Hudson's Journey: Homecoming

As if the stress and anxiety of going through labor and delivery isn't enough, then the hospital staff tells you that it's time to get ready to be discharged

"Wait a minute!!! You're telling me that I'm taking this child home with me?!?!? I can't even remember to feed my dogs everyday at the same time.....what am I supposed to do with him????"

No test, no certification, no 20-questions......just wham, bam, thank you ma'am......labor, deliver, and back home you go.....why can't getting your driver's license be so quick???

So we left the hospital around 1:30 on Wednesday afternoon and headed back to Farmville with a little more "luggage" than we came with

We discovered quickly that we have good riding little boy....Hudson slept all the way home....in fact, he slept for a couple of hours even AFTER we got home (how's that for a homecoming present???)

Since we've been home, we quickly tried to focus on building a system that allows for Hudson's needs to be met but also for Erin and me to get as much rest as possible so that Hudson isn't lacking anything.....Sonee (Erin's mama) has been a HUGE help.....so much so that we've begun recruiting her to retire from teaching school to become a full-time nanny (now we'll see how good of a sales guy I really am!)

Hudson has fallen into a pretty predictable schedule so far....eat for 30-60 minutes, sleep for 2-3 hours, then back to feeding for 30-60 minutes.....changing diapers in the midst of feeding (not WHILE he is feeding, but during the "switch" seems to make his transition back to the crib or bassinet smoother). In most cases, he's asleep before he finishes eating

We had our first doctor's appointment this morning which required us to pack the diaper bag for the first time.....all this and we were only 2 minutes late to the appointment (we're not even that on-time to church WITHOUT a baby :-) )

The doctor said he looks great and is very healthy which we were excited to hear.....we had noticed a little yellowing in the corners of his eyes and with his skin tone....the doctor wasn't overly concerned about it saying that with his feeding schedule and the number of diapers he was producing that he was most likely forcing the bilirubin out of his system....he went ahead and scheduled us for labs this afternoon

Went to the hospital after lunch and were quickly back for Hudson to have blood drawn for the bilirubin test......to see your 4-day old little boy cry so hard that he can barely breathe completely breaks your heart.....but he did so well and we were back on our way home in less than 30 minutes.....dr office called later and said his levels were in the "low-risk" category and that they'd see us early next week to re-evaluate his progress

4 days into being a daddy and I find myself mesmerized by this little boy.....you find that you can't take your eyes off him, nor do you want to....I always figured that we were called to be an aunt/uncle couple (we were always gonna be the coolest ones too!), and that was a role we were content with if that ended up being our calling......but now, less than a week along this journey of being a parent, I already can't imagine my life without Hudson