Our nightly routine consists of a bath, baby massage and bottle but our favorite part is definitely story time with daddy. We've even had to make a few trips to the library to get new books. It's amazing how Hudson will sit and stare at Jason while he reads to him.
Hudson's 4th week of life was an eventful one. On Tuesday he experienced his first earthquake while sitting on the couch with mom and that Sunday Hurricane Irene gave us a scare but turned out to be no big deal. Thanks to Mayor Bloomberg I was nervous that the storm was going to be something serious. We made sure we had plenty of water, nonperishable food and flashlights and after standing in line at the grocery store for an hour with a hundred other New Yorkers we were prepared. But of course it turned out to be nothing but a tropical storm.
This is what it looked like out of our window when the storm was hitting the UWS.
For Labor Day we took Hudson on his first little adventure to hang out with friends in the Hamptons. This has become our little tradition and we are so glad we got to bring Hudson along this year. I don't know if it was the fresh ocean air or if he already loves the Hamptons like everyone else, but he was an angel!
He's getting chubbier everyday! Obviously sitting up in the big red chair isn't really working out, but at least he's not screaming this time. Mr. Giraffe isn't looking as big as he did in week 1.
I seriously can't believe how fast they grow - but we are definitely loving the rolls:)
Well, it's been a month and a half so I figured it's about time I write it down - I've been busy figuring things out with our new little man.
Warning - this is very long and probably very boring for everyone but me.
The month of July was a hot one and lucky for me the week before Hudson arrived we had a heat wave. With the humidity the temperature one day was 115 - not fun. Not to mention my feet and ankles were three times their normal size. So fat, that the only shoes that would fit were some ugly Croc flip-flops my mom gave me 6 years ago, and they were even tight at the end of the day. Don't worry, I think Jason threw those flip-flops away - he was embarrassed to be seen with me when I wore them. Hopefully the next time I am pregnant it will be cold and my feet will only double in size:)
So on with the story ... after being huge and hot I was very ready to be done. I knew I would be super depressed if I went past my due date, so I told myself I would have this baby before my due date - and it worked! Hudson was due on Wednesday, August 3rd, so the weekend before that I told Jason we were going to walk this baby out, and we did just that. We spent the weekend walking all through Central Park. I was seriously dying and we walked ALL through the park. We stopped at almost every park bench to rest:)
On Sunday night I was feeling super sore and decided a hot bath might make me feel better. After the bath we were eating dinner and I suddenly felt nauseous and really hot, so I got up to put my plate away and that is when my water broke!! At first I wasn't sure what happened (I will spare you the details) but I basically went in the bathroom, waited a few minutes, and confirmed that my water had in fact broken. I calmly opened the bathroom door and informed Jason that I thought my water had broken. I have never seen Jason jump off the couch so fast. He immediately started talking fast and asking what we needed to do. I was surprisingly very calm and tried to be the voice of reason while Jason ran around the apartment like a chicken with his head cut off. Lets just say he had more of his own stuff in my hospital bag then I did.
After Jason had settled down a little I called the doctor and she said I could take my time as long as I got to the hospital in the next two hours. My water broke a little after 8 pm so we got to the hospital a little after 10. By this time the contractions had started and were a little uncomfortable but nothing serious. There was no one in triage - going into labor on a Sunday night was great!
We got settled in and the nurse confirmed that my water had broken and called my dr. After about two hours they moved me into my delivery room and that's when I started to feel really uncomfortable. The one thing I hated was because my water had broken my dr didn't want them to check how far I was dilated for risk of infection, so I had no idea how far I was. But the contractions were coming on very strong so I decided to ask for the epidural. Of course it took the anesthesiologist FOREVER (1 1/2 hrs) to get there, but can I tell you it was heaven once I got the shot! Seriously, I have no idea how women do it without the shot - they are super women! I wanted the shot all along, but after having it, I don't think there is anyway I could go without. Before I got it I thought I was going to die. I always thought I was tough, but now I know I'm not.
I got the shot at around 3am, soon after my dr came in and I was dilated to a 5. She was happy with my progress and said she would be back in a couple of hours to check on me. I was able to relax, but because of the annoying blood pressure monitor there was no way I was getting any sleep. But don't worry, Jason was snoring away!! At least one of us would be well rested when baby arrived:)
At 7 am the dr came back and confirmed I was dilated to a 10!! She said she wanted me to sit up for an hour and that I was not allowed to push the more drugs button any more - love that button! She wanted me to be able to feel the contractions coming so I would know when to push. The dr came back a little after 8 and we were ready to go!
So I have to say, my friends warned me about everything I would experience in the hospital but NO ONE told me how hard pushing is! For some reason I thought it would be a little push and I would be done - Nope! Seriously I thought my head was going to explode! But I was so tired and just wanted it to be over so I just kept it up and 20 minutes later, at 8:39 am on Monday, August 1st ... our little man arrived!!!
Jason was very encouraging and helped me through the whole pushing process. All along his plan was to stay up by my head but in the end he was amazed and had to see what was happening:) The umbilical cord was wrapped around his head so Jason didn't get to cut the cord, but after that he came out no problem. My favorite was as I was trying to concentrate on pushing Jason kept saying "Oh my gosh, he has a ton of hair!".
The first words out of Jason's mouth after Hudson arrived was "He looks like me!!!". And that is when we fell in love! I remember listening to Jason talk to Hudson while the nurses cleaned him off and I couldn't believe we were now parents. I remember them laying his warm little body in my arms and his sweet breath as he was crying his sad little cry. I looked at him and couldn't believe he was mine!
Hudson LOVES the water!! I don't know who is happier about this, Hudson or his daddy. Jason is convinced his son will be a water baby and now he thinks he will be because he loves his bath-time! We did however find out that once Hudson gets in the water he gets a little too relaxed. Maybe the water was a little too cold, I don't know, but he had a little accident the first time in the tub - good thing it was easy to clean up:)
We tried to do a 1 week old photo shoot with Hudson and his buddy, Mr. Giraffe, in the big red chair, but as you can see, it didn't work out to well and Hudson was not happy:) Good thing Mr. Giraffe didn't mind. Hopefully we'll have better luck for 1 month!
Yesterday I officially hit the 39 week mark and I am sad to report that there hasn't been much progress. I am currently dilated to a two and 50% effaced, but that's also what I was at last week so I was a little disappointed when the Dr told me there hadn't been any changes this week.
We did have a little false alarm. When I went in for my appointment on Tuesday my blood pressure was running a little high so the Dr was concerned and wanted me to go to the hospital to be monitored. I was a little freaked out and after calling Jason he was even more freaked out and insisted that I kept him updated every 15 minutes. Of course they hooked me up to all of the machines and reported that my blood pressure was now normal. But because they had me all hooked up they decided to continue to monitor me for the next two hours and make sure my blood tests were fine. It was a little annoying, but once I knew that our little man wasn't coming I relaxed and enjoyed listening to his heart beat. The nurse also showed me that I was having contractions about every 8 minutes so it was interesting to learn that something was happening, I just didn't know it.
I immediately went home that night and packed my bags so I am officially ready, and will not be caught off guard if buddy decides to come early. So now the waiting begins. I am starting to get very uncomfortable, and the heat wave we've been having is not helping. I know I haven't been very good at updating the blog but now that I am all caught up, and I have everything ready - I will definitely be better at updating.
