Happy Birthday John Hudson!

Well made it almost to 33 weeks and little Hudson decided he couldn't wait any longer! We went so much farther than I ever thought we would, and had just gotten to the point to where we had surpassed everyone's expectations so much, that we laughed and said I might even go full term! Ha!

Yesterday was jammed packed with all sort of events, but somehow seemed to pass by quickly. Early Monday morning I *thought* I might have had some contractions but wasn't sure, so they hooked me up to the monitor and sure enough I was. They gave me an 2 extra doses of my medicine and that didn't seem to do anything so they said that I might have built up a tolerance to the medicine pump I was on. The doctor checked me and I was dilated 2 centimeters. That was the first time I had been dilated. They still seemed pretty confident that they could stop the contractions at that point. The doctor then ordered me on the dreaded Magnesium. The poor nurses had warned me that it was going to make me feel awful. In their words, they said "You're going to feel like you have the flu". Sure enough, they were right! I was on the magnesium and was not handling it well, and on top of that had to deal with contractions. Needless to say it was the worst I have ever felt in my life and I have tremendous respect and empathy for women who are on it for days at a time!

The doctor came in on hour 3 of the magnesium and said since he's almost 33 weeks and that the contractions were still coming, so he wanted to go ahead and call it and get this baby out. It was the best news I had heard the entire pregnancy. The first thing he did was shut off the magnesium. I almost immediately felt better. The next thing he said was, you are 3-4 centimeters dilated so you can have the epidural whenever you want. This day was just getting better and better! I quickly said that I wanted it ASAP, and about 5 minutes later (around 5:30pm), they gave it to me. About 20 minutes after the epidural, he broke my water and checked me again and I was already at 6 centimeters so he said it wouldn't be long. I felt great! They had to give me extra doses of the epidural because it was only taking to the right side of my body, but after everything kicked in-- I was more relaxed than I had been the entire pregnancy. It was smooth sailing from then on! The waiting room was filled and people were taking bets on his ETA and weight. Conrats to Beau for guessing 8:33pm on the dot, and Grace for guessing the exact weight, 4lbs 11oz! I was way off; I had 9:14pm and 4lbs 6oz. Oh well :)

We got to go back around 11:45pm to see him and they said he was doing well. Everything that he's being treated for was to be expected. He's on oxygen and a feeding tube. We won't be able to hold him or have skin-to-skin contact for at least a couple days. We are just so happy he's here. After everything, the only thing I feel is relief. I'm glad it's over, I'm glad he's healthy and glad I can go home in a few days!

They said best case scenario, they will let him come home at 36 weeks, which is 3 weeks from tomorrow. They won't consider sending any baby home before that time, so she said that was pretty standard. She said to be prepared to take him home then, however if he has any changes it could be until mid-September. She just said you never know.

Here are the first pictures we got of him--just a few hours old! In case you can't see in the pictures, he has blondish hair and is pretty filled out for his weight. We think he has my nose and Blake's toes... we don't think he has either of our eyes though, ha. There will be lots more to come! (By the way- we can't really see the resemblance of either one of us. I'm sure that will change though!)

Thanks so much to everyone for all the prayers and sweet wishes! So far so good, and we will continute to post is progress! We can't meet for Hudson to meet all of you!