Faces

The many faces of Hudson...

bored, but happy

needs a break from eating, too tired to continue

(ps sorry about the almost exposure in this pic)

almost ready to resume eating

way too tired to even begin eating

"I know you are trying to get me to smile and I'm not really going to give in, but I'll give you this little smirk"

really mad at dad for trying to make him pose this way

surprised

thinking his parents are really weird always talking in weird baby talk to him

...and many more that I will try to capture!

One month?

We have a one month old????
It's really kind of sad how big he's getting and how fast.

As I write this, he's pretty much screaming at Mike. He's had his first pretty rough day. Stomach ache maybe? I'm really not sure. We've gone through the rest of the possibilities for his unhappiness and checked them off. The only thing that makes him calm down is feeding him so we've done that the majority of the day...although I can only let him nurse for so long and so often before I'd be nursing all day long. Mike's a sweetie though. I just heard the back door close and he's taking him on yet another walk through the neighborhood. Sometimes the sounds distract him and Mike's getting really good at getting him to sleep on these neighborhood walks.

On a good night, we change him and feed him and then rock him to sleep. If I get him into a deep enough sleep, he'll sleep for about 4 hours and then wake up to eat. Sometimes even close to 5. He's really extremely nice about going back to sleep after he eats in the middle of the night too. It makes my life really happy. Then I usually let him take Mike's spot in the morning when he leaves. He really likes it. It's my favorite thing to look over at his tiny body in a big bed. Super cute.

A few other things about him that have starting to show:

From day one in the hospital, he's been a noisy baby. But oh my gosh- this child is constantly making noise. Maybe that is normal of newborns? I really don't know, but he is ALWAYS making noise. He grunts like no body's business. Over and over and all different kinds of grunts. Low ones and high ones and louder and quiet. They get really out of control when he's just waking up. Me and Mike will just lay in bed and laugh in the morning as he's waking up and making the strangest sounds I've ever heard. He also makes sounds as he eats. Each gulp has a sound involved. It's pretty interesting to feed him in front of someone and have such a noise maker coming from under the blanket. My all time favorite though is his sleep noises. He makes a little sigh noise with each breath he takes when he's sleeping. If he's really deep asleep it goes away, but when he's cuddling or just getting to sleep he does it and it's the cutest. I can't set him down when he starts doing that. That was one of the first things I noticed about him in the hospital that I just loved so much. (I have recording of all his sounds but I can't figure out how to post them. If anyone knows how please share...)

This child can't keep his hands under control. Or his legs. But the hands are really out of control. Especially when I try to feed him. He has to have his hands right by his little mouth. Sometimes it gets extremely frustrating. Especially at 3am. But we're coping. I won't say he's getting better at moving them because he's really not, but I'm finding ways to get around them. He kicks his legs and moves his arms like a crazy man most of the time that he's awake though. Super active. He does it when he's laying by himself and it gets pretty crazy when he's hungry or upset. Sometimes I set him on my legs while I get the food ready for him and he kicks me in the stomach over and over. I'm going to assume he's not meaning to though. Otherwise I have a mean baby. 

Me and Mike always joke about the phrases that are used in our house over and over. and over. They are as follows:

"You're alright, buddy."

"Hudson, you're okay."

"Hi buddy."

"Good job bud!"

"Move your hand."

(all of these in extremely high pitched, annoying baby talk with every syllable drawn out)

The last one is really only used by me when I'm trying to feed him. It's just funny to catch how many times we say the exact same thing though over and over. 

He's starting to look at me more as I talk to him and goes cross eyed all the time. (Mike is genuinely concerned about that haha) I think he was really confused when I had him on the bathroom counter the other day and he could see me in the mirror. He just watched me in the mirror and wouldn't look at me at all. I know he's really young, but I keep trying to get him to hold toys and today he held onto his first toy for more than just half a second. And by this I mean that he's awake holding onto it and moving it around. Mike always puts weird things in his hands while he's sleeping. Like laffy taffy candies. Yeah I know, weird. But it's kind of funny that a newborn has food in his hands I guess? haha

He's getting a little more chunky. I mean being born at 9 lbs is pretty chunky already, but he's starting to fill out a bit. He has a funny little body. He has a total double chin most of the time with a big belly and then pretty skinny long arms and legs. It equates to all of his 0-3 month pajamas and onsies being too small because they aren't long enough, but then his regular 0-3 month clothes still drown him because he's too skinny for them. But I did find him some pants that fit the other day. That was a big success. 

(Above are the pants that I finally found that fit him!)

Everyone always asks about the pacifier if he's crying and here's the thing... He hates it. He doesn't really cry hard unless he's hungry anyways so we're lucky, but he does not like the binky one bit. I think he gets more upset when I try to give it to him. And he doesn't get the whole concept to keep sucking on it. He'll put it in his mouth for a minute and suck about 3-4 times and once he realizes there's nothing coming out he screams louder. If I try and hold it in his mouth he'll kind of slurp on it a little bit while whimpering. It's actually kind of heart breaking. It's like we're tricking him and he totally knows it. Maybe sometime in the future he'll start to like it more. Preferably when we are in public and it's needed.. We'll have to see. 

He's starting to get pretty good at holding his head up. When we had him in the hospital he would jerk his head a lot already, but he's getting better at controlling it. Mike has little exercise sessions every night with him where they have tummy time. It's kinda cute. It's like their boy time. haha

He's started to smile a little bit, but he's pretty stingy about giving those smiles out. I can only get him to do it every once in awhile and it's even more difficult to convince him to do it if I have the camera out. Here are a few almost smile pictures. 

Well, that's probably a good enough update for now. To tell the truth, I started this post over a week ago and just haven't been able to finish it for 100 years. 

Here are a couple more random pictures...

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!

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock

Well good and bad news...

Bad news: I'm still pregnant.
Good news: I have an induction scheduled.
Bad news: It's not until the 17th.
Good news: That's a day before my due date.
Bad news: My doctor thought I would have gone already so I've been planning on earlier.
Good news: I'm dilated almost to a 4 and really thin...says my doctor.
Bad news: That still doesn't give me any sort of indication of when this kid will come out.

This isn't a very fun game. I must need to learn a serious lesson in patience because I'm going crazy here.

Our child seems to be pretty large so far... here are his estimates:
37 wks: 7lb
38 wks: 7lb 11oz
39 wks: 7lb 14oz

I guess he's either slowing down his chubby eating habits, or the computers at the drs office are kind of off. We did use a different one this time than the last two times so hopefully it's accurate.

Hopefully he'll decide to come soon before my ankles explode!!

Edema

Edema: effusion of serous fluid into the interstices of cells in tissue spaces or into body cavities.


WARNING: This post may not be fitting for those who may be sensitive to gross or ugly things. 


With that being said... behold... the FOOT. 

This is how my foot looks at the end of the day. It's not a pretty sight, but I'm actually hiding the worst part with my skirt. As my little brother put it last night, my calves "are bigger than the line backers" on the football team. I guess they have big calves. And I've got bigger ones. I hadn't looked at them for awhile (it takes a little extra effort to find them down there) and caught a glimpse the other day. It was scary! 

And this one my friends is my foot after the gym. You see-I have a hard time getting my shoes on, but then once I get them on, the liquid is squeezed into my ankles and calves. That makes my shoes more comfy, but looks a little weird after.

Don't worry--I've been told this is all normal and I'm not dying or anything. I was a sweller in the heat before I was pregnant, so I figured this was bound to happen. Although, I never knew how much water one body could retain. But hey, it makes for a good laugh for everyone else right? 

Anyway, that's enough of that. 

Here are some pictures of other aspects of our lives as of late.

We've been working on little one's room. This is the side we have done. The other side is just the crib and things but I still have to make a fitted sheet for the bedding of the crib so I'll post it when I'm done. I made the curtains and pillows and Mike helped (pretty much did it all) with the pad on the window. He even did the tufting. He's such a good husband. Although, don't tell him that I posted that he did it all-he doesn't like people to know that he can be crafty. This has been my first experience with the sewing machine though so that's been interesting. You just can't look too closely at anything haha. 

Little one has a lot of clothes from showers. He's kind of spoiled. We're super grateful though. :)

He even has a sweater and bonnet that my sweet grandma made for him. Tayden is modeling it for us below. haha It's a little large for our baby, but someday it will fit him. Mike suggested maybe she could make us all one and we could take a family portrait?  She made all sorts of things for the little guy, including little baby booties, a baby cocoon, mittens, etc... Cutest grandma ever.

Below is the belly at 36 weeks. It's feeling pretty huge. Skirts have been my life now. I don't really wear anything else. 

I'm excited to be able to be done with the whole pregnancy gig though and have our baby here. Only a few more weeks! I'm also excited to get on the road to getting back into shape. (and having real ankles) It's really not that exciting gaining a considerable amount of weight by the second. At least it's for a good cause. 

Well that's all the random pictures I have so I guess this post is about over. Maybe next time there will be a little Hancock to post about. I would be oh so happy.

Michael

Has anyone met my cute husband? 

Yeah, he's a keeper. 

I haven't written a creepy, cutesy, gaggy post for awhile so this one may be one of those sorts. 

Number one, that guy never complains about anything. He just sits and listens to me CONSTANTLY complain. 

Example of a typical drive in the car. 

Me: "Uh, could you back the car up? I can't fit in the tiny little space between the car and the stairs in the garage to get to my seat?"

Him: "Yeah, sure!"

Me: after getting in the car.. Usually one of these statements would be made next:

"Man my ribs hurt."

"I can't breath sitting like this! I have zero lung capacity."

"I'm hungry."

"Can we get a treat?"

"Wow I really wish your child would stop trying to kick his way out of my stomach."

"Can you get my phone from the floor? I dropped it."

"Shoot I don't have my purse! Can you get it?"

Him: The answer to all of these is either "Yes." or "I'm sorry babe. I think you are doing a good job."

After that, I usually either start crying (if I'm hungry the chances of this happening are increased about 500%) or I'm content for a minute and then think of another complaint. 

See?? He's really nice. 

And I really do try to limit my complaining. He should have the rights to complain about my complaints though and he never does so I am grateful for that. 

Anyway the point of this post is to document what he did for my birthday. 

Here's the deal--we have birthdays right next to each other. His is May 9th and mine is the 15th. It's awful. You know why? 

He ALWAYS outdoes me by just a tad because he follows after me. 

It's cute though because he'll see what I do and then he'll try to come up with something similar that I would like. 

So this year for his 25th birthday, I put together 25 gifts and gave them to him throughout the day. It was fun. He was a good sport too because some of them I sat on the bed with a specific time to be opened. If it had been me I probably would have opened them all as soon as he left for the day. So here's how it started.. 

A few weeks before, we were talking about weird stuff we liked when we were kids. 

Embarrassing as it is, I told him how I used to love The Sound of Music movie. I would watch it over and over and over.... Until 9th grade when I tried out for the school play (which was the Sound of Music that year) just hoping and praying I would make my dream come true of being one of the characters and getting to sing the songs and I got...what role? A nun. Yeah that was the end of my watching the Sound of Music. I was convinced that the pain would never leave me. 

I'm over that now though and I don't mind the songs. 

So this is what I woke up to the morning of my birthday. 

It was hanging from the bedroom door when I got up. And it rhymes. How cute is that? 

So I will try to remember all the gifts. Some were physical gifts and some were emailed to me so bear with me here.

1. It's not clear enough to read the text, but this was hung on the fridge when I went downstairs to get breakfast. I have quite the obsession with Subway breakfast so he provided the funds to get myself some.

2-3-4. The next thing was waiting in the car. This is after I had already kind of gone through it but it was a basket with all baby stuff because our baby is one of my favorite things I guess. haha But there were some vouchers for these clothes at Gap that I really wanted to get him (which were gone when we went back for them :( sad day) and also a breast pump. (sorry that's kind of awkward to write on here a little bit) Also there were treats in there to make sure that he was well nourished that day.

5. Was in the glove box. I love Kneaders! This was for my lunch.

6-7-8. These were emails with vouchers for different things. 6 was a pedicure. 7 was some shoes. 8 was dinner at Texas Roadhouse. 

9. When we got to dinner he gave me a little bag with an iPhone case. 

10. The last thing was shopping! Which is one of my very favorite things. He got me a gift card to Forever 21 and we went down to City Creek and did a little shopping. 

So he did pretty good right??? 

I thought so. I am really grateful for a nice husband who likes me even when I have this huge bubble coming from my middle. And that's all so you can stop throwing up now. :)

Save Me

from my HUGE ankles.

This is not a funny joke. I'd heard about pregnant women having issues with water retention near the end of their pregnancies.
Key word there: END.
I consider myself at the end, but I still have over a month left. I was imagining the last 2-3 weeks.
Well what a nice surprise for me!
(I'd post some pictures of my ridiculous feet, but frankly I'm too embarrassed.)

On a happier note, we've been working on the little one's room. It's still a work in progress, but I'll post some pictures when we're all the way done, but here are a few things we've been working on.

These are little bookshelves (actually spice racks but don't tell..) we put up. 

These are the bumpers for his bedding. :) My mother in law is a really good sewing teacher and helped me help make them. (she finished them off and did the piping, but hey-I did a little!)

And here are some frames from DI we painted and put some printables from Pinterest in. There are a few more, but I haven't quite gotten them done yet. We'll hang them on the wall once we figure out where the furniture and stuff will go. 

And that's about all we've done. 

We are getting excited (and scared). Well Mike isn't scared, but I am a little. Have you ever been to a Child Birth Preparation class? Well go and then you'll understand why I'm scared. There are some nasty things they show you in there. But there are also some nasty things happening to me, like my ankles. My theory is that you get so miserable at the end of pregnancy that you'll do anything to get that child out. Maybe past parents can attest to this? I'm kind of hoping that it's how it is because the stuff I saw in that class was frightening. Good thing it will be worth it! 

Oh and here is a 32 week photo from a few weeks ago.