More Hospital Pictures

I'm finally getting a chance to upload the rest of the hospital pictures. Sorry for the picture overload!

This was Hudson waiting for baby Harrison to arrive...he looks super excited here! :)


Proud grandmamas!

Joel finally getting to hold sweet Harrison!

Hudson getting a little more comfortable and curious with Harrison!

Mama Jean got to come to the hospital on Monday to meet Harrison. She was smitten!

My dad meeting Harrison for the first time.

My TWO boys! Hard to believe!

Harrison's first bath at the hospital.

This boy came out with some LONG fingernails, evidenced by the long scratch on his poor cheek!

First family of four picture!

All set to go home!

Here we go! I was so glad that he got to go home when we did...Hudson had to stay in the NICU so we went home without a baby. This was WAY better!

At home and in the bouncy for the first time.


Big brother made his way home shortly after we got home. He came bearing a gift for Harrison...an elephant. Jury is still out as to whose elephant it really is! Hudson refers to it as his elephant of course! It was sweet though and Migi did a great job in letting Hudson pick out something to give to his baby brother. Hudson even gave me some flowers! Oh so sweet!

On My Own

Today was my first day on my own with the two kiddos and it went really well! I was surprised at how fast the day went by, but then I think about the fact that I didn't sit down all morning. Thank goodness for afternoon naptime! Life with two is BUSY! Both boys woke up while Joel was getting ready this morning (around 6:15--ugh!) so the day started early. It was a task getting both of them fed, me fed, Hudson bathed, both dressed, me showered and dressed, etc. I was exhausted by 9 am! Luckily, we had nowhere to be today because we sure would have been late if we did!

I did venture out with both of them to the park. I thought that would be good for us all to get outside for a little while and was a good way to ease me into getting out with two in tow! I even took some pictures!

If you look closely at Hudson's face, you will see that he took quite the tumble. While he was with my parents yesterday, he apparently fell face first into the concrete. My mom was not sure exactly what happened because she had gone inside for a second, but she thinks he went head first off his riding toy or something. It didn't bother him though, but it looks horrible! I know my mom felt bad, but it could have happened anywhere. He's just a boy and is rough and tough! But, he's got scratches from his forehead to his lip! Ouch!

I was able to take a short nap this afternoon before Harrison woke up, so that was good. Hudson took a 3 hour nap (woo hoo!) so Harrison and I had a little photo session while he was actually awake.

He's just SO sweet! I love seeing those eyes open!

Tomorrow I'm taking the boys to see my grandparents. It will be the first time they have met Harrison so hopefully he'll be on his best behavior! :)

One Week

We have a one week old! He's just the sweetest thing I've ever seen and so far has been really easy. I feel like he's slept through his first week because he sleeps SO much! I just forget how much newborns sleep. We're not on any kind of schedule yet, but for the most part at night, he's up around 12 or 1 am and then again around 5 or so. He goes right back down after eating. Big brother has been sleeping later so we've been able to sleep in until around 7:30 or 8, so that's been nice. We are not complaining about sleep at one week old! :)

I love his hands in this picture below!

We've had lots of visitors and dinners practically every night so far, so it has been wonderful not having to worry about cooking!

Hudson is really coming around. He started out not really caring much for Harrison (not in a bad way, just not even realizing he was around). He has been extra loud though...I know he's just trying to get attention, but he talks in a voice that is about 10 times louder than his normal tone! In the past couple of days, Hudson has helped give Harrison a bottle and also held Harrison for the first time (see the post below). He's even helped put (or shove!) a paci in Harrison's mouth! Hudson always wants to know where Harrison is. I'm really proud of big brother. I've definitely had some guilt over the past week over what we've done to my first born, but it gets easier every day when I see Hudson taking to him so well!

So far, the bottles have been going great and he is gaining his weight back. Yay for that! He's eating about 2 ounces every 3 hours or so.

We ended Harrison's first week by giving him his first sponge bath. My mom and sister were appalled that we had not given him a bath yet (it is pretty bad!), so last night was the night! He liked it about as much as I knew he would! :)

He sure did smell sweet after that bath though!

All better!

Tomorrow, I'm on my own. Joel goes back to work and Hudson's school is closed Monday and Tuesday, so we'll see how it goes! Nothing like being thrown into it!

War Eagle!

Today was the first time Hudson has held Harrison (the first time he's even WANTED to hold him--we're warming up here!). He was SO sweet with him! Harrison started crying and Hudson kept telling him it was going to be alright and patted his little tummy. Made my heart melt!

War Eagle tonight!

First Outing With Harrison

Harrison got to meet Dr. Cortopassi for the first time yesterday. We had his first check up. Let's just say he wasn't as happy as it may appear in the picture below! Harrison hates having his clothes taken off, much less getting poked and prodded! Poor thing!



Unfortunately, I'm starving the little guy--not intentionally of course! His weight was 7 pounds, 13 ounces when he was born, then it dropped to 7 pounds, 5 ounces when we left the hospital (which was normal), but he's now at 7 pounds, 1 ounce and his bilirubin levels are still up there, meaning he has a bit of jaundice. So basically, I was told I have to start supplementing him. I really wanted to nurse this baby after pumping exclusively for 7 months with Hudson. I thought it would be easier to take that extra 15 minutes of pumping a million times a day out of the picture. But, after nursing for a few days and having absolutely no idea of how much he was getting (which clearly was not much!), I am realizing that maybe pumping is the right thing for me, if I have enough milk to do that. Plus, I am realizing that with two kids, it is nice to be able to let Joel give Harrison a bottle so that I can do things with Hudson. Last night was the first time I have been able to give Hudson a bath and put him to bed and it made my night. I have missed spending that time with my buddy! So, we'll see how it goes. I am still going to try to nurse if I can, but I'm totally ok with not doing it. As long as he's getting the milk and gaining weight, that's all that matters. Another total change from when Hudson was born--I totally stressed out about the nursing thing (and cried and cried and cried!), but this time, I really am not worried about it! He's going to be just fine whether I nurse or not!


The rest of the appointment went great though and I know we all enjoyed getting out of the house for a little while! I know I have a lot more pictures to upload from our hospital stay, so hopefully in the next few days I will get to that. We are still doing great though. We've had one really bad night of sleep, but the rest of the nights really haven't been that bad! I can't complain so far!

Harrison's Big Day

I wanted to do a quick recap of Harrison's birthday. We'll see how quick it actually turns out to be!

Saturday was a BEAUTIFUL fall day here. I woke up feeling great, better than I had felt in the few days leading up to Saturday. The Auburn game started at 2:30, so we decided we would get up and get outside for the morning. We decided to take Hudson to feed the ducks at Star Lake, which was really fun (another post on that soon). We walked around the lake and then decided to go do a hike at the Moss Rock Preserve since we were in Hoover already and had the dogs with us, and hey, I didn't hurt for me to WALK a lot!

We ate lunch out and then headed home to watch the game. The game was a doozy! We beat South Carolina, but it was the ugliest game. I'm not sure either team really wanted to win. Anyway, we stayed in for dinner and watched half of the Alabama game before calling it a night at 9 (I know, early for a Saturday night, but we're so glad we ended up going to bed early!). We had talked about skipping church on Sunday and getting everything else ready that we needed to get ready. For some reason Saturday night, I had this feeling that I needed to get some things ready that night, but of course, I just tossed that thought aside and went to bed!

Well, at 11:30 (in the middle of having a dream about having Harrison and at the point where they had just handed him to me!), my water broke. I calmly told Joel that my water had just broken and he jumped out of bed so fast saying, "What do we do? What do we do?" It was SO funny. I said, I don't know what you're going to do, but I'm taking a shower! Ha! I didn't know when the next time would be that I could take a shower. My parents were out of town, so we called Joel's parents to come stay at our house until morning. I was not having contractions that I could feel, so the getting ready process was very calm and we took our time. I had packed some things a couple of nights before, but we still had a lot to get together!

We got to the hospital around 1 am and I got checked and I was only at 1.5 cm dilated, but I was having contractions every 5 minutes (that I absolutely could not feel!). By the time the nurse got done with all she needed to do and admitting came in, it was probably close to 3 am. We tried to get some sleep, but that was pretty difficult! My doctor came in around 6:30 and checked me again and I was at a 3, so things were moving along. He said they were going to go ahead and give me some pitocin to get it moving a little faster (which I didn't want and didn't have with Hudson, but oh well--I think the doctor didn't want to work Sunday afternoon!). He said I could have the epidural whenever, but I really wasn't in any pain so I held off a little while on that. The whole labor this time was easy! I started getting a little uncomfortable around 8, so I went ahead and got the epidural, but I really wasn't ever in a ton of pain so I'm thankful for that! The morning went on without any issues. We had visitors and Hudson even came to see me, although with all the grandparents and family there, he was not interested in Joel and I in the least! He did not want to be in the labor and delivery room at all, which was fine with me. He was happy, but I think also a little confused.

At 11 am, I was at 8 cm and my doctor still thought it would be another couple of hours. However, I started feeling a lot of pressure and by 11:30, I was ready to push. We had to wait on the doctor to come in (all the while the nurse telling me not to push--do you know how hard that is?!?!). He finally got there and after only 10 minutes of pushing, Harrison was here at 11:49 am. It was nothing this time! Although, I will say I felt it a whole lot more than I did with Hudson and it HURT. I would not want to do that with no drugs! But hey, for 10 minutes, you can do anything!

Harrison was immediately put on my chest and I loved it. I didn't have that experience with Hudson. He was whisked away so fast and I didn't get to hold him until we got to our room upstairs. This time, I got a whole hour with him to myself doing skin to skin (which the hospital now requires--a change from 2 years ago). It was so nice to have that bonding time with him! Although, I will say that Daddy was pretty ready to hold his new little guy too!

So, that's pretty much it for Harrison's big day! It was such a calm and easy experience this time and we are so thankful for a healthy baby! Here are some pictures from his birthday!

Below is Hudson meeting Harrison for the first time.

He wasn't really sure about it!

Carrie couldn't wait to get her hands on Harrison!

Here is Hudson opening some of his gifts from Harrison. Once he got his tractors, he really had no interest in Harrison!

More pictures to come!