1 month well-baby checkup

Hudson's 1 month well-baby check up was Wednesday morning. We had the usual weight check, they also measured his length, talked to us about any concerns, took his vitals and he got his 2nd Hepatitis B shot.

His growth is doing great now that we have him on a good feeding regime. His stats from this appt were:

Weight: 7 lbs 10 oz

Length: 21 3/4 in

Head Circumference: 15 in

He is in the 5th percentile for weight (but his gaining is still more than he even needs to have!), 50th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for head circumference. So he's doing great! :)

After the Dr. listened to his heart he told us that he heard a heart murmur. My heart sunk when I heard this wondering what it could mean and hoping and praying it was nothing major. The Dr. said it's a fairly common occurrence in newborns that is often heard at birth (although his wasn't present until now). He said it was probably nothing to worry about but he wanted us to see a pediatric cardiologist just to be sure. As soon as we got home I called the Dr. he referred us to and was lucky enough to schedule an appointment for today (Friday).

We arrived at the pediatric cardiologist's office around 11:15 am. We got checked in and they took us back to a room and hooked Hudson up to monitor his heart. After the technician got that all printed up for the Dr, he came in and talked to us a bit and listened to Hudson's heart on the stethoscope. He said he could hear the murmur that our pediatrician found so he wanted to get an Echo cardiogram done to make sure there were no abnormalities found.

Another technician took us back to the Echo room where she performed the echo cardiogram. It was interesting to watch his little heart beating like crazy on the ultrasound screen. This test took about 15 minutes and Hudson did great, he was a little fussy but not too bad at all! The Dr. came in to share the results after few minutes. He told us they found no abnormalities or problems with Hudson's heart, the murmur is just an 'innocent' murmur. PRAISE GOD!!

After 2 days of worrying this was just the news we were hoping and praying for. As hard as it was to worry for these 2 days we were glad to have it checked out and feel at ease now knowing it is nothing we need to worry about.

1 month photos by Keren Fenton

My friend Keren wanted to take some more newborn pictures of Hudson for us, so the day before his 1 month birthday we went to her studio and she got some great shots!! Here are some of my favorites:

1 month old already!!

On Thursday, April 15th (Tax Day!) my baby turned 1 month old already!! I can't believe how fast the past month has flown by. We have had such an amazing month with our baby boy. We couldn't ask for a better baby either. He rarely cries or is fussy, he will let everyone hold him and he's so dang cute!!

His 1 month check up is on Wednesday since we were just at the Dr. last week. I will post with all his stats then!

We've had a busy first month and I can just imagine how much busier it is going to get! I can't wait to watch my little one keep growing :)

Here are a few photos from his "1 month birthday"...Enjoy!!

Another busy week!

The last month has been jam-packed with visiting people since Hudson was born. We have gotten to spend a lot of quality time with friends and family. Last week we had our 2nd "playdate" with the Smith family including baby Hayden who's just 8 days younger than Hudson. Although most of the day was spent with the boys sleeping and eating, we had a blast chatting with Joy and Dan about life with a newborn and posing the boys together for pictures! We can't wait until they're old enough to interact, our playdates will be so much fun then!!

Last weekend we made our first family roadtrip to Spokane to visit Andy's family! I thought we might be crazy for making the trip with a 3 week old and our crazy boxer but the trip went relatively smoothly! The drive there was a little obnoxious thanks to Maverick deciding to pant and whine the entire drive! We think it's because he was in the front seat (so I could sit in the back with Hudson) and he's used to having the whole backseat to himself. Other than that the ride was smooth sailing..Hudson slept the entire 5 hours (except for a quick pit stop in Ellensburg to fuel up and feed both him and us).

The weekend was a lot of fun visiting with Andy's parents, siblings and Aunt and Uncle. Us girls also got some shopping time in! Saturday we went to the mall where I found some awesome deals on a few cute outfits for Hudson. Sunday Katie (Andy's sister) and I went to the JBF Spokane sale where almost everything was 50% off!! I found some awesome deals, including onesies for 50 cents, pajamas for $1-$3 and a WSU tracksuit for $10! Although Hudson probably didn't NEED everything I found, I couldn't pass up the amazing deals on the cute stuff I got :) This sale made me excited to check out the one in Puyallup coming up in a couple weeks.

Overall we had an awesome weekend and feel so blessed to have such a great baby! He's so mellow and relaxed most of the time, especially on car rides!

Hudson's First Hospital Visit

Friday afternoon we had another dr. appointment to check Hudson's weight. At our appointment a week before that he was up 2 oz. from his last check, which the dr. said was ok, he just wanted to check in a week to see if it continued to go up. When we got to our appointment and weighed him he had actually gone DOWN another 2 oz. and was weighing in at 5 lbs 8 oz. Our dr. was on vacation, so we met with a different dr. at the practice who decided that we needed to go to the hospital and get Hudson hooked up to an IV for fluids.

I was pretty shocked at this response to the weight loss. Since it wasn't much, I just thought they'd have us start supplementing with formula to help his weight gain since he seemed to be breastfeeding just fine, I figured the reason he wasn't gaining was due to a lack of milk supply from me.

So we took the dr's advice and headed straight to Good Sam. We arrived and they checked his vitals and got us all checked in to a room in the Pediatric's Unit. The on call pediatrician determined there was no reason to hook Hudson up to IV fluids since he wasn't dehydrated, he just needed to get more calories in. We were relieved to hear this!

They started us on a strict feeding schedule at the hospital with me breastfeeding, then supplementing with formula after. The first night went fine and Saturday morning we expected to hear we'd get to go home on Sunday and spend Hudson's first Easter at home with family as we had planned. Unfortunately this isn't what happened. We continued a 3 hour feeding schedule through Saturday and the daytime nurse, Tristan was very knowledgeable and helpful in working up building up my supply. She started me with a breastpump and I started pumping several times a day to determine how much milk I was actually producing. We realized I was only producing about half of what Hudson needed, hence the reason for his weight loss.

Saturday night they weighed Hudson again and he was up to 5 lbs 11 oz, we were so happy to hear he had gained 3 oz since the afternoon before! We knew all that we were doing was worth it and we were happy to get him healthier :) Sunday we followed the same feeding schedule and weighed him again Sunday night when he was up to 5 lbs 15 oz!! The nurse said they fully expected the dr. to let us go home the next morning since his weight was steadily rising.

Monday morning, we woke up and followed the feeding routine until about 9 when I met with a lactation consultant. She was awesome with setting up a plan and getting us ready for what to do when we went home. I was basically going to follow the same 3 hour feeding schedule and document all the feedings before checking back in with her in a few days. After meeting with her, they checked Hudson's vitals for the final time and the dr. came in, checked him out and released us from the hospital!! We were sooo glad to finally get to go back home and continue the feeding routine there (since we knew all along it was something that we could've just been doing at home).

Unfortunately my milk supply still isn't in enough that I don't need to supplement with formula, but the prescription and Fenugreek are definitely helping a little bit with my supply. I'm still hoping and praying that my supply increases enough that I can exclusively breastfeed, but in the mean time I know I'm doing the best I can to keep my boy healthy and happy!!

We went back to Hudson's regular pediatrician yesterday for another weight check. His weight is now up to 6 lbs 4.5 oz, so just over his birth weight!! The dr. was amazed that he had gained 12 oz in only 4 days. He talked to us about what we would continue to do at home with breastfeeding and supplementing and we are content to keep following this plan until something changes with me :)