a year goes by

oh baby baby! yes, a year ago today [during a blizzard] i drove home from work and did this...

and then did this! played with my babies [mika our siberian  husky loved it] *notice my old car..couldn't make it up the driveway

i was shocked. happy. oh so happy. here was the first picture of the lil guy taken later that week [little chicken wing..ps. ultrasound pictures kinda freak me out]. see i conceived on clomid [ill have an entire post dedicated to the wonders of clomid and more details of the frustrations of getting pregnant] and they were checking for twins.

a few pictures..i was not very good at remembering to taking weekly photos

and..at the hospital! the nurses and mr. b's coworkers decorated our birthing suite because it was our anniversary. so sweet.

a lot of bloggers fill out a similar sheet every week of their pregnancy. i think it is fun! but didn't have a blog when i was pregnant..so i modified it a bit and filled one out to catch this blog up to the present. 

1-40 weeks

how many weeks did you last? 39 weeks and 6 days [10.14.2011]..i was induced. that baby was coming out!

labor? smooth sailing. i was admitted into the hospital for induction at 12:01..slept the entire night. woke up around 7 or 8 and was 2 cm dilated. water broke two hours later at 3cm. epidural was put in [thankful for the invention and practice of this sort of medicine! and i have a high pain tolerance!] then pretty much dilated 1cm every hour after that. so around 7:35 i started pushing and at 7:59 hudson was born. i then ate papa john's pizza.

baby weight/height? 7lbs 15 oz and 21.5 inches

maternity clothes? maternity pants early..like around 13 weeks because i didn't want to fool with those bands or be uncomfortable any longer. i loved my maternity jeans. i bought three pairs and wore them the entire pregnancy. ill do a post on my favorite maternity stores...soon.

stretch marks? nope..it is genetics people. i didn't rub any lotion or oils on the entire time.

sleep? i slept fine except for constant bathroom runs..until week 34 when i started waking up at 3:00 am every night and stayed up for an hour or so. also, my hips really started to ache around 30 weeks.

movement? hudson was a pretty calm baby. would move occasionally but nothing crazy

cravings?steak and veggies, hamburgers, unsweetened icetea, and champagne!

gender? blue all the way..baby boy

name? Hudson - mom overheard a lady calling her son who was named hudson..and told me about it. then after talking with my popo..no not the police! it is my grandfather..he was telling me that hudson was actually a family name on his side...so that was that and hudson's name was finalized.

was the belly button in or out? never popped out...was flat though by 30 weeks

what i missed? beer. bad. really bad..also my energy..it never came back until after i had him. so glad that is back

symptoms? fatigue, back aches

total weight gain? 35lbs

best moment? ok there are a few. first heart beat @ 7 weeks, hearing all is well at the anatomy scan @20 weeks, finally deciding on a name, getting that oh so good epidural, hearing that first cry, and the second day at the hospital in the morning when it was just me and hud working on feeding and snuggling. now it is when he smiles and laughs [he laughs all the time]

what changed?

my tastes: I used to be addicted to dt.dr.pepper, but quit drinking soda when i got pregnant. i did start drinking unsweetened ice tea [never really had it before then] now, i can't really get back into drinking it ddp. i do like dr.pepper though, but I haven't had one ice tea since he was born. weird

being organized: [i was always pretty organized]. now really organized : you have to be to get anything done
i was a decent multi-tasker before hudson, but now it is on a different level. in 20 minutes [while he is playing in his crib or bouncer] i can eat breakfast, shower, do a clean sweep, start the laundry, fold laundry, clean the kitchen, feed the dogs, pay bills or blog. cause when that 20 minutes is up..im all his.

i sing all the time! i feel like mary poppins or something. i am not singer. but hudson is my number one fan. sometimes mr. b will laugh because ill be humming or singing a lullaby that i made up for hudson..when hudson isn't even around..habit now.

breastfeed or formula? yes..we breastfeed..it was tricky but i had good advice to keep with it, and it took 5 days but we got the hang of it, and something ill miss when he gets older. it took a lot of training to get hud to take a bottle..but he finally does now so it makes leaving him for a longer period of time possible now.

best advice? my doc told me at our 7 week appointment that how i acted and felt affected the baby, and that if i remained calm and kept my stress down that hudson would most likely be a relaxed baby. i followed his instructions and tried my best to be pretty relaxed and calm during the pregnancy [not that i didn't get worked up or emotional a few times] I even went to Miami with my girls. it seemed to work, for the most part hudson is a very laid back baby.

what do you wish you had known? more about the physical recovery that would take place after birth. it is rough. things are swollen. like really swollen. sore. it is hard to move for like weeks.

my outlook: this experience revolutionized my outlook on life. things shift. perspective changes. i look at motherhood differently now. having a newborn [ok maybe being a brandnew mom] is survival at its finest [thanks jen] there should be no judging..do what you have to do to make it. however you can feed the baby do it, however you feed yourself do it, however you can sleep do it. do what works for you/family and that is different for every baby and mother. but every mother is a warrior. 

what surprised you? the level of anxiety i felt. i have never really had anxiety or depression. PPD is common, and i didn't have it but the anxiety of having a newborn hit me hard. i knew what it was so i managed it, but it took about 8 weeks to finally start going away. for me i think it was the lack of control of how my life suddenly changed. learning how to adapt and become a mom, going from a very busy lady whose schedule was her own to an infant who now is in charge of it all. i was nervous about a schedule, what to do with the baby, ect. once we started learning/getting to know each other..all of it fell into place. but i want to be real. i adored and loved hudson from the moment he was laid on me, but i didn't have the "my heart exploded, grew 50 times in size, instant, attachment love that you hear everyone talk about" and thats ok because now i know a lot of mom's don't. your body just went through a trauma. your recovering. i just felt secretly like there might have been something wrong with me, but it just took time and now that love grows stronger and stronger daily..it is crazy.

sleep? just took a few days to switch his schedule over. since then he has followed closely to the 'normal' sleep development. 1-3 weeks he woke every 2.5 hours. 4-8 weeks he would sleep 4 hours nurse then 2.5 hours at night. 9weeks-current he sleeps the entire night! around 8 hours then nurses and sleeps another 1-2 hours. it is great. but he is not so good/consistent with day naps.

cosleep or cradle? hudson sleeps in his own cradle until about 6am...then we nurse and he usually falls back asleep and i leave him in our bed. i love this time in the morning.

pregnancy weight? is off! i lost the last 5lbs right around the 3 month mark. i only had 30lbs to lose and 10 or so of that was baby...i just ate normal, stayed active, breastfeeding helps at first, and now i do yoga and pilates along with walking.

working on? well tomorrow i am going to talk about developing our schedule. we have not started yet. but it is about the time to do so.

so i'm slacking on the daily photo challenge and since this post is already a novel i am going to just pick back up with day 8 : sun or lack there of in our case

chat soon!
-K