Outside

Supposedly, it is getting colder outside as we get closer to Christmas, but, apparently, the weather has it's own plans. It was a nice spring like day so we decided to spend part of it outside. Hudson said "Hi" from his protected position under blankets.

Sara Beth was very excited and begged Heather to let her help push the stroller around. 

 Meanwhile, I was climbing on our roof installing Christmas lights. Fortunately, I learned from last year's mistakes and successfully avoided blowing any fuses. Surprisingly, Sara Beth was not interested in going for a walk this evening to look at Christmas lights around the neighborhood. Instead, she was enthralled in watching me play Zelda: Wind Waker. I began playing the cartoon like game while she was waking up from her nap, and, if she had it her way, we would have played that game all evening long. After she finished her dinner, she asked if she could wait in the TV room for me to finish my dinner. And when she went to bed for the night, when I asked her to come up with a happy thought to ponder while going to sleep, she said she would think about playing Zelda with me.

Another day, another 20 diapers.

Hudson is still pooping like a champ. But, fortunately, he is sleeping like a champ too. He slept from 1 am on, and at 5 am, I woke up with a start and realized he had not woken us up all night. I rushed to ensure that he was still breathing. He was sleeping contentedly until I woke him up 30 minutes later to make him eat.

While Sara Beth went to school, I drove Hudson and Heather to their respective doctors. Hudson was examined and weighed, and, even with all the sleep he has been getting, instead of loosing weight like the typical baby after leaving the hospital, he has actually gained 3 ounces since Sunday! Heather got her staples removed, and is definitely feeling better (She was not weighed at her appointment, but she probably wouldn't want me posting any weight details even if they were part of her appointment). 

 When Sara Beth got home from school, she wanted to hold Hudson. We let her, under close supervision. She wanted to rock him back and forth rather rapidly. Fortunately, Heather was at arms reach to help instruct in the proper ways to rock a baby. 

 For dinner, I got some chocolate mint milk for Sara Beth. She loved it and even licked the inside of the glass after drinking every last drop of it.

Preparing for Christmas

Well, there are certainly skills that I need to remember about caring for a baby.

Skill one: not getting pooped on. Last night, I changed Hudson's diaper 5 times. Once, he peed on the wall. Twice, I got pooped on. Several times, I put on a clean diaper, just to have him immediately soil it. I think I only had one diaper changing mission that completed without incident.

Skill two: functioning on less sleep. Heather looked at me last night after feeding Hudson and asked "Do you think I should feed him on the other side, or give him some junk food?" I told her "Just feed him on the other side," to which she responded, "Oh, but he brought his baseball and football here." She had no recollection of the conversation in the morning when I asked her about it.

Hudson's great aunt Sue headed back to the cold land of Wisconsin, and his great great aunt travels back to Georgia tomorrow morning, so they dropped by to say good by. We were able to snap some 4 generation photos.

Along with the first picture of Heather, Hudson, and I. Sara Beth was in no way interested in getting her picture taken, so she was off to the side waiting to eat lunch. We'll have to wait a little longer to get all four of us in a single picture.

Traditionally, we will put up the Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving. Hudson put a monkey wrench in those plans. But today, we began the process. Hudson supervised from his swing. He pretty much slept through the day, only waking on occasion to poop on me, or to get some more food (which he quickly turned into more poop).

Sara Beth got all excited about the decorations and all the people, so she decided to change into her gymnastics leotard and show off some of her tumbling skills. A little later she asked me to be the gym teacher, so I gave her some routines to preform

Sara Beth kept asking about the Christmas tree angel. So, once we put on all the ornaments and lights, she helped me put the angel on the tree.

Coming home

Heather successfully talked the doctors into letting her and Hudson come home late this afternoon. We had to wait around while they prepared the discharge papers, but we got out. 

 Hudson looked even smaller in the car seat than Sara Beth did when we came home with her.

 Once we got home, we got out the big sister gift that "Hudson got" for Sara Beth. It was a bag full of dress up outfits and dresses.

 The Snow White dress was definitely her favorite and she immediately put it on and even smiled for the camera.

 We tried to get a picture of me with Sara Beth and Hudson, but Sara Beth was acting all squirrelly and was no longer interested in giving a proper smile for the camera.

 After prying the princess dress of of her, we finally got Sara Beth into bed. She popped right back out when she heard Hudson fussing while I changed his diaper in her new sibling's bedroom. Currently, Hudson falls asleep much more readily.

And there was evening and there was morning.

Well, that afternoon nap pretty much extended through the evening and into the night. We didn't to much of anything except try to catch up on sleep. Fortunately, Hudson seemed to agree to this plan. He woke up about four or five times through the night to eat, but other than that, he slept peacefully, which means that Heather and I were able to sleep peacefully too (aside from the regular disturbances from the nurses).

We, hopefully, will be allowed to go home today. This is a nice hospital, but we are definitely looking forward to getting back to our bed. Sara Beth has been really good staying with my parents, but I'm sure she is ready for us to be back too.

I realized I never took pictures of the room. It does have a view of the trains (which Sara Beth liked to watch when she is here). Again, it's pretty, but our house is prettier.

Holding a baby

Who doesn't like holding a baby? Right around lunch time, my family came back to visit. They brought flowers in exchange for the opportunity to hold Hudson. Grandmas love that sort of thing.

 Hudson's great aunt Alma also got to hold him as well. Her wrist is doing much better now that it has a brace on it. Sara Beth and my aunt Sue got to hold him as well, but I wasnt quick enough with the camera to capture that.

 Of course, no one holds Hudson better than his mommy.

 Sara Beth ate lunch in bed next to Heather. She got some mac and cheese from the cafeteria and then finished her meal with some strawberry frozen yogurt. By the time she had finished up, both Heather and Hudson were about to pass out, so I kicked everyone out of the room so they could get a good afternoon nap.

Good morning

Well, we all slept during the night. It has been less than a day and we can already tell differences between Hudson and Sara Beth. When Sara Beth was in the hospital, she fussed as soon as her diaper got a little dirty. Hudson, on the other hand, was not upset at all about a dirty diaper. He was more upset about us having to change him.

Here he is taking his hearing test. He passed with flying colors.

Visitors

Whew. That was quite a rush. We have a lot of extended family on both sides come to see Hudson. First and foremost, we let Sara Beth in to meet her new baby brother. She kept asking to pet his hair and his hands. Through the whole ordeal Hudson happily snuggled next to his mother like a champ.

Once Sara Beth got acquainted with the newest member of the family, we allowed my family to come in and meet baby Hudson. But then they got kicked out when the nurse came by to clean Heather's incision. As they were going out into the hall, Heather's family arrived too. Once Heather got all cleaned up, her family got to come in the room, but just long enough to say hi, before the nurse said that everyone had to get out so Hudson could nurse some more.

So everyone but Sara Beth got kicked out again. Sara Beth got to open a present for herself and also one for Hudson as well.

Sara Beth was ready for dinner, but we had to wait for my great aunt. She had hurt her wrist so she was seeing the doctor while we were all down at the hospital. The doctor was slow. Very slow. Very very slow. Sara Beth was patient, but as soon as Alma entered the room, they left to go get some Chinese food and then head home. Hopefully, in the coming weeks, everyone will be able to see Hudson a longer consecutive period of time.

We got him!

The nurse's brought him back. Heather has to hold him skin to skin for at least an hour: doctor's orders. Heather didn't complain at all.

Well, that's unexpected

So I had a blog post that I was finishing up, that included some awesome pictures of Sara Beth partying for Thanksgiving. Well, that post will have to wait, because this is now officially the Siewert Family blog. Hudson decided to come early.

He is a happy and healthy 6 pounds and 13 oz. (Initially I thought he was 6 lbs 11 ozs) We don't know how tall he is yet. They have not brought him back from the nursery. The sonogram doctor was right; he does have big feet. The c-section went well and both him and Heather are healthy.

I don't know if it was Heather's well practiced skill as a mother, or if Hudson is a natural nurser. He got right to nursing and happily snuggled his mother.

They had to take him off to the nursery for his bath and for some shots, and so right now we are waiting around in our room for the nurses to bring him back.

Older post

So this is an older post that I was working on. If you are interested in the latest and greatest pictures of our newest addition to the family, scroll on down to the next post.

I needed to fix a skylight diffusor and it involved cutting melted plastic. Sara Beth wanted to help, and to avoid having bits of molten plastic fling into her eye, I put on safety goggles. Unfortunately, my hand slipped and the goggles ended up poking Sara Beth in the eye. We ended up doing the cutting the next night once her eye got better.

Sara Beth has been very sweet and snuggley. She was even able to grab an unsuspecting Catta and snuggled her for a picture.

Some of my extended family came in town for Thanksgiving. Sara Beth decided that her Great-Great Aunt Alma needed a painted shell as a present. It is chock full of pink and purple paint and pink glitter. The day after, she asked if she could make one for herself too.

Winter is nearly here. We went out for a walk, and I thought Sara Beth looked so cute, so I tried to take a picture of her. She was not amused about her walk being delayed.

She is not a fan of being delayed while getting a snack either. In case you cannot tell, that is her not amused face.

So, great great aunt Alma, great aunt Sue, Aunt Jill, and Uncle John and Aunt Ali came into town for the Thanksgiving holiday. My sister stayed over at our house. The next morning, when Jill got up, Sara Beth walked over to her and said "I have a lot of toys in my play room. Do you want to come see?" Jill said yes, and so Sara Beth showed off all of her toys.

 We went over to my parent's house for the big Thanksgiving meal. Sara Beth kept her great aunt company while they watched the Packers beat the Lions.

 There was ham and Sara Beth ate her fill of it, along with some of the delicious cranberries, sweet potatoes, and all sorts of other goodies.

 After the meal, we headed over to visit with Heather's Aunt and Uncle. Sara Beth had ran around so much that she was exhausted and actually fell asleep in the car. Little does she know that the next day, it would get even more exciting.

Another Sara

One day this past week, Heather and Sara Beth went to the store to get some things for Hudson's room. While there, Sara Beth found a friend:

 Sara Beth decided that this pet elephant would be named Sara, which, I guess, is better than the name she had previously given to her other elephant: Zero. She has taken this new stuffed animal around with her everywhere. When I went to Walmart, she put Sara into her baby doll stroller and wheeled her around the store. When we sat down to eat some popcorn, cheese, and fruit while watching TV on Sunday evening, Sara came along too (Sara Beth is the one in a tutu).

 Sara Beth even wanted Heather to put a sweatshirt on Sara to keep her warm and dry. Heather was making a slurping noise as Sara "licked" Sara Beth.

Another thing Sara Beth got this week was a book full of wallpaper samples. She decided she needed to put the wallpaper on the walls (duh, where else would it go?). So, with Heather cutting the samples out, Sara Beth would tape them on whichever wall or door she felt it would go best.

Parties and cleaning

Sara Beth had a great time on Halloween. We had plans to go trick or treating with two other families, but as we walked around the neighborhood, we saw more and more friends, and the gaggle of children grew larger and larger. At one point, we had about 15 kids and 10 adults all roving from house to house in one massive group. It was sheer chaos. Bara Beth had a good time, and brought back a decent haul of candy.

In preparation for Hudson, we decided we needed to get the carpets professionally cleaned. It is cheaper if they don't have to move any of the furniture. So the night before they came to clean, we moved all the furniture off the carpets. We put most of Sara Beth's stuff on the back patio. She still wanted to play with some of her toys, so I helped navigate her through the obstacle course. And of course, we may be in a sever drought here in Texas, but the one day we put indoor furniture on the back patio meant that it had to rain a little that evening.

In addition to cleaning the carpets, I needed to do some maintenance on the rocking chair. It was a cheap one from walmart, which Heather used extensively while nursing Sara Beth. The hinges were getting old and squeaking. The chair came with a ottoman that had the same type of hinges and was not as heavily used. So I swapped around the hinges and re-greased the whole thing. Sara Beth was a good helper during the process.

Heather's birthday was back on the 27th. Sara Beth, of course, helped open all of her presents.

For those of you who don't know, the Dallas area is experiencing a massive shortage of rain. My dad found a way to take advantage of the situation and take us down to the lake. The water level was down about 10 feet, which meant that the shore line had receded back about a quarter mile from where it used to be, and what used to be the lake bottom was now dry land. It was a perfect time to explore and collect shells.

Sara Beth picked up on the shell collection procedures quickly. She scurried around collecting shells in her bucket. As the bucket got more and more full, I asked her if she wanted to start taking out some of the smaller or broken shells to make more room for the larger ones, but she didn't want to give up any of them. Eventually, her bucket was full, and so heavy that she asked Heather to carry it for her.

Sara Beth had a school recital this past week. Just like the recitals from last year, she sang out long and loud, but this time, she had friends in her class that she wanted to play with once the performance was over.