Newborn: Hudson

I read somewhere that a person who goes to heaven for five minutes can write a 1,000 page book on it and everything he saw, felt, smelt, and heard. About 48 hours ago, our new heaven-sent bundle of joy entered into the world and from all that has gone on in those first 48 I feel like I can write a 1,000 page book (but I won't). I have so much I want to say but I know that after 135 hours of reading this blog you will start wondering if there will be an end.

16 April 2012 we went to our last doctor's appointment at Madison Women's Clinic here in Rexburg, just under a week before the baby was due. He was originally due 22 April 2012. The doctor mentioned that if we want, we can schedule an appointment with the hospital to be induced if we wanted to. I was up for anything but I know Alyssa couldn't wait for the baby to get of her because she was just soooooo ready for this pregnancy thing to be done.

Alyssa was schedule for an induction (not to be confused with abduction - a very very different meaning)  on 18 April 2012 at 7:30am.

Wednesday, 5:45am (18 April) Alyssa was awake. With not much sleep under her belt, she got ready for the day. Alyssa showered, did her hair and make-up, had breakfast, brushed her teeth, painted her toes, and looked like a million bucks. I woke up soon after her, brushed my teeth and off we went.

I will not bore you with the play-by-play but I'll mention just a couple of things. We finally arrived to the delivery room around 8:30am, IV 9:05am, pitocin (I like to call it "poppy seed") starting at 9:30am, water breaking 12:45pm where at this point she (for those who know and even care about this) was 3cm dilated, 80% effaced, and positioned at -3. If you don't know what that means, and you want to know, there is something called, Google - use it! Epidural came in roughly at 2:45pm which Alyssa said it didn't hurt at all. So proud of my wife :)

Okay, I'm babbling on for too long. Lets get to the point shall we? Because I know the ONLY reason you are reading this post is for the baby pictures. And the only reason you're smiling right now is because you know I'm right and I just got you more giddy and excited for the baby pictures.

After being pregnant for 39 weeks, 2 days, in labor for 15 hours and hard pushing for 75 minutes,

 Hudson Alan Smeda.

Date: 18 April 2012

Time: 11:14pm (MST)

Weight: 7lbs, 5 ounces OR 3.32kg

Length: 19.75 inches OR 50cm

We couldn't have asked for a better doctor. Doctor Edward Evans delivered our baby very well and professionally. I can't thank him enough. Thanks Doc!

 As you can see, mom (and dad) is extremely happy with our new born child. We are blessed to have him in our lives and in our home. We already love him so much!

A couple hours later, we packed our bags and moved from the Labor & Delivery unit to the Mother & Baby unit just down the hall. We were greeted by concourse of RN's as they setup our room and helped us get situated into our living quarters for the next two days. The nurses kept coming into our room for check-ups, testing, and other things which I can hardly remember because I had been awake for 20 hours at that point and just seeing the birth took a lot out of me. Again, props to Alyssa for being an amazing woman throughout this whole process - pregnancy to birth to motherhood.

Being the youngest child in the fam-bam, I wasn't around little kids much. It's safe to say that I haven't been around babies at all and so this whole baby thing was as foreign as a South African living in USA. Doctor Evans (the guy who delivered our baby) says, here is your baby and gave it to me. I had NO idea what I was doing. I know that you can hold a little newborn puppy by the hairy skin on his back but something inside of me told me that this was not the same.
I kept asking where the instruction manual was for this little infant. Shockingly, there isn't one. You would think that after so many centuries of babies being born every second all around the world that there would at least be one. Nope! Great, now what??

 I would like to say that this my first "real" holding of a baby. I have always felt uncomfortable holding babies in the past, but this one was different. Somebody told me that he was my son. Could this be true? Do I have a son, and does that mean am I a dad? His dad? These thoughts kept flowing through my mind and honestly, it was difficult to wrap my head around this idea.

I was more than happy to let Alyssa and the nurses handle this tiny infant. Afterall, they seemed so confident, like a professional tossing around pizza dough. But once I did hold him, he looked at me with his big blue eyes as if to say, "thanks for holding me dad, those nurses smelt bad and all mom wants to do is shove me down her shirt" I felt a sense of peace and comfort. I knew that this was my son and that even though I hadn't a clue what the first thing was about babies, I knew I loved him and that I always will. It's crazy to think that all this has happened.

The next day (2nd day of school) as I was leaving the hospital to attend my classes, I was just thinking of how much I miss him already, and I had only been away from him for 5 minutes. During my Investments class, I announced to the class that my wife just gave birth to my first child. After my announcement, I found myself struggling to fight back the tears. I would like to blame it on the fact that I had been awake for 30 hours straight at that point.

Since then, my beautiful wife has taught me so much about babies and how to care for them. I'm so thankful I have her in my life and she is the greatest wife, an extraordinary teacher, and the best mother any child could ask for.

A note if I may. I wish you, whoever you are, could have witnessed the instantaneous and miraculous transformation from being a wife to being a mother. One moment, she was just being her beautiful self as I have known for her quite some time. Then right before my eyes, as I saw the baby enter this fragile existence we call life, I saw my wife's motherly instincts kick into gear. I am not sure how to explain it but I sure hope all future-fathers out there would be able to witness this heavenly transformation. It was a precious moment which I will always cherish in my mind.

 You know how annoying and repetitive it is when every newborn parent claims that their son or daughter is the cutest thing that has ever stepped foot on this planet Earth? All your troubles can be put to rest now because Hudson is so cute and handsome that no other child will be as cute and as handsome for the next... forever! He's super adorable and no other baby comes close and no other newborn parent can talk because this lil guy is at the top. Let me sum him up in one word and one emotional icon: PERFECT :)

Just below is Hudson in his first outfit preparing to go home.

No, the car seat is an extra large made for adults. This just goes to show how small baby Hudson is. His little newborn outfit absolutely drowns him. He has been such a good baby throughout the whole hospital stay. He has been feeding well, sleeping very well, and as happy and as content as ever.

 I parked the car close to our apartment, unloaded the bags and the family, then parked the car in our assigned spot about 40 metres away. I came back to this, an EXHAUSTED mother sleeping with her son in her arms. I have said this many times before to her but I am so so proud of her and all that she has done. I don't even want to start talking about the pain she went through because that would just make me tear up all over again. She's been absolutely fantastic. I would have to say that in the last (now 72 hours because we had to feed, burp, change diaper, put to sleep, change diaper again, put to sleep again, feed again, burped again, put to sleep one more time) since I have started this blog, Alyssa has only slept for about 5-6 hours.

Like I said in the beginning, there is so so much I have wanted to write here but I don't want to drag this on for too long. I hope you have enjoyed this blog post as much as we enjoy having our newest bundle of joy. In the near future, there is some deeper insights that I'll probably want to share about this incredible experience Alyssa and I have just been through.