Professional Newborn Pictures

When Hudson was 4 days old my friend Keren came and took newborn photos for us. We got them back a few days ago and I wanted to share them, they turned out so cute!! And I'm excited to say that she's going to come and take more for us soon!! Check out her photography blog here.

First week and a half at home

The first week and a half has FLOWN by. I can't believe my baby will be 2 weeks old already on Monday! We've been adjusting to life as a family of 3 very well. It's nice to have Andy home for these first few months so we can learn how to parent together. He's been so good with helping me get things done around the house and helping take care of Hudson too.

We've been busy seeing the dr. a lot the last few weeks too. Hudson's first pediatrician appointment was 2 days after we were discharged from the hospital. At this appointment they weighed him, measured his length, checked his eyes/ears/mouth, etc. And talked to us about circumcision. His weight went down slightly from when we were discharged from the hospital, he was now at 5 lbs 11 oz. So the dr. wanted to see us back on Monday for another weight check and also for the circumcision to get it done with so we didn't have to come back for another appointment.

His dr. appointment on Monday went pretty good. He was weighed again and dropped another 2 oz. The dr. wasn't too concerned since he is still breastfeeding well and peeing/pooping regularly. He said some babies just take longer to start putting on weight. I don't think my milk has completely come in yet either which could be part of the problem. The dr. said this is also normal and can take up to few weeks for some women's supply to be established. After being weighed the dr. started prepping for the circumcision. Hudson's legs were strapped down to a little table and they used a local anesthetic to numb him. He did GREAT!! He was more fussy getting numbed and wiped down then during the entire procedure. It helped that the nurse was giving him sugar water on her finger :)

He's now healing well from the circumcision and we're still waiting for his little umbilical cord to fall off (it's soo close!) This weekend will be filled with more visitors and getting used to our new lives and schedules.

Here are a few pictures from our first week and a half at home:

Welcome Hudson Andrew!!!

As most of you already know, we welcomed Hudson Andrew into the world bright and early Monday morning at 37 weeks 5 days gestation!! I was soo surprised to go into labor early, I expected to be either on time or late since he is my first, but I got lucky and I'm so blessed with my perfect baby boy. If you are interested, here is my labor story (it's long and detailed, but not too graphic I don't think!)

I woke up Sunday morning at 4 am to use the restroom (nothing unusual at 37 weeks pregnant)! When I went to the bathroom I noticed a lot of bloody mucus, I realized this was probably what is known as the 'bloody show.' I went back to bed and tried to go back to sleep not thinking much of it. About 15 minutes later I started to have what felt like period cramping. These cramps continued to happenon and off about every 10-20 minutes. Since I couldn't seem to fall asleep between them, I decided to look in "What to Expect When You're Expecting" and see what it had to say about the bloody show and labor since I hadn't read that far yet. The book explained that this happens as the cervix is effacing and is a sign of labor, but doesn't necessarily mean that labor is imminent; so I wasn't getting my hopes up yet. Ialso went on to read that the first contractions feel like period cramping, so I thought maybe these cramps were actually contractions.

I layed in bed a while and told Andy what was going on. Then I decided to get up and try to get some things done around the house and finish packing my hospital bag, just in case. I took a shower and got ready then started some laundry. The "cramping" started to get closer together, now about 5-10 minutes apart consistently (this was probably around 9 or 10 am). Andy was getting anxious nd realy wnted me to go to the hospital to get checked out. I had already called labor and delivery earlier that morning and asked about the bleeding and they said it was normal and just to watch the contractions and keep timing them. Once they were 5 minutes apart and lasting at least 1 minute long we could come in.

We decided to take Maverick on a walk to see if that got anything going. I was getting really hungry by this point but worried about eating too much since I was finally realizing this might be real labor! We decided to go to Olive Garden so I could get the soup and salad. I wasn't able to eat much and it was hard to eat when I was having contractions but it was nice to have some food in my stomach finally. After lunch we went to Costco to walk around and see if we could find anything. The contractions continued and Andy really wanted me to get checked out so we went into the hospital.

When we got there they hooked me up to the monitors and also checked my cervix. I was only 2 cm dialated (1 cm more than on Friday at my Dr. appt) and was 100% effaced. They kept me on the monitors for an hour to monitor my contractions and see if my cervix changed at all. After the hour was up, they checked my cervix again and I was still only 2 cm dialated and the contractions hadn't stayed consistently at 5 minutes apart. They sent me home with a list of things to look for and call or come in if they happened (such as water breaking, more bleeding than I was already having, contractions staying consistent, etc.)

We left the hospital decided to run up to Target to buy a few things and walk around The contractions stayed close to 5 minutes apart and at this point I had to stop and couldn't really walk through them anymore. We went home and did some laundry, watched tv and took Maverick on a short walk. I also took a bath to see if the contractions continued or slowed. They stayed the same through the bath, although being in the water definitely eased a bit of he pain.

At around 8 p.m. I started to notice some leaking during contractions. While standing in the hallway during a contraction I realized it might be more than just a trickle, so I ran into the bathroom where my water broke and gushed into the toilet! I yelled to Andy and he started running around trying to do a million last minute things. We headed up to the hospital shortly after where they admitted me again and checked my cervix. By this time the contractions were 3-4 minutes apart consistently and getting much more painful and intense. Unfortunately when they checked me I was still only 2 cm dialated; but since my water broke they kept me there.

After being hooked up to the monitors for the first hour I decided I would try another bath to help ease the pain. The nurse only let me stay in there for 30 minutes before I had to be hooked back up to the monitors. She checked my cervix and I was now at 4 cm, so finally making some progress!

After this I got on the birthing ball where I rocked through the contractions for the next hour. The nurse tried to monitor me while sitting there, but unfortunately it wasn't working very well and I had to get back into bed for the next 30 minutes. FOr some reason they continued to want me on the monitors even though everything looked OK and Hudson's heart rate wsa fine. SO I was stuck in bed for most of labor, which definitely wasn't what I wanted or expected, but as long as I had the bed sitting up and I was on my side it wasn't too bad.

Soon after this they checked my cervix again and I was 6 cm diated. The contractions were now about 2 minutes apart lasting 1 minute and I had no time to recover in between. So we decided it was best that I talk to the nurse about something that wasn't too strong and could help me relax between contracdtions. I decided to get one IV dose of Nubain. This definitely didn't help with the pain of contractions, but I was able to relax a bit in between and close my eyes, that way when I had to push I would have the energy to do so.

After a couple hours of contractions like this I was checked and finally at 8 cm dialated, so progress was going great! Soon after being checked the contractions got much more intense and I started feeling the urge to push. The nurse checked me and said I was 9 1/2 cm dialated. The urge to push continued to get more intence and they FINALLY started letting me push instead of having to blow through the contractions. They called my dr. after I pushed with the nurse through a few contractions. A few contractions and pushes later they told me I was going to have to stop pushing and blow through the contractions until my dr. got there. It seemed like FOREVER before she arrived. Once she did I could finally start pushing!! About 20 minutes later (40 mins total of pushing) Hudson Andrew arrived weighing 6 pounds 4 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long. He is absolutely PERFECT!!!

We ended up staying at the hospital 2 days due to Hudson being born with a low temperature and low blood sugar. He was kept in the nursery in a warmer for the first day, once his temperature and blood sugar regulated the dr. kept him in there a whole day longer. So we went in every 3 hours to feed him and hold him. It definitely wasn't what we had planned for delivery and we weren't very happy with the on call pediatricians at the hospital who didn't take the time to really assess the situation and look at him before making decisions that he needed to stay when all the nurses who were there with him 24/7 said he was fine to go back to our room with us. But, it is what it is and we were able to bring him in our room with us the second morning and were released from the hospital that afternoon.

We're so happy to have our little family all together at home and are all adjusting to life great!! I can't wait to continue sharing milestones with all my readers!! I will try to update soon (although it took me SEVERAL days to finally get this posted so I won't make any promises!)

Officially in the 9th month of pregnancy!!

Me at 35 weeks:

Hudson's Closet (I think I have a shopping problem...)

The completed nursery:

Emily and Baby Carter at my work shower

The last couple weeks have been pretty busy. Last Tuesday my friend Nicole from work threw my work baby shower for me here at my house. There were only a handful of people that could make it, but we had fun playing a few games, eating some food, chatting and opening lots more presents. Baby Hudson and I were spoiled once again!! We got a few more much needed items off our registry and some other cute stuff :)

The next couple days I spent setting up and organizing the nursery as well as doing some more baby laundry. Now it's all set up and ready! I must have over done it though because I woke up Thursday and my legs and hands were REALLY swollen. I wasn't too worried about it and figured it was just a normal part of pregnancy, but Andy really wanted me to call the dr., so I did and they had me come in to check and make sure my blood pressure was still good. So I went in and everything was fine but my dr. wanted me to be on bed rest for the weekend. So I had to take my week off work and was on bed rest until this Tuesday when I went in to my appointment. Luckily the swelling had decreased by Sunday and I felt a lot better getting some much needed down time that I don't take enough of.

I had my 36 weeks appointment on Tuesday and all is going well. Since I had notice Hudson being less active the dr. did an ultrasound to check his fluid levels, so I got a bonus peek at him :) All his fluid levels looked good and his heart was beating at a nice steady rate. She also did my first internal exam, no dialation yet but the dr. said I am starting to efface (the cervix is thinning out), so at least that's a bit of progress! And, the best news I got at the dr. was that the hospital has changed their visitation guidelines!!! Due to H1N1 they had the delivery room restricted to the baby's father and 1 birth partner, they've changed it so you can have up to 3 support people and the baby's father and then after delivery we just have to "limit" the amount of visitors we have. I am SOOO excited that our friends and family will be able to visit us in the hospital and share in this special time with us!

So, now that we're officially in the 9th month of pregnancy (how did that happen already??!!) we're ready for Hudson to be here!! The nursery is all set up, we have the pack and play set up to use as a bassinet in our room and we've bought the remaining items we NEED for before Hudson arrives. Now all I need to do is finish packing my hospital bag and we're ready to go!

Maternity Photos at 34 weeks!!

I am lucky enough to have a good friend who is a photographer. She took Maternity photos for us at 34 weeks along a couple weeks ago. I just got the disc and they turned out GREAT!!! She did an amazing job capturing just what we wanted. If you're in need of ANY kind of pictures (family, engagement, maternity, newborn, baby, etc.) keep her in mind. Check out her photos here. Without further adieu, here are some of our photos: