Hudson Happenings: Introducing Bradley Morgan Hudson

Bradley Morgan Hudson was born September 28, 2015 at 8:12 pm. He weighed in at 7 lbs 3.6 oz and 20.5 inches long and had a full head of dark hair (just like his older brother!). We have loved him every second and are so happy to be a family of five. Here are a few pictures, followed by some details of the big day for anyone interested :-)

First bath - he wasn't a fan!

Kisses from Kylee and Tyler

Cousins! Chase and Bradley are exactly 7 weeks apart.

Grandma and Grandpa visited Bradley in the hospital.

Let's see... where to begin? As I mentioned in my last post, my doctor had started watching me pretty closely. She wasn't happy with where my blood pressure was, so she kept sending me to the hospital for labs. I ended up going over to the hospital FIVE times the few weeks before Bradley was born. I would be there for at least a couple of hours each time while they monitored me and waited for my lab results.

Luckily my labs always came back fine, but since my blood pressure was high (gestational hypertension), my doctor set up my induction for Monday, September 28th (39 weeks) at 5:00 am. Kylee stayed with her mom on Sunday night and Tyler stayed with my parents since Matt and I needed to leave the house at 4:30 am Monday! Once we got the the hospital, they checked me right in, got me to a room, and started the pitocin and my Strep B antibiotics. I was already dilated to a 3, so I was hopeful the process would move along quickly. I was wrong about that!

By 10:30 I was finally dilated to a 4.5 and I got an epidural around 11:15. I was grateful to get the epidural, but we started having a few issues around noon when they went to put my catheter in. Bradley apparently didn't like me being on my back - his heart rate plummeted. They had me get on my hands and knees and gave me oxygen and ephedrine. It took almost 9 minutes for his heart rate to finally normalize and I was able to lay back down... but I had to stay on my side for the entire rest of my labor. Each time from there on out that they had me roll from one side to the other to keep the epidural even, Bradley's heart rate would decrease and I would need oxygen again to get it back up. At 2:45 I was dilated to a 7 and was dilated to an 8 at 4:30. They checked again just after 7:00 pm and I was finally at a 10. They had me start pushing with each contraction around 7:15 and Bradley was born almost an hour later.

I was a little tired, but honestly, the labor/delivery wasn't as bad as I imagined it might be. Tyler was so little, so I figured having Bradley would be a completely different experience. I did have to push a lot longer, but that was about it. I feel lucky that I haven't really been that sore and have felt really good overall. I was so grateful to Matt for being there in the room with me the entire time and being my cheerleader. I appreciate his encouragement through the entire process.

The biggest difference between having Bradley and having Tyler was the part after delivery. Tyler was rushed right out of my room to the NICU. With Bradley, the nurses wiped him off and handed him to me for some skin-to-skin time. Bradley wasn't very happy at first... he cried and cried. He finally calmed down, though, and even nursed a little. I got to hold him for about an hour before they moved me to my postpartum room. Again, it was so different (in a good way!) having Bradley right there in my room. I got to watch the nurse give him his first bath and we got to cuddle a little bit more before I had the nurses take him to the nursery so I could get some sleep. I thought we would get to go home the next day, but they had us stay one more night... there were some tests that they needed to do on Bradley when he was 24-48 hours old, and my doctor wanted me to stay one more night to monitor my blood pressure. We were pretty excited on Wednesday to put this kiddo in his car seat and take him home. Again, SO different having him home right away, and SO nice! It made me even more thankful for a healthy, full-term baby!

Coming home!

Life the last 2.5 weeks since we've been home has been really good. We have had a bit of a rough transition with Tyler... the first day was the worst. He doesn't like sharing my attention, and decided he needed me every time I was feeding Bradley. Things have gotten a lot better, though. Tyler is figuring out the whole big brother thing. He loves giving Bradley kisses and hugs and like helping me with things like throwing diapers in the garbage, bringing me the burp cloth, etc.