A very merry christmas

Hudson's first Christmas was awesome! We had both D's family and mine over for Christmas Eve and the day turned out great! We had everyone over for supper and I didn't want to get too overwhelmed cooking for 13 people so I had everyone bring something small. The turkey turned out perfect and everyone had a great time. What else can I ask for?

It was nice to finally have kids around for Christmas, Hudson and his cousin Zackary (who is turning 1 in a couple weeks), had a great time even though they didn't know what was going on. In a few years it will be really exciting.

We opened presents but saved the gifts D and I bought for eachother and for Hudson until Christmas morning. On the 25th, we opened presents, watched movies, and just hung out around the house together. I can't wait to start adding family traditions.

Since Hudson is still very little (I say that figuratively not litterally-he's already 15 pounds!), Grandma and Grandpa Burt got him an RESP he can use for school, Grandma and Grandpa Baker gave him some money for his newly opened bank account so he can buy a bike or something else one day. He also got a football jersey from his uncles, a basketball net from his aunt, uncle and cousin Zack, and we gave him a rattle and a soft squishy toy that he will play with in a few weeks I'm sure. We wanted to wrap something to get the token picture of him (not really) unwrapping something. My favorite gift was a Kindle! I love it and am now reading the Twilight series on it for the first time. I can't get enough.

His sleep is still the same, it's been AWESOME. He's been sleeping for around 3 hours in the afternoon for a nap and a minimum of 7 at night.

The cloth diapers are going well however I do have to put him in a disposable overnight because if I don't he's covered in pee. I don't even mind doing the laundry every second day. It's really not a hassle at all. The only sucky thing is now that he's 15 pounds, he has almost outgrown our diaper stash. He was supposed to outgrow it around 6 months but I'll be lucky if he makes it to 3. I was just hoping to get more use from them.

A 180

First off, thanks for your encouraging words!

I have found a solution to our problem! Well 2 solutions really. First off, I've been putting him to bed around 8-9pm. It seems that the little guy just has been getting too overstimulated and he's just been overtired. As soon as he gets a bit crabby, he's off to his room where he happily falls asleep (for a few hours).

Solution #2 is a bit controversial so please no harsh words. We've been putting him to sleep on his tummy. GASP. I know, I know, you're not supposed to do it until they can fully roll over on their own but he's got great neck control and can easily move his head side to side while on his front all himself. One night he was fussy as can be and I noticed that when I tipped him over to burp him, all the way on his front, he immediately calmed down. When I tipped him back, the crying ensued. So I put him in his crib face down and he fell asleep instantly. D and I woke up the next morning and ran to check on him since we didn't hear a peep all night and D lifted him up and Hudson was fine, wondering why on earth we woke him up. That night he slept for 9 hours! 9 HOURS of uninterrupted sleep!!!!!!! Every night since we've laid him in his crib on his belly and he falls asleep instantly and for a minimum of 7 hours at a time (except for his naps of course where he will sleep a good solid 3 hours now).

I've been struggling with the decision to sleep him on his front with all the 'Back to Sleep' campaigning going on, but he truly is happier on his front. Bedtime hasn't been a long drawn out process that takes close to an hour where I put him to bed, he wakes up, I pick him up and rock him again until he falls asleep, then put him to bed, he wakes up, etc. His belly hits the crib now and he's out.

For now it's working for us and a happy baby means a happy mama.

I have given birth to a gremlin.

Hudson is a sweet sweet boy. He truly is but for the past week and a half he has turned into a gremlin. I say gremlin because around midnight all hell breaks loose. He becomes the fussiest baby known to mankind. He cries, screams, wails and no amount of feeding, burping, changing his diaper, rocking, playing, tummytime, or anything else gets him to stop. He is just plain miserable. This goes on for a couple of hours and then finally by 2am he decides that he's had enough and he falls asleep. Then come morning he's all smiles.

It's really frustrating because we don't know what's wrong with him, he's just grouchy as heck. He doesn't have acid reflux, a fever, or anything else that we can tell. We did ask the doctor about it and she just said that most babies go through phases of being fussy for no apparent reason. She said that it usually happens at the same time everyday and then eventually they will outgrow it.

It's frustrating that there's nothing we can do to calm him or make it okay. Hopefully this phase will be gone before we know it, I don't know how much more of the constant screaming I can take.

A sign of things to come

He's already getting into the presents! Oh Hudson :)

Birth announcement

The birth announcements I had ordered came in and I love them!! I sent them out with our Christmas cards this year so perfect timing!

He is so cute! :)

My baby is 2 months!

Hudson is already at the 2 month mark! He's doing great, and good at being a cute little man. At 6 weeks he started smiling when he recognized D or I (totally melts my heart everytime), and at 8 weeks he started laughing. It's funny because he thinks the weirdest things are hilarious, like me with a towel on my head after a shower! He's very talkative and coos and squaks (sp?) a lot. I think he looks a lot like D now, it's so cute to see him change into a little boy.

Sleep hasn't been too bad for me. He goes to bed around 1:30am (trust me I've been trying to get him to go to bed earlier but he just won't) and wakes up around 6am. Then I'm up changing and feeding him and put him back to bed in about an hour. Then he sleeps for another 4 or so hours and is up for the day. He usually has an afternoon nap at around 1pm for a couple of hours (most days). I'm pretty lucky he's a good sleeper and has a good solid nap in the afternoon so I can get things done around the house and try to have a nap myself. It really is much harder than I expected to get things done around the house when he is awake. I think things will be different once he's able to grab and play with toys and his activity mat.

Hudson also hates his swing. It only goes back and forth, not side to side which most babies prefer (what I read) so that's too bad. I guess I'll have to wait for one of my girlfriends to get pregnant so I can give it to her! He does love his Jolly Jumper and it immediately calms him down. If he's in it long enough it also puts him to sleep but the problem is once you try to take him out he immediately wakes up. I'm just glad it's one more thing I can play with him with.

I'm looking forward to Hudson's first Christmas! We're having both D and my families over for Christmas supper and even though he's too little to play with any toys or know what's going on, it's nice to see that he's loved by so many people. D's oldest brother, J, has already babysat for us a few times and his other brothers are asking to as well. It's nice to see since none of them have ever been around kids at all (yes I trust all of them with Hudson, they are all so great with him!).

One thing that I have to say is that I'm so glad that we switched to formula. I beat myself up pretty good for making the switch but I am so thankful we did. It allows me to keep my sanity and allows me to sleep on the weekends when D gets up with him. I'm also free to leave the house and I'm not stuck by his side. In a weird way I thought he wouldn't think I was his mom if I wasn't the one only feeding him but that's not the case at all. He smiles when he hears my voice and as soon as I pick him up he calms down (for the most part). No one else besides D has that effect on him.

I'll update again after Christmas!

1 month old

I can't believe he's already a month (well almost 5 weeks now)! I've been so busy juggling looking after the baby, work, and taking care of the house that I haven't had much time to blog among other things as well as most importantly spend some quality time with D. I don't get to see him very much anymore let alone uninterrupted that I'm hoping things will change once Hudson is able to sleep for a longer time at night. Hopefully it'll only be another month or so. I pride myself of being organized and not being able to handle everything that I want/need to get done is wearing on me. I've got to learn to balance things a bit better.

Hudson is getting so big now. I've already had to put some of his clothes away because he's outgrown them. Makes me sad :(. He's able to hold his head up pretty good and for longer periods of time, likes his tummy time, and really likes when daddy gives him a horsey ride. We're trying to get a handle on his gassiness, some days it really quite bothers him so we've started to put Ovol drops directly into his bottles. Hopefully that will help. He still hasn't quite figured Maddie out and ignores her most of the time and for right now she's ignoring him. That will get better once he gets bigger and is able to do more things.

The biggest personality trait about him right now is that he loves making noise. He is constantly cooing, gurgling, and just making baby noises even when he sleeps. I think he's going to be a talker when he grows up!

Catch up

I've been so busy in the last couple weeks, blogging has been one of the many things that I've put off and now I find myself playing catch up. Where to start. Well right now D and I are both quite sick with the flu so my mom has come back to help out and take care of Hudson while we are quarantined to the upstairs. I just hope Hudson doesn't get sick but thankfully he's not showing any signs of sickness thus far.

Hudson is already just over 3 weeks and he's starting to transform into a cute little chubby baby. He is quite the content baby, only fusses when he has gas and pretty much never cries. I couldn't ask for a better little man! He still has his days and nights mixed up but once he gets that adjusted he is going to be a great sleeper! He would sleep all day if I let him, getting up only occasionally to eat.

So far he loves being held, loves his Snoogie Seat (see pic, I HIGHLY recommend btw), doesn't mind baths at all, and loves looking at lights.

I love trying to figure this little guy out!

The F word

Ever since Hudson was born, feeding him has become an issue. In the hospital, I breastfed him the small amount of colostrum I was able to produce but he had issues with his tongue and even though he would latch on correctly he wouldn't know what to do with his tongue and he would constantly spit me out. After talking to a few nurses and lactation consultants, they advised to feed him what I could but then I would have to supplement him with formula via finger feeding through a syringe until his tongue got stronger and he knew what to do. No problem. It was supposed to be a temporary solution.
Once home, feedings started to become an easy 1 1/2-2 hour job. With me trying to recover and supposed to be feeding him every 3 hours, it became impossible. We had lactation consultants out to our home 4 times to help us learn how to cut down feeding times and also figure out what to do to get rid of the finger feeding method as it's not a permanent solution. His tongue was stronger and he wouldn't spit me out but I noticed that now after a feeding (on the breast) he wasn't satisfied and was still hungry, I wasn't producing enough milk. Even after pumping, there wasn't enough food to go around - my milk supply just hadn't come in yet.
In comes the infamous F word. Formula. Our baby is now a formula baby. I don't know why it feels like a dirty word but I really do feel like there's a lot of pressure for mothers to breastfeed and if you don't, some people think you are less of a mother.
I would have loved to been able to nourish my son, have that one special thing that's all ours, but it's just not meant to be. We had no choice. It was either that or let my baby starve. Even now, I've still been pumping to try to bottle feed my breastmilk and I'm lucky to get an ounce every 2 days at this point.
I'm glad that D can share in the fact that he can feed Hudson and that I'm not 'tied down' to him but it still frustrates me. Maybe it's the hormones.

Today my little boy isn't so little

This morning, as a sign of his ever rapidly growing body, his umbilical cord fell off. Yes I was glad it fell off, after 10 days you can't imagine the stink from it, but it was also sad because he's growing up so fast. I love his cute little belly button though.
Also today was Hudson's first doctor's appt where he weighed in at 7lbs 9 oz (he was back up to birth weight at 7 days) and he got a circumcision. Poor little guy. Although I'm not sure how much he actually felt with all the freezing and he slept through the entire procedure. He also seems to be doing fine pain wise tonight so maybe it wasn't so bad? We just have to make sure to use disposable diapers with lots of vaseline for the next week or so. One funny thing, when the doctor came back to check on him an hour later, he told us, no word of a lie, that our son was 'blessed with a long penis' so the surgery was easy. D and I burst out laughing the second he left the room. Hilarious! An ego boost for D I'm sure :)

Photo shoot

We had a photo shoot the other day (he was 8 days old) and the pictures turned out fabulous! These are just a few sneak peaks and I can't wait to see the rest!!

The first few days

Today Hudson is 10 days old, I feel like he's growing up so fast! He's filling out and even though he's not even 2 weeks yet I feel like my baby is growing up. If only I had a pause button. Sigh.
My mom stayed with us for the first 7 days and I don't know what we would have done without her. The first few days postpartum for me was not good. The pain I experienced was undescribeable and I seriously would have chosen to go through labor again if it meant the afterpain would have been lessened by even half. Because he wanted to come out at an angle and they couldn't turn him to face down, he ended up coming out face up. Add to the fact that he also needed a vacuum and I was very close to needing a c-section if the vacuum wasn't a fairly fast success. I ended up tearing and they cut me almost the entire length and to top it off I also had a nice sized bruise. Needless to say, sitting, climbing stairs, going to the bathroom, bending over, and even laying down was painful and hard. I also had some issues with my painkillers and once a few days past and my painkillers got sorted, I was much better.
Once we got a routine sorted, and my mom left, D has been going back to work for half days which works out good I think because then he can be home longer and won't miss out on as much. I know he wants to be home more than anything and we all wish that but it's just not possible. He's got another week or so of vacation days saved so he can at least stretch that out over the next couple weeks.
Sleep has been alright, I try and nap when Hudson is napping and I would be getting tons of sleep if I could fall asleep automatically but sometimes that just isn't the case. He's been awake for the last few nights from 12am-4am so hopefully one day he will get his days and nights turned right. D ends up doing the feedings when he gets home from work until 12am and then momma takes over. It seems to be working so far, we'll see when D is back to work full time though or one of us wants a little free time.
Other than that, the first 10 days have been a whirlwind! And I wouldn't change it for anything.