All About Hudson!

Here's just some highlights and facts about our Huddy Buddy!

0 to 1 Month - Rolled over from belly to back on New Year's Eve. Starting to coo and loves to be held. Newborn clothes are snug, he wears 0-3 month clothing and size 1 diapers.
1 to 2 Months - Started smiling a lot more. Slept through the night for the first time. Was sick for most of the month.
     Stats: 12.92 lbs (73%) 23.5 in (79%)
2 to 3 Months - Discovered his hands and loves to eat them whenever he can. He's a thumb sucker. Spent a night in the hospital with RSV/Bronciolitis. Has slept through the night a few more times. Size two diapers.
3 to 4 Months - Found his voice and loves to use it by doing happy squeals just like Addie used to. Tries to roll over but gets stuck on his side. Reaches for his dangling toys. He LOVES to cover his face with blankets, towels, clothes, anything near him. Hasn't slept through the night this month. Sick again.
     Stats: 16.09 lbs (65%) 25.7 in (76%)
4 to 5 Months - Can roll over with ease now. Prefers to sleep on stomach or side. Still likes his thumb. Tries so hard to crawl. Loves standing up and playing in his jumper. He's a super smiley and chill kid. Usually soaking wet from drooling so much. Is eating baby food and loves all of it. Sick again.
5 to 6 Months - Has moved into Addie's room. Discovered he loves to soothe himself to sleep. Says MAMA!! :) Size three diapers.
     Stats: 18.41 lbs (68%) 27 in (66%)
6 to 7 Months - Started doing the walrus crawl! Has finally stopped spitting up after every meal and doesn't drool as much. Loves Addie and is always trying to play with whatever she's playing.
7 to 8 Months - Figured out how to crawl the correct way. Says Dada. One tooth. Pulls himself up to standing position. Walks along furniture. Stole a taco off Daddy's plate. Sick again.
8 to 9 Months - Claps, gives kisses, waves and now has stranger danger. Has sympathy towards those who are crying. He's working on his second tooth. Got a big boy car seat and is sick again.
     Stats: 19.73 lbs (52%) 29 in (78%)
9 to 10 Months - Can stand unassisted for a few seconds at a time. Won't take a step though. Walks with his little push toy. Has two teeth. Went on first family vacation to Southern California. Saw an eye specialist and will possibly have surgery on both eyes. Loves all table food. Still doesn't sleep through the night.
10 to 11 Months - Working on two more teeth. Had a Staph Infection. Points at what he wants. Slept though the night four nights in a row and then stopped with that.
11 to 12 Months - Does not sleep through the night. Took two steps. Loves the slide. Says baba and LOVE YOU. Now sleeps with a pillow. Hates formula and has accepted whole milk. Stopped nursing the week he turned one. Loves dogs. Best eater. Met Grandma and Grandpa Rueckert. Has four teeth. Still in size 3 diapers but will be in size 4 when this pack runs out.
     Stats: 21.52 lbs (53%) 30.5 in (76%)

List of his current words:

Mama

Dada

Baba

Yay

Stop

Uh Oh

Love You

At his dr checkup he measured 30.5 inches

Favorite Foods- Bananas, mac and cheese, tacos and spaghetti.

Favorite Book- How Does A Dinosaur Say Good Night.

He Can - Clap his hands, blow and give kisses, wave, stand, give high fives, point, dance, squeal, and give hugs.

He Weighs - 21 lbs
He Stands - 30.5 inches (updated from Dr visit). 

Teeth - 4 teeth, two on top and two on bottom.

Nicknames - Huddy, Huds, Bud, Huddy Buddy, Chunky Monkey
Loves - Dogs, Addie, MOMMY, showers, snuggling, books, toys in his mouth, eating and daddy.

Dislikes - When daddy is taking a shower and he can't get in. Not being part of story time.
Favorite Toys - Football, cars and his killer whale animal from Sea World.
Favorite Game - Chase.

Happy birthday Hudson Daniel! This kid has been through a lot in his first year. He was sick for most of the first seven months of his life. Starting it out with a knotted wrapped cord then dealt with jaundice, RSV, Bronchiolitis, every cold virus in his proximity, staph infection, chronic clogged tear ducts and yet he's still one of the most patient little babies I know. I also found out at his doctor's visit  today that he also has an umbilical hernia. :( Of course he's not showing any signs of discomfort because he's such a tough little boy. So grateful for him in our family.

One Year Letter to Huddy D!

Dear Hudson,

Hudson you have been such a dream baby. You are my world and I cannot get enough of you. This last year has been a tough one but you have been such a pleasure through it all. You are my rock and you know exactly how to cheer me up. Thank you for being exactly what I needed.

The most frequent word used to describe you is chill. It is used by everybody. People who have known you a short time even use it. You have been so easy going and patient. At least up until lately, you have discovered that if you whine for it you'll get what you want faster haha. But for at least eleven months of your first year you have been the most chill baby I know. You hardly cried and just went with the flow.

You love people and you want to be included in everything. You're social and you give the biggest smiles freely. You love everyone and you have a favorite: me. You are definitely a mama's boy and I love it. I'm your person and you make me feel so special. I prayed so hard to get you here and was so blessed to finally get you. You are my miracle baby. At twenty weeks I saw that you were cuddled next to the umbilical cord and from that night on I prayed for your safety. I made your daddy pray for you too and I kept praying every night for a full month concerning the cord. Slowly my worries went away and out of my mind until I saw you being laid on me shortly after birth purple in the face. The cord was wrapped around your neck four times with a knot in it and I was reminded of all those nights where my prayers were specifically focused on your safety. You were surely watched over. I'm so grateful that you made it here and I'm forever indebted to our Heavenly Father for keeping you safe even after I had stopped praying and even forgot about that cord.

You have been the perfect addition to our family. You don't sleep through the night but I know that these years are limited so I'll try to embrace every moment with you that I can. Happy Birthday little man. I love you oh so much.

Hudson is One!!

Happy birthday Huddy Buddy!! His birthday was yesterday and we celebrated with a lumberjack themed birthday party and had people from both sides of the family show up to support him. We had him open his birthday presents from our little family first thing in the morning and then had breakfast with him. He loves blueberries and got plenty of it.

All of his presents were put in this box. For all future birthdays I will make sure
he has birthday wrapping paper instead of Christmas paper.

He played with his toys until it was time for lunch time and we had some pizza delivered. He was so worn out that he actually fell asleep in the highchair while eating. That has never happened before with him. It hasn't even happened before with Addie so I was sure to get a video of it. Hudson is really easy to transfer when he's tired so I took him out of the highchair and placed him in his crib for a nap. The nap was needed since we scheduled to do family pictures the same day and I needed him to be his happy usual self.

We got the family ready after his nap and headed to the tree lot where we got some pictures taken by a good friend in our ward. I'm excited to see how those pictures turned out since both kids mostly just wanted to explore the lot instead of sitting still to smile at the camera. We got back in time to get ready for the birthday party which was a success. Oma Rueckert made Hudson a birthday cake that was decorated like a log. It turned out perfect for his lumberjack theme. Danny and I wore flannel and some guests showed up wearing flannel as well. My sister Pollyanna is super creative and she spent six hours free drawing his birthday board. I love how it turned out. She even added a little bear and a moose on it. I'm lucky to have such an artistic person in my family. Hudson was so spoiled by all his cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Addie is also pretty happy for all of these new toys in the house and is teaching Hudson how to share. If only she learned this concept with her own toys. ;)

Brownies and ice cream were also served.

It was a great day and I probably sang Happy Birthday to Hudson a dozen times. I'm so thankful for his presence this past year. Happy Birthday son. We love you!

Surprise!

Shocked. That's how today started. I took a pregnancy test this morning 100% not expecting to see a positive line but there it was. It was right there and not the least bit faint. Shock. At least I think that's what I felt. It wasn't disappointment but it also wasn't immediate excitement. I then felt nervous, how was I going to tell Danny. I thought of waiting until I could think of a clever way but since I was in shock I knew I needed to tell him sooner rather than later. I walked out into the living room not sure how I'd do it and I went and sat by him. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving so as nonchalantly as I could I asked:

"How do you feel about baby turkeys?"

Him confused: "baby turkeys?"

"Yeah baby turkeys . . . in the oven"

He looked at me weirdly "are you pregnant?"

"I just took a test and there's a line"

"Oh crap."

Haha yep that's how our conversation went. I was surprised he even came to that conclusion because my comment about baby turkeys was a little confusing and weird. I should have been able to think of something better. Like I said I was in shock and couldn't think of a clever cute way to announce it. I then grabbed the test from the bathroom and showed him. Then we spent the next long while both sitting in shock as we let the news sink in. You see this was a surprise, an unexpected, unplanned surprise. We were preventing it and I was on the pill. We don't know how far along we are exactly because I have no idea when I ovulated. I'm still trying to nurse Hudson and haven't had a cycle since I found out I was pregnant with him in April of last year. We do kind of have a guess. A couple of weeks ago my pills ended and there were a couple of days where I was in between until I got new ones. We used other forms of prevention but our best guess is that it must've happened during that short window. I got back on the pill and have been ever since. Now I worry that me taking it while pregnant (although I didn't know) can't be good.

The reason I took a test this morning was because of a joke Danny had made. I've been waking up every single night to go pee (tmi) and last night when I climbed back into bed I complained to him how I felt like an old lady with a small bladder. I was frustrated that I was waking up to pee when I knew that there was a high chance that I'd be awake soon because of Hudson anyway. Danny joked that I should take a pregnancy test in the morning but he wasn't serious. He didn't even give it a second thought. We both rolled over and went back to sleep. I remembered his comment and thought it would be funny to actually take a test (since I had one) to show him that I'm just in fact old with a weak bladder until I saw the result haha. Then it wasn't really funny anymore.

This does explain my sudden drop of milk supply. On Sunday I was having a difficult time trying to soothe Hudson and get him to sleep. He was being so fussy that I just thought it was because he was over tired. I tried nursing him but it was only upsetting him more so in desperation I finally grabbed a bottle and gave it to him. He chugged the entire 11 oz bottle in less than a minute (maybe a slight exaggeration on the time?). Poor kid was starving! I didn't realize he was frustrated from hunger and I felt so bad for him. Up until that day he hadn't done well with bottles but he was so happy to eat that night. Now it makes sense. I'm pregnant and that's why my milk is practically gone.

Baby Bean I've been thinking about you all day. I think the shock is still there for me and your dad but it will eventually go away and we're going to be ready for you. Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I already know I'm thankful for you. I don't know how long you've already been with us but we're glad you are. We feel like you were meant for us. The timing might be a little ( more like a lot) stressful for us but knowing that this was unplanned somehow gives me a sense of peace that you were meant to be. Unplanned does not mean unloved. Your dad and I have been talking about you and we already have love for you.

The first doctor appointment is already scheduled for December and I cannot wait for an ultrasound to see you little Bean.

Welcome Home Oma and Opa!

My parents returned home from their Self Reliance LDS Mission in Europe! They left when Addie was about nine months old and so much has happened in that time frame. The biggest thing is that I now have two kids. It's going to be so good having them home so that my children can get to know their grandparents. Addie loved being at the airport especially with her cousin Aria and Hudson was unsure about the whole thing. He fought back his tears when both grandparents held him but you can tell by the quiver of his lips that he wasn't in the mood to meet new people. It was way past both of their bedtimes but overall it was a good night. :)

Hudson's face haha