When it Rains it Pours

Why does it always seem that bad luck comes down in buckets? This last week we needed a BIG bucket.

Oh where shall I start...before I start, I must admit that I am writing this more for my benefit. I am still dazed from the last couple of days that I need to write it down to make sense of it all, and to be able to look back one day and hopefully laugh. Tuesday, was a beautiful day, we got Charlotte and Robbie outside for some fresh air. It was so mild that we were even able to find a tiny puddle to splash in. We really had a nice day.


Robbie showing how strong he is...

Then came Tuesday evening... Charlotte was exhausted and easy to put down, but I was having trouble getting Robbie to settle. Once I was able to finally get both kids off to bed, I told Mike that I needed to get some sleep because I was not feeling well and was sure I was coming down with mastitis. Mastitis is an easily treated infection that you get when you are breast feeding. The problem is that it is very painful, and comes with a major fever. Not an hour later Charlotte woke us up with screaming and crying. She was sick, and very sick. Our poor princess vomitted off and on until midnight. Mike and I were very concerned and since I was still ill, and Robbie wakes every 2 hours, Mike opted to sleep on a matress on the floor in Charlotte's room. Awww, daddy's can be so sweet.

Wednesday took us into the doctor. Of course, we had to make and appearance, and did we ever... Charlotte vomited all over herself only 2 blocks away, and I was so feverish that I felt like I was about to pass out. Needless to say, there were no questions why we were at the doctors office. Our doctor, gave me a prescription and told us that whatever was bugging Charlotte was probably Norwalk and it had to run its course. It was going to take a couple doses for my antibiotics to kick in, and with a sick toddler Mike had to come home from work to tend to his ailing family. Again, daddy's can be so sweet.

By Thursday I was feeling fine, my fever had broke and Charlotte was starting to perk up and even ate some breakfast. Mike went off to work and we all smiled as things seemed to be going well. Even better that night my little boy finally slept more than 2 hours and I started to feel confident that we were making progress on the sleeping front as well. Ha Ha! At 5 am I heard a very unpleasant sound... oh no Robbie was ill. Yep we now had a 6 week old with Norwalk! (This poor boy has been sick since he's come home from the hospital.) To add to the stress Mike was heading to Cape Breton in a couple of hours. I tried and tried to keep Robbie hydrated but by that afternoon, I was so worried that I was getting worried and had to see a doctor. She wanted me to take him into the hospital just to be on the safe side. It was approaching Charlotte's bed time and I really didn't want her in the hospital, I opted to take her home, get her settled and find someone to watch her. That way Robbie and I could sit in the hospital all night if need be. The doctor at the hospital said he was getting dehydrated but recommened that we go home, feed him every hour and watch for furthur signs of dehydration. Okay!! That won't be stressful or exhausting!! By 4am, I was starting to feel the effects of no sleep, and by 5 am it became suddenly obvious it wasn't just exhaustion... I had Norwalk!!! What do you think when you are suddenly faced with 2 kids under the age of 2 with Norwalk, a husband is 5 hours away, and you are violently ill yourself... you think the same thing any respectable woman in her 30's would... "I want my Mom!". Thankfully, I got the next best thing. My friend Jessie. Jessie had come the night before to watch Charlotte and decided to stay the night. The next morning there were no questions asked, she just grabbed Charlotte and kept her entertained until Mike could get home. Mike did his best and got home ASAP. Awww, daddy's can be so sweet.

Well this is a very long post, about a very unpleasent topic. But like I said if I don't write this one down I will forget it, and in 20 years I would like to be able to look back and laugh. I hope I can laugh!

For the remainder of Saturday I was just concerned about trying to keep water in me so that I could at least feed Robbie. I must have called the hospital 10 times asking questions about our situation. By Sunday the road was starting to smooth out. Mike did wake up feeling rotten and had a touch of Norwalk... but seeing what the rest of us went thru all I will say is... daddy's can be such wimps when they get sick!

I hate to say that we are on the up for fear of jinxing us. No one really has a good appetite, and we aren't back to the vibrant, full energy family we can be. I think we still need a few days to help us get back to normal. Hopefully it won't be long.

Hope everyone is fine and that the Norwalk virus leaves you alone!

The Hudson's

Baby Coo's and Toddler Fears

I am very excited that Robbie has started to coo and smile! I've yet to get a good photo of his smile. Mainly because I barely have time to pick up my camera these days, and when I do I just can't seem to capture the smile. But here is the start of one of his grins. He is also growing like a weed, and mostly in length. I think we are going to have a tall boy on our hands, he is already stretching past the limits of many of his clothes. But really between Mike's family and my Grandma's family it is not surprising that he is long.
As for Charlotte... she has suddenly grown terrified of BUGS. I have no idea why, or what started this fear. After all it is January, and there is not a bug to be seen, and I can't remember anything (book, TV, conversation) about bugs. Out of the blue, she suddenly sees every fuzz ball, or piece of dirt as a bug, and she is very fearful of it. She will walk all the way around the other side of the room, to avoid a 'bug'. Today was a good day, and we only came across 1 'bug', so hopefully my tactics are working. After a few other tactics that were not working, my approach is to too look, say "no bug" and walk away. It is kind of sad actually, as she really is scared, but like I said today was good as we seemed to come across fewer 'bugs'.

Charlotte is also cracking me up with her talking. She is starting to string two words together, and trys very hard to tell stories. She will tell me the story, in her words, of Mickey Mouse and the Sorcerer's Apprentice by saying "Mickey", "Broom", "Water", "Oh No", "BOOM!". She is also counting to 3, and can say "A", "B", and we are close to her saying "C". It has been so much fun, seeing this side of Charlotte emerge and I can't wait as I'm sure it just gets better.

That is our update, not much else is going on besides that odd errand. Hope everyone is well...

Love to all

Merry Christmas

The Christmas season is now drawing to a close. We have had a wonderful time despite both Charlotte and Robbie getting new colds, which have resulted in sleepless nights. But really who gets sleep at Christmas time anyway.

Christmas Eve, we had our annual party. Santa came by as he always does, and Charlotte surprised us by being excited to see him. It helped that everyone was hooting and waving at Santa, so she did get the idea that his visit was a good thing. And this year he even came right up to the window to wave at all the kids. All in all Christmas Eve was very low key as everyone was aware that Robbie was still brand new, and left early. The men, including Mike, however did reconviene in Billie's garage. I guess 10:30 was just too early for them to call it a night.

On Christmas morning Charlotte woke up and I asked her if she thought if Santa had eaten the cookies she'd left the night before. She went straight to the cookie plate... and WOW the cookies were gone, so was the milk!! She was very impressed!! and repeatedly said 'Eat, HoHo, Eat'. We then moved onto the presents, Santa brought Charlotte a rocking chair that his elves painted a cheery shade of purple, she also got a swing for her baby, and a bouncy chair. There were many other gifts under the tree from a baking set, to books to clothes. I am actually glad that Christmas was kept under control this year and no one got too carried away. It didn't matter how much was under the tree Charlotte was a very excited little girl. I think that her rocking chair was the biggest hit, it is amazing what Santa does on a budget :-) As for Robbie, well you can't expect a 3 week old baby to get too excited about Christmas. He did however get a mini hockey stick from 'Grandpa' Billie. Mike and I exchanged gifts and I think I finally got him something he actually liked, a photo frame with James in his England kit, Charlotte cheering for the Riders and Robbie with his hockey stick. I scrapbooked an insert that said Mike's All-Stars, I might have seen tears in his eyes. As for me, Mike gave me some running gear. There were tears in my eyes too, but that was from the realization that I will soon have to go thru the pain of running again. Christmas supper was spent at Judi's, where you know we got a meal to die for, and wonderful company. By the end of the day, the excitement of Christmas was getting the better of Charlotte and we needed to leave Judi's a bit early.

Boxing day was spent at Billie's eating his famous lobster chowder and watching Team Canada play hockey. This year the traditional Boxing day party at the Bower's was postponed to later in the week. The Bowers always throw the best Boxing day party with food, dancing and singing. This year was no exception.

That is all I'm going to write for now, as things are still pretty busy right now. We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and we wish the best for 2008. I will post again in a week or so... for now here is a web album of our Christmas. Just a warning, get comfortable there are alot of photos, I think I may have a problem and be addicted to my camera.
http://picasaweb.google.com/cordele.hudson/Christmas2007

Love to all.

Nearly Christmas

It is nearly Christmas! Personally I am in a bit of a fog these days, and don't know what memories I'll retain from Christmas 2007. Perhaps it will be baking cookies with Charlotte, or being amazed at how fast Robbie is growing.

Today however was a great day to get into the Christmas Spirit. This morning Jessie (Charlotte's FAVORITE person) came over to bake cookies. I think we will let the pictures speak for themselves!! It was pretty chaotic, but Charlotte had a blast. She continually ate the dough, licked the rolling pin, and sampled the icing. Each time she announced that is was "GOOD".



Then later today we had 'visitors' come down the street. The local fire department was able to grab some of Santa's time and the drove by with music playing and handing out candy canes to all the children.

As for Robbie, well he was not interested in cookies, and mostly wanted to be held. Then when Santa came by he was sleeping... needless to say Christmas is a non-event for him. His focus is eating, eating and eating, he is pushing 10lbs, and is such a long baby. He is starting to spend more time awake now, and has started to interact a bit more these days. If I were to sum Robbie up in one word I would say Sweet. He just has a Sweetness about him that I can't really explain in words.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Tradition is that Mike runs out to the stores to buy his gifts and get them wrapped. Then we spend the rest of the day getting ready for the annual Christmas Eve Party. On Christmas Day we will open gifts at home, then head to Judi's for our feast. As soon as I get the chance I will add a post and share our holidays with you. Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!

Santa!

We got to meet Santa Clause today. Charlotte was not very impressed as Santa was real and not Chocolate like the Chocolate Santa she gets to eat everyday from the Advent Calendar. All morning I was telling her we were going to meet Santa and she would respond with "CHOC", I'd try to explain that he was real and not chocolate. When we got to the mall, I realized that we'd have to walk past 2 Reindeer. For some reason Charlotte is terrified by Reindeer. We practically ran past them as to not upset her before we even tried to get her up on Santa's knee. As for Santa's knee there was no way she was going to get up there!! Robbie however was oblivious so we thru Robbie into Santa's arms and I held Charlotte. On the way out we decieded to show Charlotte the Reindeer, and surprisingly she wasn't scared at all. I guess next to the Big Guy in Red who was trying to hold her a plastic Reindeer doesn't seem to bad.

Flying Solo

My mom left yesterday, she was such an amazing help to me, and pure entertainment for Charlotte. Charlotte and my mom (Gamma, is what Charlotte calls her) hit it off, and spent 2 weeks having a ball. Her leaving made me a little nervous as I knew that I would have to pull off close to a miracle to keep Charlotte entertained, Robbie happy, and the house in some sense of order.

So far after one day, we've managed... although nothing is perfect. Charlotte had to be banished into time-out for hitting her brother, and Robbie has also been pushed off to the side in his bouncy chair, but that is more of a safety measure. There have also been some amazing sweet moments, where Charlotte was actually playing with Robbie. We were making soup in her kitchen and she was sharing the soup with her brother. We played like this for quite a while and she was very concerned if his soup fell on the floor. It melted my heart!

We also had one of those moments where everything seemed to happen at once. First Robbie woke up from his nap, Charlotte is not fond of him waking up, and pounds the crib matress saying "Nap, Nap". Of course he doesn't go back to sleep. I put him up on the change table for a diaper change and at this exact moment Charlotte began to fuss.. She climbed up on her stool so she could see and in her attempt to hit him, stumbled and nearly fell. She then collapsed onto the floor in a screaming heap. I looked down to see if her tears were from pain or pride, I determined it was hurt pride, and figured I best just change Robbie's diaper. As I turned back to Robbie, he decided to relieve himself... if anyone has had a boy they would know that boys can defy gravity and suddenly both Robbie and I were wet, not just wet but soaked! To top it off, thru Charlotte's howls, I heard the neighbourhood kids running thru our yard. The commotion outside got Colonel, the dog who NEVER barks, into a tizzy. Colonel began barking and running up and down the stairs in a fit. For a brief moment I just stood there soaking up this bliss. And I'm not being sarcastic, to me it is a form of bliss... admittedly a stressful form of bliss but I wouldn't change it for anything.

Bumpy Start

I knew that adding a new member to the family would mean a couple bumps, but I wasn't quite ready for the week we have had. It all started with our regular appointment with the doctor, new babies have to see a doctor within 5 days of being discarged from the hospital. I was pretty sure there was going to be some discussion about Robbie's colour... he was very yellow. After giving him a look over the doctor wanted us to go to the hospital for blood work to get an exact measure of how jaundice Robbie actually was. To make a long story short we were very close to having to be re-admitted to the hospital for treatment. Instead they decided to send us home, have us come back the next day and reasses. Thankfully Robbie was a little less jaundice and they were pretty sure he was over the worst. Still we needed to see the doctor again the next day and it doesn't quite end there... the following day we were in and I mentioned that Charlotte had a cold and being the dotting sister she is, she was willingly sharing her germs. Yes, one look at Robbie's throat and I got confirmation that my week old baby boy has a cold. What else can you do about a cold besides ride it out, the weekend was rough... a toddler and a baby both with colds... but we made it thru (with a few tears of course).

Monday brought another appointment for Robbie... I kept thinking please let the worst of this cold be over. Nope! Over the weekend we went from a 7 day baby with a cold to a 10 day baby with an ear infection!!! How the heck does that happen?!?! The good news was that he was now a nice shade of pink, and had reached 8lbs. Not bad considering he was 7lbs 1oz when we left the hospital... inside a week he gained nearly a pound. Good for him! Robbie is now on antibiotics, and we hope will improve quickly and Charlotte still has her cold which we hope passes and does not turn into anything worse.

Despite all of the trips to the doctor, and endless worry things are going quite well. Robbie is gaining weight and changing every day, Charlotte is doing amazing. She still has tiny moments where she needs to push the limits but majority of the time she either complete ignores Robbie or wants to kiss, hug, and hold him. It really is sweet. Charlotte is also making me laugh with how smart she is. The other day I had mentioned the word popsicle to my mom during supper. Well the instant Charlotte was done eating she pushed her plate away, pointed to the freezer and said POP-POP. No way was she going to let me forget that a popsicle was on the menu. I was in almost disbelief that she not only heard me, but remembered something said earlier in the evening. Obviously she got her popsicle, and she really enjoyed it!

My new favorite picture

Just a quick post to share my new favorite photo of Charlotte and Robbie. I love this picture so much, because all I ever wanted when I was growing up was a sibling. As an adult and a parent it was important to me to have more than one child. Of course James is always a part of our home and lives, and Charlotte knows who he is thru photos, but it isn't the way we pictured our lives. This photo will always mean so much to me, Big Sister giving Little Brother a kiss. It brings tears to my eyes!

Charlotte is doing very well with Robbie. She does get jealous from time to time, and it is a good thing my mom is hear right now to help with the early stages of all these changes. She loves to hold him, kiss him, and watch him sleep, and that is why I trust that in time she will be the best big sister a little boy could hope for.

Introducing Robbie!

We are thrilled to introduce our new baby boy Robert Antony Lloyd Hudson. Robbie was born November 30, 2007. The labour went very well, and very quickly. I started contracting around 5:00pm and by 5:15pm was in full labour, then after only 5 minutes of pushing at 5:45pm Robbie made his debut!!! He is a beautiful little boy weighing in at 7lbs 11oz, and 21 inches long. He has the skinniest and longest legs and arms of our 3 kids, as well as very long fingers and toes.

We arrived home from the hospital last night, very late. I was missing Charlotte so much, and wanted to leave as soon as they would allow it. So at 9:30pm we were discharged. I obviously didn't get home for Charlotte's bedtime, but we were both happy when I walked into her room this morning. She has adores her Grandma, and in many ways Grandma's do things better and more fun than Mommy's but still no one can quite fill those Mommy shoes the same way.

Our first day home has gone smoothly with only a few ups and downs. Charlotte is pretty impressed with her little brother, and gives him hugs, kisses, toys... etc BUT she has also had a couple not so friendly incidents, but those were due more to fatigue and hunger than actual agression or anger. It will take some time, but I can tell she is very intrigued by Robbie and even wanted to give him a bedtime kiss before she went to sleep. She is so adorable!!!

Here are some photos...

Before labour started!

Robbie has arrived!

Little bit jaundice, so we are getting some sun.

Big Sister comes for a visit.Heading home.

Playing in the snow!Making a snow man with Grandma!