Change is in the air

Where has my little baby gone; has anyone seen him? He was a cute little peanut who liked to snuggle and made cute little cooing noises...I don't know where he went, because the little man I have here now eats like a horse, makes all kinds of disgusting noises and never wants to snuggle with his mum. Oh and did I mention how he's just about to start crawling too...he can't possibly be the same baby!

Hudson has started eating finger foods - and lots of it! It's so cute to see him feeding himself and exploring all the different foods we give him, but it does make my heart break a little bit every time I step back and realize my little peanut is gone and he's been replaced by a little man who has a personality, and an opinion, and a sense of humor. I guess that's what everyone means when they say to savor every moment because it all goes by so fast.

With that I leave you with three beautiful Christmassy things:

♥ the expression on his face when I turn on the tree lights

♥ the joy he gets from crinkling the paper on the presents he's not supposed to touch

♥ the feeling in my heart as I think about all the Christmas's I'll get to treasure with my beautiful baby boy

Tis the Season

I am so excited for Christmas this year; and as everyone points out I am aware that Hudson has no idea it's Christmas but one day he will and we will have created wonderful family traditions and memories for him to cherish. Many a Christmas has gone by in the past 5 years where I wondered if we would ever have a baby to share the holidays with, to create memories for, to love forever more; that is after all what Christmas is all about isn't it? Spending time with the ones we love, counting our many blessings?

Three Beautiful Things

1. His first real belly laugh
2. The excitement a bowl of mashed banana brings
3. The contented sigh my beautiful baby boy

Six Month Update!

Today Hudson went for his six month shots, and it's official, he's a little squirt! There were five other six month olds' there including a set of twins and Hudson was the littlest of them all weighing in at 16 lbs 2 oz with a height of 26". He's still growing at a steady pace so I'm not worried, but he's definitely my little guy :)

Hudson is so awesome, he makes me laugh alllll the time; he has a smile that makes my heart melt and a laugh that is so contagious it's impossible to have a bad day. He is sleeping really well, I sometimes have to give him a dream feed in the night, sometimes not, and his napping is going great as well...I really have nothing to complain about well I guess maybe that he likes to get up at the crack of dawn, but who can blame him he's been sleeping since 6:30 the night before!

Here are some pics of him at six months:

Happy Halloween

Splish Splash

Jumparoo + Poop = Bath time!

Hudson is 5 Months Old!

So much is changing, so fast goes the time! My little guy is 5 months old already and I can't believe my eyes.

Hudson is trying to crawl, trying to sit up, trying to feed himself, and has become interested in our food. He's discovered his toes, and his fingers find themselves in his mouth pretty much all day long. He's changing and growing everyday and it amazes me every time he does something new.

He weighs 15 lbs and he's 26 inches long and our pediatrician says he's absolutely perfect.

The Health Nurse Doesn't Believe Me...

but here is the proof that my little guy rolls from belly to back and back to belly.

It's a Poopspiracy

My husband, Dustin, works out of town; he misses lots of things like snuggles and smiles and rolling over and all of the new wonderful things Hudson does. It's regrettable that he misses those things, and I try to capture them on video and film so that he feels a part of all of the firsts. There is however one thing that he doesn't seem to be sad about missing and that is the dreaded POOPY DIAPER.

Over the course of Hudson's life I have changed quite a few poopy diapers...in fact, I've had the misfortune of changing most all of them. Now, that is of course expected being that my husband works out of town, but over the course of the last four months, I've realized there seems to be a Poopspiracy going on. In fact I'd go as far as to call it Poopgate.

Whenever Dustin is home, Hudson conveniently seems to either not poop on the day daddy is watching him or manages to time his poops so that daddy is out, sleeping, bathing, or otherwise not present for said poop....

Hmmmm I think we have a poopspiracy on our hands. Daddy has been home for 10 days, and in that time he has changed 2.5 diapers...I say 2.5 only because I credit him for a diaper I had to help him with, so he gets a .5 for it. I on the other hand have changed 8 diapers in that same 10 day period....

No more I say, no more. I am on to you guys, I know your plans. Diapers will be changed, and not by me.

Worst Mum Ever...

Hudson is 4 months old; I completely missed my 3 month update. I am practically the worst mum ever. I haven't taken enough pictures or video, updated my blog, scrap-booked, written in his baby book or anything. He's growing and changing before my very eyes and I can't seem to capture enough of it. Most days there just isn't enough time....but believe me I'm not complaining. I love every moment of every day that I get to spend with my amazing little boy.

Yesterday Hudson was weighed and measured at his 4 month vaccinations. He weighs 13 lbs 15 oz and he's 23.5" long. He's just a little guy, in the 25th percentile right now, but I think he'll catch up. He broke my heart at his shots, he cried so hard and was so upset...it was so hard to see him all worked up like that, but he calmed down before we even left the room and promptly fell asleep. He's been a bit more sensitive today but nothing major; definitely not like some of the horror stories I've heard from some mum's about the 4 month immunizations.

I had some three month photos to post, I'll have to go back and insert those as a three month after-thought post. I haven't taken any four month pictures yet, but I will add them in when I get a chance.

Hudson is now rolling from back to tummy and tummy to back which apparently is great. He has really good head control and loves his Bumbo seat. He thinks everything is hilarious and loves to study everyone's faces. He's a spoiled little guy, with three sets of grandparents, and he's been to more movies than even most of my friends, highlights include: Up, Harry Potter, and Funny People.

♥

Three Months - a picture update

Three Beautiful Things

♥ His first smile
♥ A family snuggle
♥ Watching a new Daddy in love

Two Months Old!

My little monkey is two months old already - I cannot believe how fast the time is passing. The last month has been amazing. We have had nothing but good news as far as Hudson's health is concerned, the doctors all seem amazed at how well he is doing considering how sick he was.
Dustin has gone back to work and even though he's not been gone for more than a couple of days at a time I'm starting to imagine how hard it would be to be a single mum. It doesn't help that right now I'm working three days a week...my house seems to be taking the brunt of it all. This morning I found myself getting dressed and looking at two shirts and deciding which one was less dirty....
We went for Hudson's two month immunizations on Wednesday, I was dreading it from what everyone had been telling me but he was fine. The health nurse was great, very friendly and knowledgeable. She looked at Hudson's herniated belly button and said it looked like it might have some intestine herniated in it as well, so I got all panicky and called the pediatrician (who took me that very day) and he looked at it for a minute, poked it a bit and said "it's fine, they're common, it'll go away by the time he's two". Phew...I'm not a bad mum, it's common...the pediatrician said so even....
Two months down already...he's holding his head up fairly well; he gets a bit wobbly at night when he's tired though. He's looking around all the time which makes it tricky to feed him sometimes. I'm amazed at all the changes, and how fast they happen.
I'm head over heals in love.

He might just be brilliant.

Okay so maybe he's just rolling from his tummy to his back...big deal you say right?...

I like to think, considering what we went through, and how the doctors aren't sure what the long term effects of what he went through are...it's a big deal to us :)

♥

He's a month old already?

Where has the time gone? Hudson is a month old today. I can already see the changes in him; he sleeps a little less, his fingers are a bit longer, his cheeks a bit less chubby...time is already slipping through my fingers.

It's been a while since I've updated everyone, I'm not really sure where time goes but as another wise mum has already told me "don't look for it, it's just a waste of time".

Hudson is doing wonderfully. We still don't have any test results back and aren't sure if he does infact have a Metabolic Disorder or not but we do know this: he's healthy and strong and beautiful and the most wonderful gift we'll ever know and we aren't going to waste one moment or take him for granted for even a second beacuse we are reminded every moment we are in his presence, just how lucky we are to be in his little life.

I don't have much time so I will leave you with some pictures of the last week or so:

3 Beautiful Things

After so many ups and downs with Hudson's arrival on earth, after much turmoil, tears and sorrow I present to you Three Beautiful Things*:

1. The sound of Hudson sighing with contentment after his very first bottle feed(at 8 days old)

2. Seeing him look at me for the very first time.

3. Being able to finally walk in to his pod, scoop him up and know that I'm everything he needs to feel better.

♥



*stolen from Heather with the utmost respect

It might just be true

Hudson's a superhero, he's just taking some time to adjust to our atmosphere. ~Karleen

The Inrcredible Hulk

On Thursday, just before my workday was ending I got a call from Dustin asking if I was ready to have a baby...I thought he was joking and laughed; once I realized he was serious panic set in. Stacy went in for a routine diabetic appointment and mentioned she hadn't felt baby move much. They took her over to the woman's pavilion and got her hooked up to the monitors and babies heart rate was a little low so they decided to get her an ultrasound; baby wasn't very responsive there either, it seemed that his umbilical cord had tightened so it was time to pull him out.

We made it to the hospital in record time and I basically had time to put on scrubs and sit down before I saw his little head poking out of Stacy's tummy. Officially Hudson Samuel was born at 5:04pm on April 23, 2009 and he is beautiful. He weighed 7lbs 3 oz at birth and is 21.8" long and perfect in every way.


We held him for about half an hour before they took him down to the nursery. Once we got there the nurse thought he looked a little dusty coloured and checked his oxygen levels. They like babies to be in the 90's and Hudson was down in the 60's. They got oxygen on him and brought him up to the NIC Unit. We thought he just needed to have his lungs cleared from going through a c-section, so we weren't all that worried. We went home late that night expecting good news in the morning.


Friday might have been the toughest day I've ever faced in my life. The news went from bad to worse and no one could tell us what was wrong with him. Over the night he'd had a blood transfusion and been intubated. He had high levels of acid in his blood and they didn't know why. Things got worse when after finding all of this out the newest Dr on call said we had to leave because we weren't Hudson's parents. That is where I finally broke down and lost it, it all became too much. The nurses here are amazing though, within minutes we had a social worker with us who got the forms signed for us to get back in the room with our little guy. It was all overwhelming and the scariest part was not knowing what we were up against. How could a little guy who looks so healthy and strong be so sick?


Friday night we found out they had a room just outside the NIC U available for us to stay in, which was a relief in some ways (getting to be near him and see him 24-7) but scary to realize he's sick enough that we need to be here 24-7.


Saturday morning one of his neonatologists finally sat us down to explain what they think is going on in his little body. They think he has either a hardening of his heart due to Stacy being diabetic, which is something that will get better over time or a metabolic disorder on a cellular level that isn't treatable and life threatening. They are both symptomatic of the other and can be the cause or effect of the other and there is no way to know which it is, only time will tell. So we wait, and pray and enjoy every moment we have with him, because we just don't know.

He couldn't be in a better place, he has his own nurse, a team of 19 neonatologists and specialized doctors who are doing everything they can to figure out what's going on and keeping him stable until they do. The nurses here are beyond amazing, I can't begin to describe how wonderful and caring and compassionate they are.

Hudson is a strong little guy, the nurses were calling him Hulk because he was pulling all his tubes out and monitor lines off every chance he got. Saturday night he spent some time with his eyes open just checking things out without agitation. Last night we got the best anniversary gift ever, we got to hold him for 3 hours straight outside his incubator. It was amazing and calming and perfect.

So here we are, with our little guy being just about 4 days old, and we are completely and totally in love with our little monkey, and hoping he will live for us to tell him the whole story one day.

♥