Life With a Newborn
The past three weeks have been a dream. I mean that in the best way, but also, it still doesn't feel real. There have been so many times that I look at Hudson and it hits me that he is ours and we get to keep him forever. I honestly thought we'd never get here. And there is a part of me that is holding my breath, waiting for someone to come take him from us. I think it's going to be a long time before my mind realizes that he is a permanent part of our family. But holy crap I love him so much!
I'm going to start with the boring stuff, just to get it out of the way. Recovery has been pretty rough. It's not even my incision site that hurts, but I have had quite a bit of back pain since we came home from the hospital. It has gotten so bad a few times that I've thrown up, which is not something I do. We went to the ER the Sunday after we came home, just to make sure that it wasn't anything more serious than trapped gas from the c-section, and thankfully it wasn't, but basically I've just had to wait out the pain and hope that it goes away soon. It's starting to get better, which is good, because I feel like I haven't been able to take care of Hudson as much as I would like to. Brandon has been doing most of the work, and has been getting up with him at night, since I am generally asleep (sitting up) on the couch.
On that note, Brandon is seriously the best dad. He takes such great care of Hudson and it is so sweet to watch them interact. Given our history, I knew he would relish every single moment with Hudson, but I have been so overwhelmed at just how wonderful he has been. Even on the days when he has to take care of me too, he is just the nicest, sweetest guy. But I'll stop there before I get too sappy.
Onto Hudson things! This kid is seriously a champ. He eats well, sleeps well, and does all the other things babies are supposed to be doing. This past week or so he has started to stay awake for longer periods of time, which is so much fun. The other night I took him upstairs to hang out while Brandon napped on the couch, and I spent a good thirty minutes just talking to him while he held my fingers and looked all around the room. He is super vocal and grunts all the time haha. When he wakes up, he will stretch for like five minutes and just yell the whole time. He's not upset or crying, just a really loud stretcher. Sometimes when I nurse him, he gets frustrated, and while he's latched on he'll just yell really loudly. It is so dang funny!
I love his little reflex smiles too. I know they say it's just gas or whatever, but I (like every other parent, probably) like to pretend that he's actually smiling for us. One night I was talking to him about Carter, and he smiled so much that it had me in tears. Other times he'll smile when Brandon makes a joke, or when we tell him that we're tired. Again, I know it's just a reflex smile, but I feel like he has a pretty good sense of humor already!
We celebrated our first 4th of July as a little unit, but it was pretty uneventful. We got cheeseburgers for lunch, went to the lake to take a quick picture, then napped all through dinner and the fireworks. I had big plans to have a little barbecue, then drive up to watch the fireworks over the valley, but Brandon and I were wiped out by the end of the day, so we took advantage of Hudson's downtime and napped too. But that's okay, there's always next year!
We had his two week checkup today. He'll be three weeks tomorrow, but his pediatrician was out of the office last week, so we had to push it off until today. As of this morning he weighed 5 pounds 14.5 ounces and measured 19.25 inches long! We knew he had gained weight, because he's starting to get a belly and has the cutest little double chin, but we didn't expect him to have grown almost two inches!! Each time we've put him in his carseat we feel like he has looked bigger in it, but knowing how much he's grown confirms it. Two inches in three weeks. That is so much! He is in the first percentile for weight and third percentile for length, but the way he is eating and growing, I don't expect him to stay there for long!
That's really about it, as far as an update goes! We are having so much fun with him here, and can't believe that it has already been three weeks since he joined our family! It still doesn't feel real, but I am so grateful that it is.
