way back to the car...oh look, he's awake! I love that he raises his eyebrows and scrunches his forehead. Cute boy!

Naps

We are starting to work on getting Hudson to sleep NOT in our arms. He thinks he needs to be held all the time and that just doesn't work when you have a crazy toddler that needs attention too. So we've been getting creative on finding ways that he will sleep without being in our arms. We tried putting him in the Boppy, but ht wasn't holding him in tight enough. We let him sleep on his stomach once, but I felt like I needed to stay RIGHT next to him so I wasn't really able to do anything else while he was sleeping. One day I noticed a pillow sitting on the couch and I thought MAYBE that would work. I propped it up, made him a little nest and he stayed asleep. Hopefully we can get him to start napping in his crib, but until then at least he is not being held all the time.