I love my Baby Bjorn!

Dear Readers of Mommy's Blog,

Hudson here. I just wanted to write to sing the praises of the Baby Bjorn. You see, as of the last couple of days, I've been extremely fussy if not being held--seriously--it doesn't matter if I'm asleep or awake.
I. Want. To. Be. In. Someone's. Arms.

But now that I weigh 8 lbs (well, 7lbs., 15.8oz to be exact....but Mommy said that's practically 8 lbs.), I get to hang out in the Baby Bjorn while Mommy tries to get stuff done around the house. It's the best of both worlds! She feels like she's accomplishing enough to justify spending the entire day at home (I know, I know, tell her to give herself a break...she's on Maternity Leave for crying out loud!) and I get to nuzzle up right against her! ***Sigh***

Here I am trying it out last night with Daddy.

And here's a pic of me and Mommy today! She's already done a load of laundry and we're typing this blog together! (I promise I'm in there...I was just taking a short snooze...)

Now if only we could figure out a way for her to get a shower while I'm in this thing...

Happy Anniversary Ellie

This weekend was the 1 year anniversary of our life with Ellie. We sure are thankful for her! And so proud of her since Hudson's arrival. While she's always been super sweet, she's also a rambunctious 2-year-old puppy. But now that Hudson is here and we are at home most of the day every day, she is calmer, less mischevious, and even sweeter if possible. Our only difficulty is keeping her from licking her baby brother from head to toe!

The day we adopted her. It was love at first sight!

Today. Click on the link below to see a beautiful photo of Miss Ellie May thanks to Curtis Baker.

http://curty.zenfolio.com/hudson/e11227d9c

Hudson's 1st Photo Shoot

Hud may be a model some day! Or not. :)

Over the last couple of days (yes, it took more than one shoot), an old friend of ours from high school--Megan--now a photographer, came over to take newborn pics of Hud. You know those really cute pictures of newborns where they're asleep and all curled up in baskets, hats, and on top of dressers, etc.? Yeah, she couldn't get much of those because apparently Hudson likes to stay awake during photo shoots and track the camera and look directly into the lens! Luckily, Megan's a great photographer and still got some great shots! And even though we hadn't seen each other in forever, it was great spending time with her and getting to meet her little ones (who I've--naturally--been following on facebook). Huddy Buddy and I are looking forward to playdates!

Check out the rest of some of the photos on Megan's blog: http://theothermegan.com/blog/?p=414

A Day in the Life

Wednesday 4.21.10
Hudson is 13 days old

7:30 - 8:00a.m. 1st feeding of the day! Then a little wake time and nap time in which I found time to get ready (sans shower ;)), and make our first trip out! We went to Starbucks and Target...all by ourselves! Sure, my knuckes were white from gripping the steering wheel so hard, but we did it. :)

11a.m. 2nd feeding of the day + wake time + nap time. Hudson and I hung out and then Mommy took some time to "work" (a.k.a. update my blog) around the house and have lunch.

Oh, and Ellie looked out for her brudder.

2p.m. 3rd feeding of the day + a walk around the neighborhood during which time Huddy fell asleep which gave me time to shower when we got home.

5p.m. Daddy starts heading home (yay!) and we have our 4th feeding of the day + family time once Jay's home and *hopefully* we make and eat dinner. (Or, in reality, we just have to assemble & heat thanks to generous family & friends!)

8p.m. 5th feeding and we watch our favorite shows (American Idol, Lost, Parenthood, Glee, Braves games).

11p.m. Daddy's gone to bed by now and Huddy has his last feeding of the night. This is when I start praying that he'll fall asleep immediately after...which he did NOT do last night!

4a.m. If I'm lucky, Hudson sleeps until now and we have our middle of the night feeding...and *hopefully* go back to sleep! :)

And then we start all over again!!!

This is my new life now. And I love it. I'd  always felt like God made me to be a wife and a mother, and now I'm more sure than ever! Jay and I seem to have a difficult time remembering back 14 days ago before Hudson was in our lives...

Conjunctivitis....GO AWAY.

I cried over pink eye.

I knew the first little imperfection that happened to Hudson would suck, but I had no idea just how badly it would kill me.

Yesterday, he started getting a bunch of "sleep" in his eyes and I would wipe it out with a warm, wet washcloth. But during the midnight feeding, I noticed that the gunk had taken over his right eye. And what did I do? I cried. I cried like the gunk in Hudson's eye was the end of the world. And I'm pretty sure I used the words, "He could go blind." Because I didn't know what the gunk was. So we called the Children's 24-hour hotline and I talked to a nurse who assured me he was fine since he didn't have a fever. She encouraged me to call the pediatrician in the AM. (Luckily they're open 9-11 on Saturdays for this very purpose.) So we took him in this morning, and the verdict is conjunctivitis, a.k.a. pink eye. No clue how he got it, but it's not bothering him. And the fun thing is that while we were at the pediatrician, we found out he's passed his birth weight and now weighs 7lbs. 5oz.(!) and he lost his umbilical cord crust at the office.

And he's happy as a clam. :) Case-in-point:

Hanging with Mr. Ted in his crib yesterday.

Napping with Daddy this afternoon.

Wide-eyed and beautiful in Mama's arms.

And on a separate, and super-exciting note, my friend Kelly who'd been expecting along with me had her baby boy on Thursday! His name is Kaden and Hudson can't wait to meet him!

The Nursery--FINALLY!

A picture post of Hudson's room...

For those of you who haven't seen our townhouse, it's a 2 bedroom, but both rooms are GINORMOUS master suites. Kinda like a roommate plan. So rather than a traditional nursery, we converted our guest room into a nursery + guest/mommy room. (I'm guessing we won't be hosting many guests soon unless they want to bunk up with Hudson and nurse him in the middle of the night!) Once Jay goes back to work, I can always sleep in there so as not to disturb Daddy. :)

 

When you walk in the door, this is what you see of the nursery. (I do have drapes for the windows thanks to Ikea, but haven't found rods yet so they're not up.)

To the left is the guest/mommy area. Luckily, the colors & decor we already had in the guest room worked perfectly with my nursery vision!

When you stand at the foot of the bed, you've got a great view of the crib! I used a rug (that you can barely see) to divide up the nursery area. We found the rug during a T.J. Maxx run for $40!!! The prints above the crib were free--my mom found them at Pottery Barn (in the frames that were for sale) and convinced some poor schmuck to give them to her even though apparently they're not supposed to give them away or sell them. Way to go Mom! The beautiful crib was a gift from my dad and is convertible so he'll (hopefully!) have it for life. The bedding is from CustomHouseBedding on http://www.etsy.com/ and was our big splurge. I love it!!

In this nook, the awesome Lee glider was a gift from my parents. The blanket is a hand-me-down from Jay. His Sissy (grandma) made it for him when he was born and now Hud gets to use it! The side table is one of my favorite finds. We got it at a local antique store, Queen of Hearts (www.queenofheartsantiques-interiors.com) and it was pink and $29. With a little Martha Stewart paint and Daddy Jay's skill, it's now the perfect blue! The print on the wall was a $10 find on etsy.com as well.

The bookcase is the Billy bookcase from Ikea, decorated by my mom...it looks so cute!

This was Jay's chair when he was little!

A couple of things have yet to be completed. (1) that peach-ish lampshade has got.to.go. My mom found a chocolate brown one on sale at Restoration Hardware...I've just yet to buy it. And (2) I need to get a shelf + hooks for above the changing table.

A sweet teddy bear from some dear friends and a better shot of the bedding that I oh.so.love!

This dresser started it all. My mom found it at Scott's Antique Market before we even knew if Nugget was a He- or She-Nugget, but from the cell phone photos she sent me, I knew I had to have it as the changing table and would make it work either way. I still think I'd love to use it in the future if we ever have a little girl. Oh--and inside that dresser are tons of adorable clothes passed down from Hudson's cousin's Drew & Grady.

I got the idea to have a bag on the back of the door from Urban Grace Interior's blog. I'm using it to bring clothes, diapers, etc. up & down the stairs since I'll have Hudson in my arms too. The cute canvas bag was a gift from a friend and has a strip of ribbon in brown/aqua. :)

This painting (which will hopefully be propped on a shelf soon), is an original created by Hudson's Aunt Sissy (my beautiful sister) in 1993 when she was 7!!! I wish I had a better photo of it, but I had to show y'all anyway.

Well, that's all for now! I'll get some pics posted with Hudson in them soon! XOXO

A Baby Story: Happy Birth Day Hudson!

As my sweet son naps in his awesome lamb swing, I wanted to share the story of his arrival. Just 4 days after he graced the world with his presence, I'm already afraid I'm going to lose some of the details of the day if I don't get them written down! Sit down and grab a drink or snack, because you're in for the long haul....

Belly Pic....1 Day from D-day

And by D-day I just mean Due Date Day!!! Who knows when the real D-day will occur...I guess only the little guy in my belly and the Big Guy upstairs!

Although....I am having irregular, small contractions and yesterday the doctor told me I was close to 2 cm dilated and stripped my membranes. If that's TMI--sorry!

I made Jay take pics of me today because I've had requests. And even though I got rained on earlier and nothing fits me right now and I was in the middle of one of those mini-contractions (which BTW are still fairly uncomfortable!)...here they are:

Still on the couch...before I was "ready."

Technically "ready" but looking awkward...

Laughing after a mini-contraction because Jay was giving me a hard time...he said, "Those are supposed to last a minute? That was only about 10 seconds...you got a ways to go!" Thanks for the support, Jay! :)

Spring Break 2010

First of all....my apologies for being MIA for a few weeks now! As we gear up for Baby Blev, life has just been crazy, and as a matter of fact, I should be doing about 100 things other than blogging right now! But I had to at least say hi. :)

Secondly...my apologies for not having a belly pic in this post. I know it's been a loooong time since y'all have seen this thing, but I refused to let my mom take pictures of me on Easter. The only thing I had to wear was a black dress and I just wasn't feeling very cute or Easter-y. Sorry! I'll try and get Jay to take one of me when I actually get dressed in something cute this week.

Which is something else to note:  I have nothing to wear!!! I mean, I knew that at 39 weeks, 4 days pregnant I'd be large-and-in-charge, but I didn't expect it to be almost 90 degrees outside in early April!! I don't have maternity clothes for summer....Lord, get this baby boy outta me!

But as I say that, I don't really mean it because I have 2 (3+ page) papers due Thursday that I have to finish, 1 (10-12 page) research paper due Monday 4/12 and a project/presentation due Thursday 4/15 for grad school. At the moment, my plan is to get the papers finished and worry about the project/presentation "later." (When "later" is, I'm not sure, but I highly doubt that I'm going to feel up to presenting next Thursday--even if I'm still pregnant.)

So I'm spending my Spring Break vacation this year with my feet up and researching and typing away on the laptop. ::Flashback to Spring Break 2009::  Jay and I were on a Carribbean cruise with our dear friends Christine & Bobby Bahama....wish I could time-travel!

Last, but certainly not least, I'd like to ask for your prayers for a wonderful, wonderful friend of ours. I'm not going to go in to any details because it's not my story to share, but one of the kindest men I know has an aching heart and I ask that you pray for his healing, peace & happiness. God has great plans for this guy, and while this is a trying time in his life, I know--and he knows--that God is working and God is Good! So...take a quick minute and say a prayer for one of the nicest guys I know.

P.S. The nursery is "done." I'll have photos posted ASAP. Thanks for your patience!