August 8, 2013

Changing Every Day

Well I didn't think this kid would ever roll over because he is always asleep! Yesterday he proved me wrong! I caught him wide awake in the afternoon, so I put him on the floor for some tummy time. He immediately pulled his legs up under his body, and rolled over onto his back! I had no clue where that new trick came from! So I got my phone ready and put him back on his belly. He immediately did it again! My phone wasn't very focused, but here's the video!!



He is growing up WAY too fast! He takes 5 oz of breast milk every 3 hours between 6am and 9pm. He normally falls asleep between each feeding. Normally, he will sleep all evening after we pick him up from daycare around 4:00. He will start to stir a little around 6:00 for a bottle, and then we sometimes have to wake him for his 9:00 bottle before bed. After his bottle, I put him in his swaddle and he just smiiiiles at me. :) He acts drunk on milk! I lay him down in the pack n play, tuck a blanket around him, and give him his pacifier. He will continue to smile every time you make eye contact with him! Once you walk out of his view, he lays there with his eyes open waiting for you to walk by again. After about 5-10 minutes of just staring into space, he is out cold for the night. Every night! He is the easiest child to put to bed. I honestly don't know how we got so lucky.

The smiles come out again first thing in the morning! He will start squirming a little and make a few grunts. As soon as you open your eyes and look at him, he is all smiles! He just can't help it! He wiggles with happiness until you undo his swaddle. Then he throws both arms above his head and stretches out as much as he can! I normally give him his first bottle in the bedroom while Thomas is in the bathroom getting ready. Hudson thinks he has to watch Daddy so he's always looking for him through the bathroom door. Even when Thomas isn't home and we are in the bedroom, he will always look in the bathroom for Daddy!

A couple of weeks ago, I got this video of him jumping around in his jumperoo. He loves this thing! He isn't quite long enough for this one, but the daycare has one that goes low enough for him to touch the ground. He is all smiles when he's in it!



As you can see here, it doesn't take much to get him to smile and giggle!




Thomas figured out that Hudson likes it when you whistle :)





He's quite the talker!




Just being a little cuddle bug while napping :)



Wild man in the bath tub!



Hudson's 4-month appointment is Aug. 22nd. I can't wait to find out how much he weighs!



2 Months!

In June, Hudson had his 2-month check-up. He weighed 12lbs 4.5oz and measured 22 3/4 inches long. He was pretty much right in the middle percentile for everything... even his head size! He got all of his 2 month shots, and he only screamed for a few seconds. Then he was fine! Earlier that day when he was at daycare, he had pooped twice! He had consistently been going about 4-6 days between poopy diapers, so I just figured it was a fluke. However, since that day, he has been pooping 2-8 times per day! It only took 2 months for his digestive system to get worked out!

The daycare had mentioned to me that he spits up more than all the other babies, so I asked the pediatrician about it. He didn't want to give him any medicine unless it seemed to really bother him. And he wasn't eating excessively, so he must not be spitting up all that much. He said to try rice cereal in his bottles, if anything, and that it would get better with time. So we are just waiting it out. Sometimes he will spit up a lot, and other times, nothing at all!

When examining his eyes, I noticed that he was spending quite a bit of time looking at Hudson's left eye. He then told me that he saw a little speck on his pupil. He said he would contact a good friend who is a pediatric ophthalmologist and see what she says. A couple of days later, the pediatrician's office called me back and said that the pediatric ophthalmologist wanted to take a look at his eye. They made the appointment for 9:00am the next morning, and they are 2 hour appointments. Of course I had to work, so I called their office to reschedule. If I didn't bring him in that next morning (there was a cancellation), then they couldn't get him in for 2-3 months! Luckily, my staff pharmacist said she could cover for me till I got back from the appointment. Of course, when we got there the next morning, they had his appointment down for sometime in August. What?!?! I wasn't leaving till he was seen. I was adamant that we had made his appointment for 9:00 that morning, and I camped out in the waiting room till they figured out what was going on. Turns out they had accidentally switched Hudson with the person who cancelled. Finally, we were taken to a room. Phew.

She took a look at his eye, and immediately made a comment about how impressed she was that our pediatrician saw the speck. It's very small. She used all sorts of tools, toys, and lights to try to get a good look at it, but Hudson was out like a light. He was swinging his little fists at her every time she would pull his eyelid up. They eventually got some drops in his eyes to dilate his pupils to figure out where exactly the little speck was. After they did the eye drops, we had to go sit in the waiting room for 30 minutes to let the pupils dilate. He continued sleeping through the 30 minute wait. I tried to wake him up by changing his diaper, but there was no hope. So we went back into the room again, and Hudson was still fast asleep. Although he slept through the rest of the appointment, she did determine that the speck is on his iris (the pigmented part of the eye). It's way too small to be anything significant, so she wants to look at it again in 6 months. If it does turn into something significant, it would most likely be a cataract or cyst, both of which would just need to be removed. So we'll see if it has changed at all when we go back in January!

A lot happened during his first 2 months of life. At 7 weeks, Hudson all of a sudden started sleeping through the night from 9:30pm to 6:00am! He has never woken up to eat during the night since! He must have known that I was going to be needing some sleep... One week later, I went back to work and Hudson started going to daycare. On his first day, Thomas and I dropped him off together around 6:30 in the morning before Thomas went to work. I think Daddy had a harder time leaving him than I did! However, I was probably a little more exhausted than him... I didn't have to be at work till noon that day so I was excited to head back home to take a nap! Later that afternoon, I texted the director to see how he was doing. I said something along the lines of, "I hope he hasn't screamed all day!" Her response was, "Well. He hasn't screamed all day. He had his moments but okay for a first day!" I have a feeling the other babies didn't get to nap on that particular Monday!

There are 8 babies in the room with 2 teachers. I don't know how they do it! And all 8 of the babies are boys! Hudson and another little guy, Zachary, are the youngest. They were born about 10 days apart. Zachary is Thom's boss's son. It's fun to have our two boys there together!

Hudson loves to watch the fan (just like his cousin Avery used to do). Bath time is his favorite! He hates cold wipes so I warm them up in my hand before touching him with it. And he attacks the bottle every time we feed him. When he started pooping regularly, he turned into the happiest little boy! I also read the book called, "The Happiest Baby on the Block" which makes you analyze your crying baby from a different perspective. That book did wonders for us! At 2 months, Hudson started making the transition to the fun stage... I can't wait to see how much he changes in the next couple of months!





Cousins Everywhere!

Well Hudson started off the chain of births which included me, Thom's sister Trista, and my sister Jackie. Hudson was born on Monday, 4/15. Three days later, Lillian Gracey Freeman joined the world on 4/18! Six weeks after Hudson was born, Callie Jean Davis also made her grand arrival on Memorial Day, 5/27! All of our parents were in heaven... each of them got 2 new grandbabies!

Trista, me, and Jackie at my baby shower!

Of course, when Trista had Lily, we had just gotten home from the hospital a couple days prior. So we didn't get to be there to welcome Lily. But when Jackie went into labor, we happened to be home that weekend visiting! I believe I gave Baby Davis to arrive that Friday so that I had all weekend to spend time cuddling her, but she waited a few days and decided to arrive on Monday, the day we were headed home! At least we got to meet her the day she was born!

Lillian Gracey Freeman, Born April 18th

Callie Jean Davis, Born May 27th
Hudson and Lily!

Grandma Hazel holding Hudson and Callie!
Hudson & Lily

The Freeman Family visits Cape Girardeau!
Lily, Ainsley, & Hudson
Hudson & Callie

The Davis Family visits Cape too!
Hudson, Avery, & Callie


Unfortunately, Hudson is the lone boy in the group. Not sure how that will go for him, but I guess we'll find out soon enough!



First Night Away

On May 25th, one of my friends from pharmacy school got married at a winery in Pocahontas, IL. There is a group of 6 of us who have been reuniting every year at each other's weddings, and Mitch was the last person in that group to get married. I wasn't about to let having a 1-month old at home keep me from attending the wedding! Grandma and Grandpa Steinmetz got to keep baby Hudson for the night. Grandma Shelly's prep work was pretty extensive... It probably took her about 5 minutes to read the entire text with instructions on how to care for our sweet baby boy! Ha! I believe her reply was, "I need a printer for the instructions!" :)

I think they had a pretty good time, and he slept ok too. We very much enjoyed ourselves at the wedding as well! It was honestly the most adorable wedding we've ever attended. The winery setting was perfect! It was sort of a dreary rainy day, and as soon as Mackenzie made it to the alter, the sun came out! There was no mistaking it... somebody up above was looking out for the happy couple. It gave me the chills!

We had a lot of fun catching up with friends and tasting some delicious wine. Most of them hadn't seen me at all while I was pregnant, so I got quite a few, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe you had a baby!" comments throughout the night. They were all bummed that we didn't bring him along, but we enjoyed that first night of freedom!

Kiss the bride!

His little bandana says, "I DO TOO."



The newlyweds!

The next day was Tanner's graduation party, so we needed to pick Hudson up by about 10am so Shelly could get everything ready for the party. We both had our alarms set for 8am. Well I didn't wake up till about 10:15am and Thomas was still sleeping!! Apparently, we had both shut our alarms off earlier... Ooops! I guess we were pretty tired! Thanks again Grandma Shelly!