Louisiana

Well Hudson has had a busy week. We had a very nice Thanksgiving over at my mom and dad's place on Thursday. My Aunt Donna, Uncle Clay and cousins Mason and Morgan came over for the feast and a little baseball in the backyard. Suzanne and Aaron came a little later and visited for a while. Saturday we went over to cousin Penny's for a second T-day feast, which was very nice. Although we didn't stay long, we sure did enjoy seeing everyone!

Monday, Hudson received his first injections, which he handled quite well! He's a tough kid. On Wednesday we packed up the car and drove over to Louisiana to visit our relatives. Our fist stop was Great Grandma Derouen's house. Grandma got to hold and feed him and luckily Hudson let her sleep at night! Here is a picture from Grandma's house.
She sure did enjoy feeding him! He also got to meet his great uncle Booga and his great aunt Sandy! I think one day Uncle Booga will have to take him for a ride on his motorcycle.

Next stop was to see his great grandma Klentzman. She was SOOOO excited to see him. She sang to him while he slept. It was very sweet!















Here is a photo of Hudson with his great aunt Carolyn. He loved meeting the family!














After visiting with the family in New Iberia we then set off to Breaux Bridge for some quality time with the Mitchell's. We did stop off first in Avery Island to see the Tabasco factory and shop the store for some goodies :-)


Logan with Hudson


Playing with cousins Logan and Callie

Cousin Ali feeding Hudson dinner



Hudson with Great Aunt Sheri



to see more pics from this trip feel free to visit the photo album at the following link:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=sz1xkcj.27layei7&x=0&y=hxl724

Time

Well we are now heading into week six with our newborn. Time is really going by fast!! We are all doing well. Jim has been working really hard lately. He is the only sales rep now for the Houston office so even when he is home he is taking calls from builders and clients. Thank goodness for weekends! Haleigh is also doing well. She is currently in Tae Kwon Do and she loves it! She has a birthday coming up at the end of the month. She will be 15 years old!! I am also doing well. I'm enjoying motherhood. Everyone tells you that it is hard work being a mom, but I honestly don't think you can truly grasp that until you are actually a mom. It is definitely one of the most rewarding things I've ever done though!

Hudson is now cooing more than ever! He started smiling at us last weekend. I got so excited I called my mom and dad to let them know. I get so excited over the smallest things. I've discovered that if you say "I Love You" in a sing songy voice he responds by smiling. It's the cutest thing ever! He went to his first barbecue last weekend where he got to meet his first friends. We have two friends who had babies a couple weeks before Hudson was born and we all got together at my parents place to eat, drink and socialize.

Here are some pictures from the BBQ:

This first is of all three boys. From right to left...Hudson, J.G., and Curt


Hudson and Curt. They both look a little scared in this picture.


Hudson "talking" to J.G. (FYI...Hudson loves to talk)


Hudson and J.G. holding hands. Aren't they cute??


J.G. and his mommy Michelle.


Curt and his mommy Michelle and Hudson and me

We all had a good time and it was really nice to talk to other mom's who are going through the same trials and tribulations that I am.

So Cute

I wanted to put up some of our recent pics...
This is one with his Aunt Suzanne



This is Hudson's first Halloween pumpkin, carved by his daddy. Didn't Jim do a good job?

This is Hudson's second pumpkin. He was not as happy with this one.

Hudson with Mimi. This picture was taken right after the pumpkin picture, so he was a little worn out and needed some comforting from his Mimi.

All dressed up to go see Great Aunt Cindi and Great Uncle Jimmie


I had to take this picture. We call these his little old man pajamas. haha

Leaps and Bounds

It seems like time is going by so fast! Yesterday was Hudson's four week birthday. Hudson, as of last week, weighed in at 7lbs 1oz. He is still our little runt...hahaha. He has started cooing at us and we look forward to hearing those sounds...it really is music to our ears! It seems like he gets more and more attentive with each passing day.

This past weekend was our first time to leave him. My mom & dad watched him for a couple of hours so that Jim and I could go socialize and get some much needed adult time. I did really well I think. We left him at 5:30pm and got home at 9:00pm and I only called twice to check on him. Hudson didn't even know we were gone because he slept the entire time we were at the party. I really did miss him while we were gone, I'm not looking forward the day I go back to work and I have to leave him for a full eight hours. I'll try not to think about that now.

Here are a few pictures from last week. http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=sz1xkcj.6wro78iv&x=0&y=-shxqwl

I'll try and send out another post later this week...if Hudson decides to take a nap during the day...we are still working on that one, hahaha

Pictures pictures pictures

This first link is to the hospital pictures from Hudson's first couple days of life/

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=sz1xkcj.8864yvt3&x=0&y=-480gsy

This second link is the first week home :-)

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=sz1xkcj.9urzw0yv&x=0&y=-snh20n

This is from the second week both at our apt and his first overnight stay at my parents place (Mimi and Gramps house)

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=sz1xkcj.3kisxjmf&x=0&y=-veaga6

I sure hope the links work. Enjoy the pictures!!!

Pictures!

I have had many requests for pictures of our little angel...so here you go...



Hudson just a minute after birth

Proud sister with her new brother


mommy and Hudson


Grandma (Mimi) and Grandson

That's all for now, but I promise there will be more to come later.

Birth Story

I thought I would post my birth story here first before I posted some of our pictures...

Short story: Hudson Charles Dean was born on Sunday, September 30, 2007 at 12:04AM. He weighed 6lbs and 3.8oz and was 20 inches long.

Long story: I got up Saturday morning at 5:00am feeling some of what I though were just bad cramps about 11 minutes apart. I didn't really think anything of them until they started coming a little closer together. I woke Jim up at about 7:00am and told him we may need to start getting all our stuff together to go to the hospital. We left the apartment at 9:00am and at that point I was having contractions between 4 to 7 minutes apart and they were varying in intensity. We got to the hospital and they put us in an observation room and after observing and making me walk about 5 miles around the hospital, my doctor came in and said that it was either all or nothing, they could admit me and start me on pitocin to get my contractions coming at a consistent rate or they could send me home and see me in a couple hours....I decided on the pitocin. Everything after that point is a little bit of a blur, it all seemed to happen so fast to me...I was put in a room, hooked up to an IV and we waited. It only took about an hour or so before the contractions got really intense and I requested the epidural. Unfortunately, the epidural only completely numbed one side, but at that point I was willing to take what I could get. The doctors came in a couple times and tried to get the epi working on the right but to no avail. Once the epidural was administered they took me off the pitocin because my body decided that it would progress pretty well on it's own. I went from 2.5cm dilated to 5cm dilated in about an hour and a half. That's about when my doctor came in a broke my water and attached a monitor to the top of Hudson's head. I then went from 5cm to 9cm in about another hour, and they were closely monitoring Hudson at this point because his heart rate would drop with each contraction. They had me lay on my left side and put me on oxygen to help the situation. A little while later the nurse told me it was time to push, so like the trooper I am I pushed for about 20min and was told to stop, due to the heart rate of the baby dropping so low with each push. I was told not to push for the next hour so that he could descend on his own without any drastic dips in his heart rate. For those of you who have been through the birth of a child you know how excruciating it is not to push when the urge hits....and I was told to hold off for an HOUR! Luckily the doctor came in after about 45min and said that the baby had crowned already and that I could go ahead and push. I started pushing yet again and yet again Hudson's heart rate would drop to a rather scary level, so the doctor decided he needed to come NOW, so she helped us out by using a little vacuum extractor and at exactly 12:04am little Hudson was born. Jim and I are very proud parents, Hudson is all we could have asked for and more.

I'm off to take a little nap now but I will try to post some pictures within the next day or two.

Not So Lazy Sunday

So today is Sunday and we've decided to spend a nice relaxing day at home watching football (go Texans!). Aside from football, I've also decided to repack my suitcase for the hospital, and fill out the baby book we got about two months ago. Can you tell I'm anxious for this little one to arrive. I told Jim yesterday that I feel like I'm going to be pregnant forever!

I've also decided that today is the day that I will try and tackle a sewing project for the nursery. I will attempt to make a diaper stacker. If I'm successful I will post a picture of it on this site.

Well, I was successful! Here is a picture of the diaper stacker.

There are some minor imperfections but I have to say that I was pretty darn proud of myself for getting it accomplished in one day. As soon as it was finished we found a place for it in the room and took some more pictures. This is the room so far...This is the diaper stacker in its new home, already filled with diapers. I would like to get a shelf to put above the dresser, but that may just have to wait for now.
This will be baby Dean's sleeping quarters and although you can't tell so much from this picture, the crib skirt matches the diaper stacker.
And last, but definitely not least, is Haleigh's bed. We just picked it up about a month ago and we've all tried it out and so far the verdict is that the bed is extremely comfortable but the mattress sits down to low. We'll have to remedy that soon.

That's the tour so far. Hope you all enjoyed. We'll keep the updates coming. Hopefully it won't be too much longer before we have baby pictures posted for everyone.

Another Week

Ok, so we went to the doctor yesterday and found out that I have made no progress since last week in regards to having this baby. Needless to say both Jim and I were a little dissapointed. We were kind of hoping the doctor would say that we were really close and it could be any day now. But, alas, it looks like it could be at least another week if not two before baby Dean makes his grand entrance.

Our next appointment is on September the 27th and we will get to have another ultrasound done to get an approximate size. Keep your fingers crossed that he will be under 9lbs.

Summer Showers

The gals here at my work threw me a very nice shower last thursday and I thought I'd post a few of the pictures from that little shindig. The shower was a lot of fun and we got a lot of stuff that we really needed. I think we are almost ready for this little man to arrive!

I'm inspired

Well, I've officially been inspired by my cousin Lindsay to give this blog thing a try so that we can keep our friends and family updated. I'm not much of a writer so bear with me.

Well as you all know Jim and I are expecting our first child together on October 1st (or sooner). We are having a little boy and no we are still not revealing the name. He is baby Dean until further notice. I must say that a few of you have come up with some pretty ingenious names, Hector and Hogarth are among the most popular.

Our nursery is coming together. Jim's mom came over last weekend and put the crib skirt together for us. She was surprised to see the "surfin' Elvis" material, but I think she was pleasantly surprised at the finished outcome. For those that don't know the nursery theme is the beach. I will take pictures and post them as soon as the nursery is all put together.

I think that's all for now. I will try and post at least once a week. I hope everyone has a great weekend!