Tuesday, November 22, 2016

oh dear. beau is here.


everyone seems interested in the different birth stories of these little humans coming into the world so i thought i'd share beau's story. a mild version of his story. for your benefit.

beau was a lazy bum. or a comfy bum. either way he was two weeks late. i joke that he was already taking after his father by being so late.

because he was late, i had to go in every other day for a screening to make sure he was moving around and that he had enough fluid around him. my due date was october 15th. on october 25th, i went in for my test and they noticed a decrease in fluid. they said there was too little to let me go home and i'd have to be induced that day.

at 8:45am i headed up to labor and delivery.

after getting admitted and settled, they started the induction. they used a foley bulb to induce me. when it comes out, you're meant to be 4cm dilated. because it wasn't inserted properly, i was at 2cm when it came out they pulled it out. it was 4pm. i spent six hours with that bulb to be at a 2.

they started the pitocin after the bulb came out. the nurse asked me if i knew anything about pitocin and i said, "just that it hurts." the nurse told me that it will only be painful after my water breaks because there will not longer be a cushion between me and the baby's head. twenty minutes later, my water broke. "i'm leaking" are the exact words i told the nurse. every contraction was more painful after that.

i got sick a lot. i cried a lot. i asked to go home a lot. & finally i gave in and got the epidural. at first, it was amazing.

then the pain started coming back. that little button they give you to push for more pain meds is a joke. at midnight i was 3cm dilated. 3. i started wondering how long we were really going to be there. i was also wondering how long they let you go before they say, "okay, c-section time." i even asked the doctor for one and he laughed. they were talking about how the baby had little dips in his heart rate. they decided to stop the pitocin around 2am to see if it fixed the heart rate problem. if it didn't get better, they said i'd have a c-section. if it did, the pitocin would go back on. i was really hoping they would just do the c-section and get it over with because the pain was really coming back.

around 3am i just started crying uncontrollably. it was a mix of the pain, which had gotten really sharp in the middle of my stomach, and the fact that this was probably the slowest progressing labor i could have imagined. they called the anesthesiologist back in to give me another dose of the epidural and the obstetrician came in to do an ultrasound to make sure nothing bad was happening. everything looked good but they were still concerned about that sharp pain. the doctor checked me again and looked shocked. he said i was at a 10! i went from a three to a ten in half an hour. so crazy.

with the epidural in full effect and knowing the baby was really on his way, i stopped being dramatic. they sat me up in bed to "let gravity do its thing" and i just waited.

around 4:30 we started doing practice pushes and by 5:13 little beau hudson was here!

he was is perfect & adorable & sweet & ahhhh.

my world has been flipped upside down since then. and i love it.

all my love,
E

Saturday, October 29, 2016

beau hudson


on october 26th at 5:13am, little beau hudson made his way into the world. he was the most perfect newborn i have ever seen. his perfect skin and little button nose. i fell in love instantly. he makes every minute of pregnancy, labor, and all the nastiness afterwards worth it.


^^ one of those moments where you fall in love with your husband all over again. dang. we're just the happiest.

we love you, beau bear.

all my love,
E

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

falaises d'etretat

i finally made it to etretat, france. it's such a cute little town on the west coast of france. while there, we hiked up the cliffs and ventured all around. before leaving, we ate crepes. the only french food i think i like.


yeah, i made it to the top. it's something to be proud of at eight months pregnant. bobby kept pulling me back from the edge of the cliffs. do it for the picture though. am i right?


we spent the night in bayeux, france. it was closer to normandy so we didn't have to wake up too early for our tour the next day. literally ten minutes before the tour, i broke my foot. i was just walking down steps and it cracked. hubby didn't believe it was broken. he told me to stop being dramatic and had me go on the tour anyway.

thanks, babe.

all my love,
E

Thursday, July 07, 2016

tying the knot in copenhagen


i'm officially married! everything is happening so fast but i wouldn't have it any other way. i love this guy so much and now i get to call him my husband. how crazy is that? husband. it feels so weird to say. but i love it.

we started our trip on friday. we got to copenhagen early enough to have a good afternoon in the city..and at the hard rock cafe. because it's my favorite. saturday was spent touring the whole city. whoooole city. on foot. bobby made sure to stop every two hours to make sure i got a snack because the hangriness is real these days. copenhagen is beautiful. even in the rain.

my mom flew in the next day and we took her to all of our favorite places we found the day before. we had fish and chips by the water for lunch and hard rock cafe for dinner again.

the next morning was the wedding day. the inside of the city hall was insane. after waiting a bit, we got to go in and listen to a danish man give us a lecture on love, exchange rings, kiss and bam. we're official. how easy was that? denmark is the vegas of europe.


look at our cute little brace faces. true love right thurr.

all my love,
E

Thursday, March 24, 2016

be ready

you're the girl that walks around ignoring all the faces around you. you're the girl who clams up to anyone trying to get to know you because you haven't seen the point in opening up to anyone. you don't believe people stay. you don't believe in these magical happy endings. you're far from a believer in soul mates or that one true love.

people tell you you'll someday change your mind.

and you will. 

because someday someone is going to walk into your life and tell you stories of his own, begging to hear yours. someone is going to bombard your phone with texts and calls just to say hello and see how you are doing. he's going to make you laugh and roll your eyes at his cheesy lines. you'll find a new appreciation for those catchy love songs on the radio and for those sweet lines in romantic movies. you'll be excited to have someone that actually cares about your nonsensical late-night thoughts. they'll push you to do your best at work and encourage you to continue on with your dreams even if they're far different from their own. you're going to believe every word they say because you can see in their eyes that they mean them. & you'll start to fall. hard.

time will pass and you will realize you don't want to lose this person. you want them to stay. and, better yet, they want to stay. you no longer have to worry about rejections because all you will receive is acceptance. 

they'll change turn everything you thought you knew upside down. they'll teach you so much about love, life & happiness. be ready.

it's perfect.

all my love,
E