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!

Breast Abscess

As you can tell from the title, this blog involves the boob. Please stop reading now if that makes you uncomfortable!

Before getting pregnant, I had heard terrible stories about breastfeeding moms who developed mastitis and how extremely painful it is. Naturally, I ended up being one of those "lucky" moms...

When Hudson was just a couple of weeks old, I noticed a pretty good size knot on one side. The knot was painful and the skin was red and warm to the touch. My temperature was 100.3 degrees. I figured it was mastitis so I called my OB that Thursday who prescribed an antibiotic to take care of the problem. I was given strict instructions that if it wasn't improving in 48 hours, then I needed to be seen. So I waited 48 hours till Saturday rolled around, and the knot seemed to have gotten larger. I felt fine (no fever), but it was clear that the antibiotic wasn't doing the job. I got ahold of the on-call OB at the hospital, and he immediately advised me to go to the ER to get checked out because it sounded like it might have turned into an abscess. So Thomas took over baby-duty while I headed to the hospital.

First I saw the triage nurse. She took one look and said I would have to see the nurse practitioner and possibly the doctor. The nurse practitioner immediately had me placed in a room to be seen by the doctor. The ER was pretty busy, so it took a while for the doctor to see me. So I just sat back and relaxed in the bed and watched a little TV. I sure did enjoy not having to worry about Hudson for once!

Eventually the doctor came in. As soon as he felt the knot, he said it was an abscess. :( Not what I wanted to hear! He went on to explain what he had learned about abscesses in med school: "First make an incision and drain. If that doesn't work, make an incision and drain again. If that still doesn't work, make another incision and drain. The last step was to treat with antibiotics." Ugh! Are you kidding me?!?!? You want to cut my boob open???

The doctor brought in an ultrasound machine to take a closer look at the abscess. From the outside, the knot measured 10cm wide. From the ultrasound, he measured the fluid pocket to be 4cm wide and 3cm deep. He said he was going to call the on-call OB to see what he recommended or if he wanted to come in and see me. I got the feeling the ER doctor wasn't too comfortable treating me... He knew he needed to drain it, but he was a little hesitant to actually do it. That made me a little uneasy.

The on-call OB was the same doctor I had spoken with on the phone earlier who instructed me to go to the ER. He told the ER doctor that he would come in and drain it for me, but he wanted to do a needle aspiration instead of an incision. Apparently it is successful about 60-70% of the time, but it is much less invasive than making an incision and draining it that way. This sounded much better to me (although it still sounded AWFUL). So I called Thomas and we quickly arranged for a babysitter. I needed someone there for support if they were going to stick a giant needle in me! The OB was there within minutes. Of course Thomas was going to be another 20 minutes before he could be at the hospital, and I knew the OB didn't want to wait for him since he came in just for this procedure. I had to buck up and do this on my own!

The nurse didn't take my advice about which vein to use to draw blood. He attempted a spot on my forearm first, and then he proceeded to tell me that my skin is REALLY thick while he was digging... Then he went straight through the vein. Of course next he used the vein I had suggested. No problem getting that one! #MenNeverListen :)

The OB first numbed the skin with some lidocaine injections. I felt a pinch for a couple of seconds and that was all. Then came the ginormous needle. I told him not to show me the needle or I would probably pass out. He thought I was joking but I was dead serious. He told me he was inserting the big needle and I braced myself for the worst pain in my life. He had explained that I would feel pressure at most, but I just didn't see how that was possible! Turns out, I didn't feel a thing! About 10 seconds after starting the procedure, I heard him say "jackpot!" He had reached the fluid pocket and was now drawing up as much of the fluid as he could get. He inserted the needle into my skin about an inch before he got inside of the abscess. Wow! The abscess was deep under the skin, that's for sure!

When he was done, he showed me the syringe filled with nasty brownish liquid tinged with blood. He removed 30mL (1 oz) of fluid. I wish I would have taken a picture of it because it was sooo gross! They sent it off to the lab to run cultures and see what we were dealing with. The nurse later informed me that she had totally grossed out the lab tech when she dropped it off at the lab. The tech saw it and said, "Oh my gosh. What is that???" Ha! I can't imagine what that stuff smelled like... Yuck.

They gave me a booster antibiotic through my IV and then some IV pain medicine as well before they sent me on my way. They switched me to a different oral antibiotic and gave me a script for hydrocodone for pain. He said I would be in a lot of pain the next day and that ibuprofen (which is what I wanted to use) would not cut it. I got my scripts filled late that night and drove back home with instructions to follow-up with my OB on Monday.

I saw my OB on Monday. I was anxiously awaiting the lab results, so the nurse immediately started looking to see if they were in my chart yet. Cultures came back positive for MRSA. Well that wasn't fun to hear! The good thing was that the antibiotic that the ER had me start was effective in killing this bacteria. So I should be on the road to recovery! She wanted me to be seen again one week later. So the following week, I arrived for my second follow-up appointment. This time I was seeing the nurse practitioner. She took a look and went to find the doctor on duty (which was the other doctor in the practice who was not aware of my situation). This doctor said there was still some fluid inside the abscess but not much. She offered to do another needle aspiration, but she wasn't sure if she would be able to get much fluid out. She then asked me about the culture results... I told her it was MRSA. Her eyes widened and she said, "oooohhhh!" Apparently the nurse practitioner was not aware of this tiny detail either. She said this was her first breast abscess patient where it was MRSA. Because the antibiotic that I had just finished should have killed the infection, the doctor was a little concerned. She stepped out to take a look at the culture report which shows which antibiotics are effective against my particular infection. She then called the infectious disease team at the hospital to discuss my situation - she really wanted to use another drug that would still allow for me to breastfeed. They talked about oral vancomycin but thought maybe daily IV vancomycin would work better... That meant I would have to come in everyday for IV antibiotics! How the heck do I accomplish that with a newborn??? And the other bad thing about vancomycin is it's not compatible with breastfeeding.

They eventually decided on another oral antibiotic - Bactrim. Of course, this drug gave me a terrible, TERRIBLE rash on my hands the last time I took it. I had to stop the medication it was so bad! However, in this situation, I would rather deal with a terribly painful rash on my hands rather than a daily trip to the hospital with an infant for an IV! I bought some benadryl to take before I started the Bactrim in hopes to prevent or lessen the extent of the rash. Surprisingly, it worked and I never developed a rash!! It's now been a week since I finished this antibiotic. The knot is still there, but it is smaller. There are no signs of infection, and it's not painful anymore. I think the knot that is still there is just all of the inflamed and involved tissue that was encompassing the abscess. It should slowly keep shrinking and eventually go away. If not, they will likely have to make an incision and surgically remove that tissue.

So it has been a long process that I wish no one ever has to experience! Somehow, I've been able to continue breastfeeding through all of this. Shocking, I know! I'm not sure how many times my mom said to me, "So since it's MRSA, you can't breastfeed anymore, right?" Or "Are you sure they said it's ok to keep breastfeeding?" Ha! Actually continuing to breastfeed was part of the treatment as it keeps the milk flowing so nothing gets stopped up again. The only time I couldn't follow the doctor's orders was right after the needle aspiration when that side was producing what I called "strawberry milk!" They said it was totally fine for him to get blood-tinged milk, but I couldn't give it to him. I told Thomas I didn't want a vampire baby!

One of my many talents... homemade strawberry milk!