Week 8: 2/19/12-2/25/12

Sunday, February 19th: Today was Hudson's first snow, but as much as I HATE SNOW, we didn't leave the house.
Monday, February 20th: The girls had a snow day from school today. Hudson and I decide to brave the non-snow (it had melted just about everywhere) to run some errands.

Tuesday, February 21st: Today was a trip to Raleigh to see Mimi & Pop, Courtney, Fred & Jan

Wednesday, February 22nd: Nate had to get 3 teeth removed. He wasn't nearly as smiley today as Hudson ;-)

Thursday, February 23rd: Lyssie has chorus concert & Hudson snuggles with his doggy from Miss LaTonia!

Friday, February 24th: Hudson's cough prompted a surprise visit to the doctor where I spent $30 for them to tell me to just tough it out. :( Good news is that he's 12 pounds 2 ounces!!
Saturday, February 25th: Pop comes to visit. We had lunch at Natty Greene's, walked around downtown, saw Hudson's first train (which he slept through), went to the library, and walked around antique stores.

Week 7: 2/12/12-2/18/12

Sunday, February 12th: Ah lazy Sundays. Sleeping in has been replaced with cuddles and smiles, but we still enjoy pancakes, jammies all day, and lounging around spending time together.
Monday, February 13th: I love this face!

Tuesday, February 14th: Happy Valentine's Day! Mimi comes to visit and we enjoy a delicious lunch at Cracker Barrel. Natalie has softball tryouts (but sadly didn't make it).

Wednesday, February 15th: I found a pair of jeans that fit me straight off the rack!! Thank you Plato's Closet!
Thursday, February 16th: (hmmm see, this is what happens when you're nearly 2.5 months behind... empty days... blech!)
Friday, February 17th: Today was a trip to Raleigh for Grammy's bday lunch.
Saturday, February 18th: Hudson's first library trip... and he slept the entire time... but that's okay because he was quiet :) Then later that night, we took our family Valentine's date night at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Again, Hudson slept the entire time (until I took him out of his seat to take the family picture).

Week 6: 2/5/12-2/11/12

Sunday, February 5th: My Daddy's college buddy lives about 15 minutes from me and always hosts a party on Superbowl Sunday... which I'm ashamed to say I've never attended before now.  Before the party, Mimi, Hudson, Auntie and I trekked out to two different animal shelters (about 125 miles roundtrip driving) to continue the quest for a puppy for Grammy.  Then, we met up with Uncle and Pop at Sole Man's party where Hudson enjoyed snitching tastes of cheesecake, sour cream, ranch dressing, and salsa from mommy's fingers.  Oh yeah, there was a football game on too... right... well since neither team was one of "our teams" nor the Cowboys (who we hate), Hud and I weren't paying too much attention.Monday, February 6th: I've just got to say what a great Mimi Hudson has!  I was panicking about taking him to get his shots, so she came between her meetings (a total of 3+ hours driving for about 3 hours here) so she could sit with me during his appointment and hold my hand.

 Somehow we went from just this (sore nipples the last few days with the colder weather)...

 ... to this... but I think we have a solution!  His new pediatrician actually used to see Blake and Megan and I went to high school with her son - small world! :) She said that he does, in fact, have reflux and thrush, which are likely the causes of his icky tongue, throwing up, restless eating, hatred of laying on his back, etc.  She prescribed a few medications for us to take over the next couple weeks and has informed me that I need to eliminate dairy from my diet for at least a month (to see if he's got an intolerance) - which is going to be SO hard since I LOVE CHEESE!

Afterwards, we went to visit with Meagan and Ethan since we haven't seen them in a month... and oh, how the boys have changed!  Hudson looks really little in this picture, but he just wouldn't stay awake long sit up next to Ethan.
Tuesday, February 7th: First trip to the mall today to see Ms. Debra, a member from one of Mimi's meetings who is just smitten with the Hud pictures.

 Yes, I know Hudson's wearing the same outfit as yesterday, but it was washed and this was his third set of attire for the day.

Hudson knows how to survive the mall: get close to something related to boobies and take a nap!  Such a boy and SO his daddy's son :)
Wednesday, February 8th: Natalie had a sports physical for softball tryouts next week.  This will be the first time she's trying out for a sport and I'm hoping the best for her.  Unfortunately it kind of snuck up on us, so we're rushing around to get everything taken care of before tryouts; next up: get cleats and "sliders" (whatever those are) ASAP!  I finally posted weeks 4 and 5 and updated the tickers to accurately portray all the kiddos. Hudson rolled back to belly this morning - I'm pretty sure it was a fluke, but I'm so proud of him!  And when we took lunch to Nate, his coworkers were tickling Hudson's toes and he was smiling in response - he's starting to do new things every single day :) Then Hud had a nice nap in his room so we could test out our new baby monitor - I'm hoping to be able to use it more often here in the near future.  Oh, and Natalie made dinner tonight!  If you know anything about her and her fear of the kitchen, you'll know what a big accomplishment this is.  Luckily, it was relatively easy food (kielbasa and chicken flavored packaged rice), and we were able to get a picture.

Thursday, February 9th: Happy 70th Birthday, Grammy!  This picture is from a couple weeks ago, but I just love it: snuggling with her #1's #1 (and the first great-grandson) <3

Friday, February 10th: Shopping during the blustery chilliness today - thanks a bunch wacky NC weather!

Saturday, February 11th: Both girls have birthday parties today, so I planned to drop Alyssa at hers first at the East end of Wendover, then drop Natalie at hers at the West end of Wendover, then grab a little lunch before reversing the order to pick them up.  The plan was that Lyssie would be a few minutes early and Natalie would be a few minutes late, since both parties started at noon.  Problem is that no one showed up for Lyssie's birthday party.  Guests started showing up about 20 minutes later, so I left to drop Beanie - and got a text that the guests of honor FINALLY showed up 45 minutes after the party was supposed to start!  The rest of the day was chock full of money-spending: cleats and slider shorts for Natalie.

**note: I'm a failure at this picture-a-day thing. I'm 6 weeks late in getting this up and there's not even a picture for every day

Hudson is 2 Months Old!

 Three Days (6 pounds 4 ounces, 19.75 inches)

 One Week

 Two Weeks

 Three Weeks

One Month (7 pounds 14 ounces, 21 inches)

Two Months

• At his appointment, he was 10 pounds 12 ounces, (25th percentile), 21.25 inches long (5th percentile), and has a 38.5 cm head circumference (25th percentile)
• He officially has reflux, a suspected dairy intolerance, and thrush, so we're on medicine for a couple weeks and Mommy doesn't get to have dairy for at least a month
• He eats about every 3 hours on average for about 20 minutes (or when he's bottle-fed, it comes to be about 4 ounces)
• He's wearing size 1 diapers (though the Huggies are almost too small) and clothes in both 3 months and a few3-6 month sizes.  I haven't bought him new shoes yet, but I think he's going to be in a size 2 before too long.
• Nights are starting to be more for sleeping with a couple feedings thrown in there - usually around 11, 3, 5, 7.  Days are starting to be more awake time with a good 2-3 hour nap around lunchtime and again in the late afternoon
• Everything is starting to go in the mouth and induce major drooling (Mommy cut her first tooth at 3.5 months, so it may not be too far off for us now).  We haven't started on cereal or baby food yet (recommendation is now 6 months), but he is starting to sit at the table with us for meals in his high chair and we're letting him taste foods that we're eating.  His favorites are sweets so far (Mimi's icing and syrup are the best)
• Tummy time still makes Hudson fall asleep pretty quickly, but he's gotten very good at controlling his neck and trunk, so I'm not too worried about it.  We need to start working on rolling from belly to back, but it'll likely wait until we establish a better sleep routine.
• Hudson has started napping in his crib if I put him on his belly (which means I'm pretty constantly watching him), but mostly he's sticking to his little swing, the carseat, or in someone's arms.
• Smiling, laughing and cooing are starting to occur as non-spontaneous instances now - not necessarily at the time of the stimulus, but around the same time, so I'm going to tell myself they're related.  Seems like every day he's learning something new or changing in some noticeable way - crazy to watch it happen!

Happy 2 months, little Monkey - Momma and Daddy love you!!

Week 5: 1/29/12-2/4/12

Sunday, January 29th: Today was Natalie's actual birthday, but we didn't do too much since we celebrated yesterday.  I made oatmeal applesauce pancakes for breakfast and pulled bbq chicken sandwiches for linner and we vegged out playing video games.

Monday, January 30th: I guess I should probably inventory Hudson's closet before freaking out that I'm down to my last diaper (scrounged out of the back-up diaper bag, nonetheless)... otherwise, this is what happens:

On a different note, I've been trying to figure out how to help foster Hudson's development so we're hitting those markers on time, so this week we're going to start working more diligently on development and try to start working on a schedule. He's kind of lost interest in trying to roll over and hates being laid on his back most of the time.  He likes his playmat from Mimi and Pop and just started (today, actually) "talking to" the animals and reaching towards them - though he'll reach out towards my glasses and grab ahold of my hair and the collar of my shirt, he hasn't really done much else in the hand-eye coordination department. 

Also, he's getting so strong holding his head up that I've been having a hard time burping him because he no longer wants to slouch over my hand to make it easy.  We don't have a Bumpo seat, but we have been working on him holding up his trunk and big ol' noggin'.  He still loves sitting in his carseat, but I wanted to see about getting him something a little more upright to work on the muscle control.  I got this super awesome reclining high chair seat at my baby shower and we set it up today for him to try out and he seems to love it - except that he can't nap in it the way he can in his carseat.

So I tried laying him in his crib during nap time (only after he'd fallen asleep on the couch for about 10 minutes though):

Tuesday, January 31st: The girls brought home report cards today - they both got straight A's for the semester!! So proud! We dressed warmly today since it's been chilly but sweated through, so Hudson got to wear shorts and short sleeves when we got home... on the last day of January... crazy!  This was the first Tuesday since Hud's been born that we didn't see Mimi, and we were a little discombobulated.

Wednesday, February 1st: Ah, North Carolina weather!  Sunny and warm one day; chilly and drizzly the next.  Since today was so nasty, we spent the day curled up on the couch snuggling - Hudson sleeping, me drinking hot cocoa and rereading a favorite book.

Thursday, February 2nd: What does Valentine's Day look like with two teenagers and a two-month old?  I planned our family date night to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for next  Saturday and bought a couple <3 goodies <3  In looking-back-at-New-Year-resolutions news: I'm doing so-so on the blog.  Every day gets documented, just not necessarily in a timely manner.  I got on the scale today and was below my pre-pregnancy weight and switched out my size 2 jeans (last week's accomplishment of pre-baby jeans) and into my size 0, pre-Nate ones.  As long as I stayed standing, they fit perfectly; sitting, they're still a little snug.

Friday, February 3rd:  Shop. Shop. Shop. Pancakes. Shop. Shop. Shop. Shop. Pancakes. Crash after sugar-high.  I decided that while I was out today, I was finally going to eat some long-craved sushi for lunch... but when the time came, I ended up at IHOP... not quite the same... then, when I finally finished, it was pushing 7pm.  We had nothing thawed.  Oh wait, I just bought blueberry pancake mix.  Crisis averted.  Yay pancakes! (sadly, this picture is not my own; they disappeared too quickly!)

Saturday, February 4th: Happy 2 Months, Monkey!!  To celebrate, we're (finally) watching Kung Fu Panda 2.  Hud LOVES Monkey... how fitting :)  We also started looking for a puppy for Grammy.  We thought we'd get her one for her upcoming birthday, since Simba isn't doing so hot lately :(