Three Men and a Lady: Hudson Ryan

Hudson Ryan Hayes

March 6, 2012

7:58am

7lbs, 5oz

20in

We're slowly settling into life as a family of four. It's amazing how much I had forgetten about the newborn stage since Kemper was this little! Hudson is truly a joy and such a sweet baby - he's fit so well into our family!

Since the blog will likely serve as a way for me to remember things (as I so easily forget things these days), here is a quick recap of his birthday!

James and I had to arrive at the hospital at 5am for a 7:30am scheduled C-section. Even after pre-registering, we were still required to register when we arrived so it really cut down on the amount of time we had to lay around the pre-op room and wait. It must have been a slow morning because it seemed like every nurse on the hall was in our room at some point, eager to do something and help get me prepped. After a quick visit from my doctor, we were off to the operating room. Things are a bit fuzzy for me from here on out but once they got my spinal placed and brought James in, it seems like Hudson was here in no time! He came into this world screaming his lungs out and screamed for about 15 minutes straight! We were both a bit shocked when they announced his weight - we were expecting a bigger baby since Kemper had been essentially 9lbs. Once they wrapped him up and handed him to James, he was able to bring him to me so I could see him and give him a kiss. At some point (this is all fuzzy), he and James left for the nursery while they closed me up. On the way from the O.R. to my room, they played Brahm's Lulliby over the hospital speakers announcing a new baby was born. I was so happy that they made sure to point out to me that this was specifically for him (I was worried that being in the O.R., we'd miss his lulliby!).

After a few hours in recovery (which I remember very little of other than my nose itching from something they gave me for pain), we were moved to our room. MeMe and Pops went to pick Kemper up from our friends house (Thanks Jon and Lynse!) and bring him to meet his brother! He was so sweet with him and has continued to just be the best big brother ever! After holding him for a few minutes, he was then more interested in exploring the hospital room and playing with the Batman toy that Hudson "brought" him.

After a couple of days in the hospital, we were able to take our sweet boy home with us and start getting settled in. Kemper was pretty excited to have Hudson around and wanted to hold him quite a bit at first - that's tapered off lately but he's still an attentive, helpful, wonderful big brother. He's gotten used to Hudson crying (although, if it's in the car, it drives Kemper crazy and he covers his ears no matter where we are) and will help put his pacifier in if it falls out. Now that his umbilical cord has fallen off, Kemper is much more interested in him - he thought the cord was yucky.

For the first week and a half, MeMe and Pops were here to help out and they were a HUGE help! They basically took over with Kemper and gave James and I a chance to just deal with Hudson and get the whole newborn thing figured out again. It was so nice having them around and, as usual, Kemper surprised us all by not being at all jealous when Pops was holding Hudson. Kemper continually amazes and surprises me. He is such a great kid!

Hudson is such a great baby! Not that Kemper was horrible, but there are definite differences between the two. Hudson really resembles Kemper as a baby - I find myself looking down and thinking, "Why hello there baby Kemper!" quite often! He's such a quiet, relaxed baby too where I feel like Kemper was a little more high strung. He's been a great sleeper so far and after a minor setback with his weight loss after birth, we're on the upswing now and things seem to be going great. He can be quite the little piggy when he wants to be!

One of the first things we noticed when Hudson was born was that he was tongue tied just like Kemper. We asked the pediatrician about having this clipped but the initial pediatrician we saw wanted to hold off and see how he did. Luckily, when our pediatrician came in for rounds on day 2, she was much more open to discussing having it clipped and when we saw her the day after discharge for a weight check, she agreed that we needed to address it ASAP.

I was (and still continue to be) so thankful to have James around this time for all of this! James has been off since the 5th and will go back to work on the 26th. Grandma Rita arrives on the 25th to give me a hand next week and then Aunt Neci comes to stay with us for a week after that! Unfortunately, James has to head out of town for 2 weeks for a training exercise and I am super thankful that Aunt Neci will be around that first week to help me get a good routine down. Hudson seems to like to sleep a little later than Kemper and if it weren't for James this week, Kemper would be late to preschool because I find myself enjoying having a baby who will sleep past 7am!

Since this first post has turned into a novel, I'll stop for now and just add a few more pictures of our sweet boys!