Hudson Cole

Well, he's here!! And we couldn't be happier! Below you will find Hudson's birth story. There are some details of the birth that not everyone may want to read, so proceed with caution! :)

Just chillin'

Super strong little guy!

He loves his bouncer!

All smiles after a dirty diaper!

The Birth Story of

Hudson Cole Gillespie

Born: Monday, April 15, 2013 at 2:22pm

8 Pounds 8 Ounces

20 Inches Long

Doctor: Dianne Woolard

Pediatrician: Gary Olson

     Hudson was brought into this world 14 days early. His actual due date was April 29, 2013. It all started Friday evening after I got off work for the weekend. I started having painless contractions that I could only notice by watching for my belly to tighten into a very hard ball every so often. These contractions continued through Sunday. They started to get more regular so I started timing them. By Sunday afternoon, they were consistently 3-6 minutes apart for about an hour, but still pretty painless. We made the decision to head in to Labor & Delivery and get checked out around 6:00pm. Being a first time mom, I didn't know if maybe I was just handling the pain really well or if they really were just very weak contractions. Either way, they were very close together and I didn't want to have this baby at home!

     After arriving at the hospital, they hooked me up to monitors to take a look at my contractions. They checked me immediately and I was not dilated at all. After an hour of monitoring my painless contractions, the nurse said that my contractions were pretty weak and somewhat irregular. She said she would check me again and then put a report together for the doctor to make a decision about whether they keep me or send me home. She said that since I'm only 38 weeks (and not yet 39 weeks), they wouldn't do anything to stop the contractions or make them stronger. This time however, I was 3cm dilated! I had made progress in an hour which would help my chances of being able to stay and have this baby! After the nurse talked to Dr. Woolard, she came back in the room and said enthusiastically, “Well, do you want to stay and have this baby?!?” I was so excited!!

     We were then given the chance to move to a different room. We chose room #248, a big corner room at the end of the hall. My contractions started getting stronger that night. If they would have sent me home earlier, we would have been back again later Sunday night! Around 11:30pm, I asked for some pain medicine. Stadol was selected and wow, that was amazing! She only gave me half the dose to see how it made me feel along with some phenergan to prevent nausea. Well I was almost instantly asleep! I woke up an hour later in pain once again. We decided to go ahead and get the epidural started. They did the epidural at 1:30am when I was about 4-5cm dilated, and I felt pain-free within minutes. I slept comfortably all night long.

     In the morning, my contractions had spaced out a bit while I was sleeping. We decided to go ahead and start a little pitocin around 9am to regulate the contractions. Next, the nurse checked me again. This is when mishap #1 happened... The nurse accidentally broke my water while she was checking me! She said I was 6cm dilated. No one else was in the room when this happened, and she didn't have any towels or anything! My water went everywhere, but thankfully it was clear. We also learned at this point that the doctor would be in surgery at 10am, so it was sort of a timing game. Around 10:15am, I started feeling contractions again in my lower left abdomen. Turns out the epidural medication bag was empty and the nurse neglected to pay attention when the pump alarm went off the first time! (mishap #2) They called anesthesia back up to my room. I spent an hour breathing through contractions (and cussing anesthesia in between) while we waited for anesthesia to come hook up another epidural bag. I was not happy! Eventually they got the bag hung, but for some reason, it didn't numb the spot I was complaining about in my left lower abdomen. I gave it 20 minutes while flipping from side to side trying to move the baby or get gravity to help the epidural work faster. Nothing worked. Anesthesia was called back to my room again. She topped off the epidural and gave me some additional lidocaine. Eventually, we got the painful spot to stop hurting during contractions.

     Soon after that, I was fully dilated! We did a couple pushes, and then the nurse made a couple calls for delivery. It was time! Thomas got the videocamera set up and I started pushing. Hudson had the hiccups throughout most of the pushing! About mid-way through, Dr. Woolard could feel that he was turned a little which was not necessarily a problem, but it most definitely would make the delivery process harder. She successfully got him turned into the correct position, and after about an hour of pushing, baby Hudson was born at 2:22pm! The doctor was shocked at how big he was! (I was not in the least bit surprised... take a look at his father!) He was a little blue, so the doctor alerted the baby nurse that she was bringing him straight to her after the cord was cut. Here comes mishap #3... Thomas was quickly instructed to cut the cord, but it didn't go exactly as planned. As soon as he cut it, the doctor turned her head and started coughing into her scrubs. Some blood from the cord had squirted into her mouth!! Everyone was quiet and just stared at her. She just kept going like normal and handed him off.  The baby nurse got him crying in no time!

     Next was the delivery of the placenta (mishap #4). I was pretty distracted watching Thomas who was in awe watching over our new bundle of joy as they checked him out and cleaned him up. Next thing I know, the doctor is asking me to push to deliver the placenta. Just a few moments later, I felt a huge gush and heard a huge splash! The placenta had busted in the doctor's hands and exploded leaving a huge mess all over the doctor, nurses, bed, and floor! The doctor's somber comment was, “Sorry guys,” since all of their scrubs and shoes were now covered with the contents of my placenta! The next comment I remember that came from the doctor was, “Well that was dramatic!”

     After getting a few stitches, Thomas brought Hudson over to me to hold for the first time. We immediately did skin-to-skin contact and he took to breastfeeding like a champ! After spending a good 45 minutes with Hudson, they took him away for a bath and some more health checks. During this time, Thomas went to the waiting room to inform our families that a healthy, 8lbs 8oz, 20in long baby boy had arrived! Not long after Thom's announcement, our family members heard a baby crying around the corner... They peeked in the nursery windows and got to see our baby boy for the first time! Eventually, it was time for all of them to file into our room to see our newest addition and find out his name. So in came Grandpa Frank, Grandma Sharon, Aunt Jackie, Aunt Jodie, Grandpa Bill, Grandma Shelly, and Mark! I announced his name and they all took turns holding baby Hudson.

Daddy looking pretty comfortable while we wait...

I think I was describing what my contractions felt like. :)

He's finally out!

The proud daddy had to let our neighborhood know that Hudson
had arrived! The balloons had already blown away. :)

Hudson in the outfit Thomas wore home from the hospital when he was born!

He's not a fan of this outfit!

Please stop with the pictures mom!

Our little glow worm

He was one week old on Monday, 4/22!

Relaxing while Dad plays a video game

He's got some cheeks on him!

Already knows how to use his hands to hold his bottle up and keep his pacifier in!

Again... holding his bottle!

Today is my actual due date, and I can't imagine still being pregnant!! That would have been awful... My body must have known to go into labor early or he was going to come out via c-section!

Hudson is two weeks old today. Crazy! Time is already flying by. Thomas goes back to work today, and we are sure going to miss him! He's been quite the help, and I have been slightly spoiled :)

As you can imagine, I have much more to blog about for Hudson's first two weeks of life. Hopefully I can get a couple more posts up this week before we head back home to visit this weekend! In case you haven't heard, we will be having some times available for everyone to meet Hudson. Hope all of you can stop by (unless you're sick...)! Here is where we will be and when:

Saturday 12:30pm-4:30pm: Frank & Sharon's house
Saturday 5:30pm-8:30pm: Mark & Shelly's house
Sunday 12:30pm-4:00pm: Bill's house

"Are We There Yet?"

I remember when I was little, on our family vacations, I was the daughter who never slept in the car and continued to ask the annoying question over and over again, "Are we there yet?" I guess you could say I'm still pretty impatient! I am soooo ready for this baby to make his way into the world. The days seem to be getting longer as work becomes more and more challenging. The nights seem to last forever as well because I pee every 1-2 hours. Every time I wake up, I somehow manage to find the toilet without turning on a light or hardly even opening my eyes! Since Thomas sleeps through everything, Jake (our golden retriever) keeps an eye on me during the night. He sleeps right where I step down to get out of bed. That way, he knows when I get up since I have to feel my way around him with my feet!

Monday marked 37 weeks, and this baby is now considered full-term. I couldn't be happier! He is close enough to being fully-cooked now that I don't have to worry about going into labor early. At my last appointment on Tuesday, my doctor felt around on my belly and roughly estimated him to weigh about 6.75 pounds. That sounds great to me! I want him to stay under 8 lbs! For the one person who voted he will be a 6 pounder, you are most likely wrong! Everything else looked great, and my belly is still measuring right on track. His heart rate was in the 130's, and he is still head down. Here's a belly pic from today at 37 weeks and 4 days. (Please ignore the lint/hair all over my tank top!)

37 and 1/2 weeks

Besides feeling really uncomfortable at work, I really don't have too much to complain about. However, I think I must have done my fair share of complaining based on my co-workers' due date guesses! I've already passed up the first guess, and the last guess is still before my due date of April 29th. I keep telling them that April is going to end and I'm still going to be pregnant!! And that may make for a slightly crabby boss :)

9 lbs 3 oz... Really Zack?!?!?

We've taken the dogs for a couple walks in the subdivision since it has warmed up, and I'm not sure who it wears out more! Here's Maddie after a very slow paced 20 minute stroll, and you can see Jake already asleep in the background.

Thomas and I are both off all weekend, and I sure am looking forward to some relaxation! Hopefully we can finish getting the house ready. I wish the "nesting" stage would hit me... I am in no way motivated to clean. Maybe it has something to do with the feeling that my pelvis may crack at any moment!!

36 Weeks!

Well, the weekly appointments have begun! I never thought the end of this pregnancy would ever get here, but thankfully it has! We're sooooo ready for this little guy to join us!

Tuesday was my 36 week appointment, and I saw the nurse practitioner. Everything looked normal except my blood pressure was slightly elevated. They checked it again at the end of the appointment, and it was better but she instructed me to take my blood pressure three times a day for the next three days. If it didn't go down, then I needed to let her know. Luckily, my blood pressure has been great over the past few days. I must have been nervous about the appointment or something... and for good reason!

I knew they were planning to do the group B strep test and check me for dilation for the first time. However, I guess I was nervous for no reason... both were quick and painless! She told me that the baby is very low which I already knew because it feels like I'm smashing his head when I sit down! But I haven't started dilating yet, not that I would be any closer to labor if I had. It sure would make me feel better though! We'll see if I make any progress by my next appointment!


The crib bedding finally arrived! I ordered it off of Etsy. I never found any sort of themed bedding that I liked, so I just chose some fabric and had it made the way I wanted. Turned out pretty cute!

Can't wait to have a little baby in the crib!

Last Trip Home Pre-Baby!

Easter marked our very last trip back to Illinois without a baby onboard. We arrived Friday evening and met up with my family for dinner. Then we all headed out to Wild Pickins, the winery just outside of Chesterfield. None of us had been there before, and we were all impressed! Obviously Jackie and I couldn't drink but we still had a fun time! I highly recommend it!

Saturday morning came way too early, and it was stressful on this momma-to-be. I was at my parents' house in the bathroom getting ready, and all of a sudden I hear my mom in the living room holllering, "Uh oh, Frank, pick her up, uh oh, uh oh!" I froze. One of the shih tzus was yelping like crazy. I ran into the living room (still not sure how I ran!) to find my dad holding Maddie who was holding her back leg up and yelping non-stop. Once I got to her, she stopped yelping and continued to breathe very hard. Maddie has never gotten hurt before so this was all new to me! apparently she and her litter-mate, Max, were running around and playing like normal. We aren't really sure what actually happened to her leg. We got her to calm down over the next 5 minutes and dad just wanted to put her down and see how badly she was injured... Of course I just wanted to hold her! When we put her on the floor, she would immediately lie down and refuse to put any weight on her leg. She just laid there and didn't want to do anything. Dad said she was milking it but I wasn't convinced. However, if I walked away from her, she would get up and follow me with a little limp. Over the weekend, she limped a few times, wanted nothing to do with playing, and couldn't stand up on her hind legs. Whenever I was gone, Papa Frank was under strict orders to hold Maddie and not let her play or jump under any circumstances. He says he followed my orders, but I'm not so sure! She's only limped once since we got back to Jackson, and it was when she was supposed to potty but the grass was damp. Dad just may have been right about her milking it! She knew I'd come right over and pick her up. :)

Grandma Hazel loving on Max & Maddie while I was gone!

After all the dog drama on Saturday morning, Thomas and I headed to Roycelyn's for Easter lunch. Saturday night was Easter dinner with my family at Angus Bailey's. And we enjoyed Easter lunch at Doris's house on Sunday. There was a lot of really good food consumed over our trip home, that's for sure! I was actually down 5 pounds before the weekend started, but I gained all 5 back!

Grandma Hazel maaaay have been forced to pose with Jodie's beer at Angus :)

Our plan was to head back south right after lunch on Sunday. When we got to Bill's house to get packed up, Thomas decided we needed to bring his old barn back with us. Thom's Uncle John Ford made the barn (which functioned as both a toy and a toy box) for Thom's 4th birthday. Well it turns out, the barn was so big that it had to be taken apart to fit through the opening to the attic. That meant it had to be put together. Of course Thomas wanted his dad and Tanner to help him put it together because he said I would be of no help if we took it home in pieces and had to put it together later. I told Thomas it wouldn't fit in the bed of the truck under the bed cover, but he neglected to listen to his wife (who is always right). So about 2 hours later, they finally got the barn put back together. It had just started to rain as they were loading it into the back of the truck. And I'm sure you can imagine what happened next... The damn barn didn't fit under the bed cover! TOLD YA SO!! After all that work, we had to leave the barn behind at Bill's. Hopefully there won't be rain in the forecast next time we try to bring it home with us!

By the time we arrived back in Jackson, I was exhausted! The weekend was fun but I was ready for some rest. It was great to see everyone, and I can't believe we will have a baby boy with us next time! :)

Ready to pop!

Sister Baby Bumps

Right before my baby shower began, a good friend/photographer snapped some belly shots of me and Jackie. We had been trying to get these belly pics for quite a while, but it was about 30 degrees every time Thomas and I came home! I believe it ended up in the 40's on this Saturday, so we still froze our butts off! Hopefully you can't tell how cold we were in most of the pics...

Jodie got to jump in for a few pics at the end!