Happy Due Date!

Today was my due date with Hudson- I'm so glad he came early! I can hardly believe he's already been here a week! And that he's only been here a week! One thing I'm sure of, there is nothing in the world sweeter than cuddling with a newborn. To celebrate a week of Hudson, here's a little Hugo family update:

HUDSON

This baby is so so sweet! Chase was a fairly challenging newborn- he didn't want to eat for the first week and didn't want to be set down -ever- for the first month or two. The combo of the two was pretty stressful for me at first. Hudson seems just like his brother in that he LOVES to be held, but we love holding him, so it's not that problematic (until it's 3 am and I really really want to sleep myself!). However, this little man has taken to eating so well. He eats every 2-3 hours and has done really well with nursing since day 1, which is such a relief to me! Last night he finally did sleep in his crib for a couple of 1-2 hour stretches, which was heavenly for me. I think we've figured out the key to this- he likes to be warm. So we jacked up the heat quite a bit and he's done better with it since then. His absolute favorite place to be is snuggled up on someone's chest with blankets covering you both. This might also be my favorite thing in the world!

CHASE

Oh what to say about sweet Chase?! He loves his little brother and exclaims "HUDSON!!!!" every time he sees him. He likes to climb up on the edge of the crib to take peaks at him while he's napping. He's a little unsure of the world now since this little man has changed our lives. We've been trying to do lots of special little outings with him to help him transition. Ben took him to the Hill Airforce Base Airplane museum on Monday morning and Chase loved it (pictured above- he doesn't look that happy but Ben assures me he was in heaven)! He's still talking about it a few days later. Today he went grocery shopping with daddy and was thrilled that daddy let him have a donut :) Other than that, he's been a little (lot) more demanding, a little more naughty and had a few more meltdowns that normal. Oh, and he's now waking up between 4:30 and 5:00 am every day. That needs to end. Now since he sees us snuggling Hudson all the time he wants to snuggle too- which lasts about 15 seconds. He hasn't wanted to snuggle since he started crawling at 7 months, so we'll take what we can get!

COURTNEY

I tried to have Ben take a picture of me with both boys this morning- after a bunch of tries this is best we got! Oh well, I'm loving being a mom to these two, although it's been overwhelming to the point of tears many times already. I was so worried that I wouldn't love Hudson as much as I love Chase. I now understand what everyone says that your love for your children just multiplies. I love all the time I get to just snuggle Hudson close and realize what a sweet blessing he is in our family. We had a few scares early in the pregnancy when we were still in Dominica where we thought we'd lost the baby (due more to lack of good medical treatment and skilled doctors than to actual risk to the pregnancy). Now that he's here all safe and healthy I feel so grateful to have him as part of our family and I'm blown away by what a little miracle he is. My recovery from this delivery has been harder than it was with Chase, but I'm starting to feel much better now thankfully. Hopefully soon I can figure out how to balance the needs of both boys and get life put back together- pray for me!

BEN

I'm so grateful to have this man in my life as my partner on this crazy parenting journey! We found out the morning after Hudson was born that the test that Ben has been studying so much for, originally planned for the end of February, instead will not be available for him to take until May. We were of course disappointed and frustrated by this news, but the silver lining is that it is giving Ben time to help me around the house, adjust to a family with two kids, and is giving him time to bond with his new son. I think next week he'll go back to 10+ hour days of studying, but we are all enjoying him having a little more free time right now. Ben is a natural with his babies  (other than getting them dressed- darn those little snaps!) and loves to spend as much time as possible cuddling with Hudson.