Tuesday, December 27, 2011

10 Things

Here are the things that are different after having a baby:

1. Grocery shopping, and running errands, and making dinner, and...you know what, EVERYTHING takes longer to accomplish

2. There's not a day where I can say "I have no laundry to do today"

3. There is an adorable little face greeting you every morning

4. People stare at you, and it's ok

5. Brightly colored plastic objects are now the choice decor in your house

6. There is an adorable little face saying goodnight to you every evening

7. The only thing that matters is that she is fed, changed, and napped, and happy. Every other thing in your life comes second

8. There's no such thing as "running out of the house quickly" (similar to number one but different)

9. Everyday is a new look, sound, movement, or other development

10. You can't remember what life was like before you had her


Friday, December 23, 2011

Rollin That a Way

Isabella rolled from her back to her belly today!  I was not a witness of course,  she did it in her crib when I left the room.  I was none the less excited!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

40 Weeks and 5 Days Later

She is here! Most everyone knows this already but just in case:

Isabella Blu Hudson
Born 9/17/11 at 10:38 PM
19.5 in long
7 lbs 10 ounces
Apgar Score: 8 @ 1 min 9 @ 5 min (bragging here)

We went to the pediatrician today to get our first check up. Surprise! She is perfectly healthy. And he said she is "not just family cute". Meaning even people outside of our family will think she is cute. We definitely learned we do not like the pediatricians office today though. Being poked and prodded wearing only a diaper is the worst. But all is well now.

Time for pictures!




















Tuesday, September 13, 2011

40 week Check Up

The midwife said she thinks it will happen sometime this week. If not I'll be induced in two weeks. Really hoping it doesn't get to that.

She also said the baby feels about 6 lbs 13 ounces. I don't know how she can possibly know that just by feeling my stomach. Although I also don't know how she can tell other things just by sticking her fingers elsewhere (you know what I'm talking about). It's all amazing to me.



Sunday, September 11, 2011

One Day Away!

Sorry if you have texted or emailed me the past couple days and I was slow to respond. I've been getting lit up lately and conveniently decided to "forget" my phone at home :)

So to answer everyone's questions, I'm feeling really good. No the baby isn't coming yet, but trust me, I won't hide it from anyone. Everyone will know when it's time :)

Also lily was cuddling with the belly the other day and I thought it was super cute!




Thursday, September 1, 2011

11 Days and Counting

It's September 1st!

I know I'm getting close to my due date because the loaf of bread I bought today expires right before it.  It's the best way to judge how close something is, when your groceries have that day (or near that day) as their expiration date.

I think we found the babies pediatrician finally.  Talk about doing things last minute.  His name is Dr. Steven Elliott and he is with Piedmont Pediatrics.  He looks super goofy in his picture on the website but I assure you he is perfectly normal looking in real life.  We met with him today and I really liked his manner.  Dan and he even rivaled their sports teams a little (I don't think that sentence was correct but I'm going with it anyway).  So that is a load off.

Been trying to whittle down my list of a hundred things to do.  Finding a pediatrician was a big one, I'm getting through the ridiculous amount of book keeping there is for the business, the house is slowly getting neater and cleaner (it's hard to bend over and scrub a tub when your 9 months!), Sydney is spayed, the mountain of laundry is now a hill, and I have at least watched some of the birthing video we bought so I'm not completely unprepared.  Hooray light at the end of the tunnel!

Then, of course, the baby comes and there are a thousand things to do.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Things I am going to Do September 13th*

I am going to have a glass of wine.

I am going to eat raw sushi. (Actual amount I am going to eat shown)

I am going to bend over and touch my toes just for the heck of it.

I am going to hold the cutest little baby I've ever seen.




*I realize I won't actually be doing these things September 13th.  I understand there are a significant amount of variables that may interfere with my plans, but for the sake of getting across my point I am sticking with that date in this post.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Friday, August 12, 2011

Dear Baby, Please Feel Free to Incubate For a Little While Longer

I always figured by this point in the pregnancy I would be "ready" to have the baby.  Isn't that what women always say by the end?  Just can't wait for that little egg to hatch.

I am not there yet.  This little bugger can stay in there as long as it wants as far as I'm concerned.  There is WAY too much stuff to get done before he/she comes.  I still need to take a class on childbirth.  Not to mention watching the DVD's and practice all the tricks to cope with pain.  I need to learn how to be the perfect parent.  How to take care of something so small and fragile.  I have to spend more alone time with Dan, because lord knows our days of lazy Saturday's spent watching TV on the couch are long gone in another month.  I need to clean the house (as you all know, a new infant judges a messy house severely), finish the nursery, have everything picture perfect for when the big day arrives.  I need to get the brakes fixed on the car, start a savings account for the baby's future, practice more yoga.  There is just too much to do.  Everything is not perfect.

Oh yeah, I forgot...things will never be completely perfect.  I will never be completely and entirely prepared.  And even if I was, that baby would throw in a curve ball so big Dan and I wouldn't know what hit us.  Maybe that's the fun of all of it?  You just have no idea what you are getting into until you are there?

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Lots of Updates

Too much has been going on the past few weeks, and not enough of it is baby stuff. However we did buy a changing table.


So now the major piece of furniture we need is the nursing chair. I fell in LOVE with one at Precious Cargo. That store is way too convenient to our house, I'm there all the time.

Im in Maine now and then in Charlotte, so I won't be back to Atlanta until August 8th. Which means there will be about 5 million things get done starting August 9th. Babies are time consuming and exhausting and the little peanut isn't even here yet!


Thursday, June 30, 2011

We Got A Crib!





After shopping all around we finally went and bought the first crib we originally looked at. I decided to go with all white furniture. Now we just just have to find everything else!

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Happy Daddy




This was taken while we were registering at Babies R Us. Dan picked out his own baby carrier. I am a fan of the moby wrap myself, but he said that's not manly enough.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Baby Registry!

Well we are in the process of registering at Babies R Us.  Wow is there ever a lot of things to pick out.  We were there for 2-3 hours and didn't even get halfway through the store.  We got stuck at strollers and car seats.  Too many options!  

So the registry is up even though it's not finished yet.  The number is 47106813 or you can search by name.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Commence Third Trimester




I had another appointment today, this time it was with the new midwife who is a Witness. I have yet to warn her that if she is the one who ends up delivering my baby I can not be held responsible for any curse words uttered while in the delivery room and I apologize in advance. I'm sure she has heard it all before anyway.

So I am 28 weeks but the baby is measuring 26 weeks. Which means I need to cut back on the carbs, goodbye 3 bowls of cereal a day, and increase the protein intake. She said think like an athlete: eggs, sausage, bacon, steak... Can't i just add chicken to my cereal or something?

I just gagged a little.

Friday, June 3, 2011

New Look

I've been having a lot of fun changing the look of my blogs.

www.neeshahudson.blogspot.com got a makeover as well!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

25 Weeks



Here is the growing belly!  I cropped my head out because I was making a silly face.

I had another visit with the midwife today.  Pretty standard stuff, pee in a cup/all over your hands, blood pressure, weight (I've gained 11 lbs).  The office hired a new midwife so she came in to meet with me and chat.  She took one look at my chart and goes, "oh which Kingdom Hall do you go to?  When is your convention?  Mines at the end of August."  It completely caught me off guard!  But it's neat to think the baby might get delivered by a Witness.  It was also comforting to think she might be around if there is any sort of blood issue.

Toys!




Dan and I couldn't resist buying this lion.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Baby Update



I found this on babycenter.com.  The website allows you to track your baby's progress and this picture corresponds to 23 weeks.

According to them it's a little over 11 inches long, weighs about a pound, and looks like an anorexic old man.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

AHHHH!

MY BELLY BUTTON IS TURNING INTO AN OUTIE!!!

If You Look Really Closely...


I hit the 5 month mark on Monday.  If I lay on my back, lift my shirt a bit, and suck in my tummy, you can definitely tell there is something growing in there.  Otherwise I kind of feel like I just look like I have a beer gut.

A lot has been going on lately.  We moved into a new house in April, then this past week we moved into a new studio space.  Dan needed more room for his photography, etc. so he rented a unit next to the one he was sharing with another guy.  The fun thing is the new unit is big enough so I get to have my own studio!  I'll post pictures as soon as we get it set up a bit.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

21 Weeks and Counting

So we had another prenatal visit today.  This was our last ultrasound and our last chance to find out whether we were having a boy or a girl.  We resisted the temptation to find out at the last minute, although both Dan and I didn't take our eyes of the screen just incase we could catch a glimpse either way.  It was all in vain, no one can read those things.

They took its measurements and made sure all the necessary body parts were there.  We even saw it yawn!  Or scream, either way.  Here you can see the baby's arm curled up by its head.  And the little black dot on its belly is the belly button!  Also my uterus is there somewhere.

We are going with a midwife because 1. it's cheaper.  And 2. they usually aren't as busy as doctors, so they can spend more time with you as a patient.  They also have some good techniques for helping with labor pains.  Although we are not going the strictly natural root.  I'm all for stabbing my spine with needles so I feel nothing below the waist.

So things are looking good.  I'm healthy, the baby is healthy, and the pets still have no idea of what awaits them in  4 months.  Although, to be fair, Dan and I don't really either.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

It's a...Surprise!


So we aren't finding out whether we are having a boy or girl.  Sometimes I feel like we are odd ones out for waiting until it's born.  A lot of people seem surprised by the decision.  Oh well, I'm happy with waiting.

That being said, there are a RIDICULOUS amount of adorable gender specific clothes.  Especially little dresses.  I finally couldn't take it anymore and broke down and bought this one.  It was on sale after all, and soooo adorable! I decided even if I have a boy it can wear this for just one day.  No one can tell the difference at that age anyway right?

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Daily Gifts

Today my baby gave me another pimple. I feel like a 15 year old boy who works as a fry cook.

But I can't be too mad. We felt it kick for the first time today. It somehow makes all the annoyances and difficulties ok :)



Monday, April 18, 2011

Photos!




Our sonogram at 12 weeks.

Baby Blues 5 Months Early?

So ladies, you know how around that time of the month (Surfing the Crimson Wave, Aunt Flo, TOM, whatever you like to call it) your emotions seem to punch you in the face for no particular reason?  Pregnancy is like 9 months of that except you never know when it's going to hit you.

It doesn't happen all the time, but when it does woo boy watch out.

In the first trimester my emotional dragon liked to roar its ugly head in the form of anger.  Boy did I ever get cross.  Mostly at our poor dog.  It was like something I never felt before, genuine, deep down anger.  And at things that really weren't THAT big of a deal.  Well...the poop smeared all over the carpet would put anyone in a bad mood.

Now that I'm in my second it seems the emotional trend is downward.  Oh I just get so sad.  Sometimes it's a commercial.  Sometimes it's because my husband does something really nice and sweet for me.  Sometimes, and this is probably the most common reason, it's because of a dream I had.

When you are pregnant your dreams are more vivid.  I've always had pretty vivid dreams anyway so basically now every night, I live my dreams (imagining Inception here).  I really think they are reality.  And it won't be just one a night; it's always several.  Once woken up, of course I know it was a dream, but the emotions felt in the dream still linger.  Last night I had a dream my dog got hit by a truck.  I spent the rest of the dream crying and depressed.  Guess how I woke up feeling this morning?  The other tricky thing is once you get in a certain mood, it takes a lot of cute Youtube videos of kittens to get you out of it.

So, by matter of deduction, I can only assume that having gone through phases of extreme anger, and sadness, the next one could either be dopey, happy, bashful, sleepy, sneezy, or doc.  I'm rooting for happy.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Being Pregnant Means You Can't Even Lift Your Cat

There is a list the size of China of things you're not supposed to do when you are pregnant.  And the funny thing to me is, it varies from culture to culture.

Here's a fun experiment.  Take an 8 month pregnant woman, stick a glass of wine in her hand and force her to walk through a room of young new mothers (young is key, the older generations don't mind as much).  The glaring eyes of judgment alone will be enough to send that pregnant woman running.

Now fly that poor mom-to-be over to Italy and do the same thing.  The women in the room would be pouring more wine into her glass as she walks by.  "It's good for the baby!"

Personally, I'd rather be in Italy.

So which culture is right?  Which doctor is right?  Which opinion is right?  You get them thrown at you left and right.  From the internet, from doctors, from other women.  And I appreciate most of them, yes most of them, but how are you really to know exactly what is ok?  My Ob-Gyn might say something completely different from another.

Yes there are hard fast rules and facts to being pregnant.  For example, heroine is bad for a growing fetus: fact.  But I'm talking about the things that have a little wiggle room.  Like sleeping on your back, having a glass of wine once in awhile, drinking beverages with caffeine, etc.  Some women will tell you flat out you aren't a good mother and don't love your baby if you do any of those things.  Of course, the majority indulge from time to time.

Here's the latest one for me, "you can't lift heavy things."  Ok, easy enough.  Except that we are moving this week.  Do you know how difficult it is to pack up an entire house with out lifting a single heavy thing?  And at what point is it too heavy?

I picked up one box, "No you can't do that your pregnant!"

I slid another one across the carpet, "That's too much weight, don't do that!"

Frustrated, I leaned against the wall and picked up my cat.  She's gained some mass lately, and weighs a ton so I immediately put her down.  "Sorry Lily, I'm pregnant now, your too fat for me to pick up."


Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Do You Smell That?

Ever wanted to have a superpower?  Get Pregnant.

Any sort of superpower seems awesome.  And there aren't exactly many ways to enhance one of your senses; save for losing one which heightens the others.  So having the ability to smell the world?  Sure, sounds like fun.

No, not fun.  People smell.  In general, they stink.  I don't know if they aren't as clean as I thought, or I'm getting the underlying odor that's usually masked by deodorant and perfume?  Either way, I don't look forward to an elevator ride these days.  It's not the people who are around me on a regular basis either (don't worry family), except for one.

I absolutely adore my husband.  But, has your's ever been working all day and he is sweaty and dirty and comes home and gives you a big hug and tells you he loves you and your the greatest thing that ever happened to him, and the whole time your wiggling out of his embrace because you can't stand the smell?  It's kind of like that, only without reason.  It's not that he is dirty, it's just that your nose has changed.  And it's not all the time.  Just sometimes that the mere scent of your man wants to make you run away and dunk your head in a bucket of Febreze. (sorry sweetie)

There are nice aspects to my superpower, though.  I can always tell what's cooking.  Spring is here and the flowers smell lovely.  Then there are those girls that use body splash that smells like Skittles.  Boy do I need to find some of that.

So like a young Clark Kent, yes I am comparing myself to Superman, I realized I need to hone my new found skill for good.  For as the great Jor-El once said, "You have great powers, only some of which you have as yet discovered."

Monday, April 4, 2011

No One REALLY Tells You

"It's the most wonderful time in your life."

"Your going to be glowing!  Just bursting with energy and vigor!"

"It's all worth it in the end, you'll see."

That last one is the one I wished I payed more attention to.  If I had looked at it closely I would have seen the giant red WARNING splashed across the front of that seemingly comforting comment.

I want to start this blog by saying I couldn't be happier that I am pregnant.  I am thrilled to meet my baby and determined to conquer any physical and emotional hurdles along the way.  That being said...pregnancy kind of sucks.  It's not the morning sickness (which wasn't so bad for me, sorry moms!), or the soreness, or the emotional up and downs, or the dry eyes, itchy stretching skin, stretch marks, or the fact you lose your balance and topple like a 14 year old boy.  It's the fact that at any moment, any day, there is some new crazy pregnancy symptom that you never experienced before and never even knew could exist!

Countless times I run to the computer thinking, 'uh oh I'm probably dying', only to find out the weird spots I've been seeing are a totally harmless side effects of blood pressure ups and downs associated with carrying your bundle of joy.

Headaches?  Ya, that's totally normal.

A never ending runny nose?  Your making more mucus now.  Also it's allergy season, but don't take any medication for it.  Or for your headaches.  Except Tylenol, which does nothing.

Tired all the time?  Go for a walk!  Cause that is for sure the first thing you want to do when your exhausted.

My back is so sore!  Ya...it happens.

I can't seem to get full enough?  Oh that's because your eating for two silly!  But you will want to be sure to avoid all your favorite foods, only organic celery and whole grain oats for you now!  Also don't eat everything in sight, your only supposed to take in a few hundred more calories per day.

I cried 2 times for no reason today.  Call me when it's 5.

Yet somehow, when you really sit down and think about it, the only thing that matters is the tiny growing baby inside your belly.  And the overwhelming sense of joy at the thought of holding that child you carried for 9 months.  It doesn't make all the aches and pains go away mind you.  But it helps you realize that in the end, it will all be worth it.