Introducing...

....our now 12 day old baby boy, Hudson Michael Hancock.
Here's a little glimpse of what's been going on the last week or so. (Apologies for the length. I don't want to leave things out for journaling purposes)

BIRTH
Here's our pretty simple birth story:
We had an induction scheduled at 1pm on 7/17. (hoped he'd come sooner but he had other plans..)
The nurse called and changed the appointment to 7am. No complaints on our end.
Got to the hospital that morning bright and early.
8:00 Get all hooked up to machines. Already having steady contractions. Who knew?
8:30 Doctor comes and breaks my water. Dialated to a 4. Almost a 5.
8:31 Contractions get painful.
8:35 Contractions get really painful.
9:00 I'm asking for drugs.
9:30 The nurse asks if I am scared ****less because my blood pressure is so high. They take my blood and can't give me drugs until the lab work comes back. They want to give me other meds to try and get my blood pressure down.
10:00 I want to die the contractions are so bad. My nurse says she's never seen contractions like it before and that they are right on top of each other. At this point I don't really listen to anything anyone says. I'm getting mad that they can't give me the drugs. Dilated to a 7.
10:30 They drug man comes. He wants me to do crazy positions to get this needle into my back. Does he really want me to arch my back? Do you understand I have a HUGE child in my stomach? Not to mention I am in the worst pain of my life. Arching my back is not going to happen.
10:35 I guess I somehow arched my back enough because he got the needle in. He keeps talking and telling me all this info about the drug and possible side effects. I don't really care. I'm still in pain.
10:45 Pain is gone. At this point, we are highly considering naming our son after the drug man.
11:00 We are so happy and excited for baby to come.
11:00-1:30 We are hanging out and having visitors come by. Life is happy. Nurse keeps tabs on baby's heart rate. She comments multiple times about how well he's doing with my crazy contractions. Says most babies, if not all would normally be in distress. We are already proud parents. At 1pm we are dilated to a 10. Resting and descending.
2:00 Time to push.
2:15 Pushing really isn't that bad. Reminds me of a hard work out at the gym.
3:00 The nurse is really encouraging me and making me feel like a pro pusher.
3:30 Good thing because I'm still pushing.
3:45 Doctor comes in.
3:48 Hudson Michael Hancock is born. They put him on my tummy for a minute and I am amazed that this little boy is all mine.

After all of that is kind of meshed together in my brain. I just sat and watched in awe for about 30 minutes as Mike was over with the nurses as they got him all cleaned up and ready to live in the real world. I couldn't believe this infant came out of me. He was so big! (and slimy) But I knew I loved him. A whole lot.

His stats:
9lbs 2oz
21.5 inches
Huge hands and feet.
9 and 9 apgar score.
Crazy Shaped Head.
Lots of dark hair.
My nose.
Mike's lips.. (maybe?)
Mike's lack of eyebrows.
Big eyes. Blue for now.
Cutest thing we ever did see. (assuming the head would go down.. that was a little bit scary)

THE AFTER MATH
So birth sounds fun right? It actually wasn't bad. After I got the epidural that is. Before that it was horrible.
4:00-7:00 Lots of visitors. Which is fun. But I have advice for visitors-at least visitors that first day...Be quick. At this point I had zero sleep, was dying of hunger, and started feeling like crap.
7:00 Started feeling really weird and bad. (This gets a little detailed and gross so stop reading now if you don't like that sort of thing)
7:15 Nurses kept pushing on my stomach and then telling me I was really bleeding a lot. More than normal. And that I'm extremely swollen everywhere. Weird.. Also I kept telling them that something felt weird and I was leaking. They decided I probably just needed to empty my bladder so they tried to get me up. Bad move. At this point I started shaking uncontrollably and was feeling horrible. They decided getting me up was not a good idea.
7:30 Nurses decided that since I couldn't get up they would need to put a catheter in. (Note: Epidural as been gone for 3+ hours now) I am sad.
7:30-8:00 Worst 30 minutes of my life. Nurses are trying to put a catheter in this entire time. But lo and behold the swelling (my worst enemy) is so bad that they can't get it in. And that's why I feel so bad. My tube to relief is swollen shut. I'm crying like I never have before, and Mike is just trying to calm me down and is breathing with me close to my face. Nurses were whispering a lot and I was trying not to listen. They kept leaving and coming back. I could tell they were having a hard time. So was I. They finally got it in and I felt a little better. Although I was still freezing and shaking and felt pretty awful.
8:30 Different nurse comes to take my blood to see what's going on. I have a fever. Who knows how high since those people use Celsius. (is that even spelled right? See? Who even uses the word celsius?)
9:00 They bring me bags of antibiotics and pump fluid through me for the rest of the night.
12:00am Fever is going away. I can tell because I'm literally dripping sweat on my baby.

RECOVERY
I never really thought about the whole recovery part of having a baby. I actually didn't really think there was one.. I don't know why. I guess there are just a lot of girls who make it look really easy. I figured I'd be sore for a few days and then I'd just be living the stay-at-home mom life, going to get drinks from sonic everyday...strolling around Target mid-day just looking...etc.
Well I can honestly say that recovery is kind of hard. (or I might just be a baby.. either way) Regardless, I mostly just feel weird and the pain from my stitches comes and goes. I've been really light headed and weak but it is getting better everyday.

Now on to the more exciting parts of this post:


HUDSON
Our little boy has been doing so good! He had a little bit of a hard time getting enough food at first. He left the hospital Thursday at 8lb 8oz and by Saturday he was at 7lb 14oz. The doctor said that as long as we could turn it around he wasn't too concerned because he was born so big. Good thing he was so huge!
We went back to the doctor the following Monday and after supplementing with formula and working hard to get him to eat, he was back up to 8lb 6oz.

The funny thing about him weighing so much is that he's still really scrawny! He's really long though. Scrawny and long like his dad. Some of his newborn clothes still don't quite fit, and the 0-3 month clothes are out of the picture for a little bit longer. Although, some of his onsies are a little bit too short and while they are pretty baggy around his arms and belly, they are stretched out as far as they go to make it from his neck to button at his diaper. It's kind of funny. He's been getting big fast though, so I think only a week or so and he'll be able to fit more of his clothes. He definitely has his dad's long hands and feet too. They are huge!

Right out of the womb. 

Sleeping at the hospital.

This is the face I get when changing him in the middle of the night. 

He's always pulling these little faces. I love them.

He's been such a blessing around our house. We love him to death. It's so fun just to sit and watch the things he does and we definitely get plenty of laughs at his faces and some of the things he'll do. One thing we always laugh at is how when he's finished eating he'll roll off of me onto his blanket with his arms above his head and his eyes closed and milk running out of his mouth like a drunk baby. It only takes a few minutes from him to come out of his coma and want to eat again, but it's pretty funny. He also loves to lay on my bed after dad leaves in the morning and wake up slowly. He loves it when we let him into the big bed instead of making him sleep in the bassinet. It kind of freaks me out though so he doesn't get to do that too often. Another thing he loves are his hands. He won't let us swaddle him with his arms tucked in. No way no how. He loves them constantly on his face. It was a battle with feeding him at first, but we've figured out a way he can have both hands up by his face and make it work. I love it how he always sleeps with either his arms above his head or his hands resting by his face though. So cute. Probably my favorite thing about our little guy is the noises he makes. They are the cutest, sweetest things I have ever heard. Lots of nurses commented on how many noises he makes at the hospital and I hoped that he wouldn't stop doing them once we brought him home. He makes little humming noises every time he swallows when he eats and when he's sleeping he also makes little noises as he breathes in and out. I can't really describe how they sound, but they are sooo cute. 

Anyway, this is a long enough post for now. We'll post more later!