pony time!

one of the things that evalie reeeally wanted to put on our summer to-do list was to ride a pony. lucky for us, my bestie laura pauls just so happens to own horses and teach lessons at the the red horse farm. when she told us to stop by the barn so evie could ride a pony, i figured she was gonna put ev on and lead her around the arena. wrong! evalie got a full blown lesson and did everything from getting the pony ready, leading her to the arena, and riding her all by herself! i had no idea a four year old could ride like that. laura was such a great teacher and knew exactly how to speak to ev's opinionated, stubborn little self. before i knew it, i was watching my baby ride a horse like a pro! she loved it so much! starting next wednesday she will be having weekly lessons with aunty laura :)

evalie and aunty laura taking penny to get ready for her ride

cleaning out penny's hoofs 

ready to ride!

bringing penny to the arena

evalie and penny

 

and then, there were four

i know this is about six weeks late, but i finally found the time to tell you the story of how our little family went from three, to four.

i was scheduled to be induced at 6am on june 10th, but our little Coltin had other plans and my water broke at 12:45a that morning! i can't even tell you how excited i was to not have to be induced. since we were already planning on going into the hospital early, miss Evalie was having a slumber party with her papa and grandma Sue. we made one pit stop at the chevron so Chris could stock up on redbull (we didn't go to bed until after 10pm the night before) and then we were off to the hospital.

we have our insurance through tricare which meant i had to deliver at Madigan Army Hospital in   Tacoma. there are both pros and cons to having insurance through the military. pro: it's practically free, con: all the doctors that work in labor and delivery are on an on call basis, so you don't know who your doctor is until you get there.

after waiting in the triage room, which was basically a closet with a bed in it, we were moved to a birthing suit. The suit was much nicer than the closet, and Chris immediately made himself comfortable on the "daddy bed", a chair that converted into a bed which was super nifty. by this time it was about 5am and i was visited by my first nurse. oh my goodness, now i understand that she was working the night shift, but you would have thought that the girl could have brushed her hair or something! she looked like she had just rolled out of bed! not a great first impression.  

nurse messy hair informed me that she wasn't going to be my nurse for long because shift change was at 7a (thank God!). she was given the task of putting in my IV. ok, so i think i'm a pretty tough cookie when it comes to being poked with needles, but omg you guys, this was the scariest part of my delivery! first she tells me that she can't draw blood with a regular needle and has to use a butterfly needle. (ok, so i know this probably doesn't mean a lot to most people but since i took a 3 month phlebotomy course and mastered the skill, i really think nurse messy hair should have been able to too.) so i was already a little nervous while she puts the IV in and for good reason apparently because she failed to put pressure when she was switching the attachment and i bled all over the place. she managed to fix it, and then much to my relief left for the day. 

my next nurse was a-mazing! she actually reminded me of Evalie's preschool teacher, she was so sweet! my contractions weren't progressing much so they started me pitocin (ouch) and soon after that, an epidural (yay)! by 10:19a i was ready to push, and little Coltin was born at 10:30a! well, 9lbs 3.5oz little haha. 

another draw back about having Coltin at Madigan, is that they have a policy where they don't allow anyone to stay in the room with mom and baby over night. this meant at 9pm when visiting hours were over Chris had to go home :'(   sad right?! so naturally i was completely sleep deprived, i think at this point i had clocked a whopping 4hrs of sleep when the peds doctor came in to check on Coltin at 1a. his respiration levels were higher than normal and he was immediately admitted into the NICU. 

the doctors suspected that he had bacterial pneumonia, so they started him on a three day course of antibiotics which was later extended to ten days. at the end of ten days, when Coltin was still suffering from bouts of high respiration and low oxygen levels, we were told that it was most likely a case of viral pneumonia and that it was just a matter of waiting for his little body to heal itself. in the end, little Coltin spent his first 16 days of life in the NICU. although it was horrible being away from my little man, and it took us 30 min to get to him everyday, he did have the most amazing nurses that made the whole experience suck a lot less. 

oh, and remember those pros i was telling you about having Coltin at Madigan? well we were told that just his bed space in the NICU cost $500 a day with out insurance, and that didn't include any of his treatments. thanks to tricare our bill at the end of his 16 day stay only ended up being $200!

well, coltin will be 7 weeks old in a couple days and is doing great! he is such a sweet, mellow, happy boy who lets his momma sleep at least 5 consecutive hours every night. it is such a blessing to have him in our family!

Coltin Edward Hudson 9lbs 3.5oz,  20.5"

holding my little man

Once his respiration levels lowered to a normal rate, his oxygen intake was too low so he had to be given a little extra.

getting our snuggle time with our boy in the NICU

Coltin had to do a car seat test before they would let him come home. 

Coltin all ready to go home from the hospital!

summer fun to-do list

since my maternity leave also happens to be summer vacation, my goal is to spend as much time as possible not sitting inside with the kids! this can sometimes be is a challenge since it seems like it is always raining and i don't know about you, but i am waaaay better at getting things done if i can cross them off a list. so in answer to the inevitable  "mooooom, i'm bored", here is our work in progress summer fun to-do list!

{} meet baby coltin

{} move into our new house

{} find a waterfall to hike to

{} road trip to visit wendy

{} road trip to visit uncle bruno

{} plant a garden

{} sleep in a tent

{} ride a pony

{} play at the sprinkler park

{} jump at the bouncy house place

{} make homemade ice cream

{} ride our bikes a lot

{} have a picnic in the park

{} visit the children's museum

{} northwest trek wildlife park

{} go to the beach

{} sew a stuffed friend with ev

{} go to a movie in the park

here we go...

today marks the last day of our so called normal life. last day of pre-k for miss evalie. i can't even begin to tell you how excited she is to be starting her summer vacation. we have been telling her for the past 9 months that her little brother will get here in "summer time" and for weeks now any time the sun is shinning, she asks if coltin is coming out of mommy's tummy today. because didn't you know that sun=summer. all in all it was a good day. pre-baby pedicures with ma sista, my toes gotta look good in those stirrups after all. end of year bbq aka FREE FOOD, and  i almost finished making a seat cover for coltin's baby swing (thanks all in part to the before mentioned sista). as the queen of half finished projects, i really have to get my butt in gear to finish this thing before little man gets here...in two days. oh, did i mention its almost midnight friday and i'm being induces on sunday morning?! yeah. so i should probably get my butt in gear and finish that tomorrow or it may never happen. regardless if it's finished or not, life goes on and in just 2 short days i will be holding my amazing little boy! i can't wait to see what he looks like and i'm super syked that i get to spend the summer getting to know him and enjoying the (hopefully) sunshine with him and evie!

we couldn't find her supergirl costume, so princess aurora it is! what did you wear on your last day of pre-k?

evalie made the old woman who swallowed a fly today in class. so naturally the first chance she got, she added real bugs to the old ladies tummy. mmhh worms. delish.