Grace's Birth Story...November 4, 2014

Sunday November 2, 2014 I was 39 weeks pregnant and had my check up with Dr. She at Shanghai United Family Hospital.  After my check up we spoke about my first birth and the size of baby #2.  With my 38 week ultrasound they measured the baby to be around 7lbs. 3oz. and each week they can add on an additional 1/2lb.  Knowing that I had a difficult labor and delivery with Blake who was 41 weeks along, induced and weighed 8lbs. 3 oz. she really wanted me to have a safe delivery with little risk of not being able to delivery the baby due to weight.  We decided to go with an induction since baby was past 39 weeks and healthy, they scheduled me to be at the hospital on Tuesday November 4th by 8:30am, 39 weeks, 3 days!  Brian was still in Shanghai with us for the weekend, he decided to go back to work on Monday and return Monday evening without much worry that my water would suddenly break, the baby still hadn't really "dropped" down at this point.  We were able to arrange for our friend to come from Changzhou to Shanghai to stay at the apartment we rented with Blake so he wouldn't have to be at the hospital and he still had an Ayi coming daily who was taking him to the park to play and out to do things keeping him busy.

Tuesday morning came around, we woke up, go ready and ensured all was packed for the hospital...we kissed Blake goodbye and assured him we would see him later on (so hard to leave him) and off we went to the hospital.  It was a bit difficult to get a taxi that day and we ended up not getting to the hospital until almost 9:15 which for me was so nerve wrecking, I hate being late, especially for something like this!  I wanted to meet my baby girl!  Upon arriving to the hospital we went to the 3rd floor for Labor and Deliver...as I walked to check in they were expecting me and knew who i was, no paperwork needed everything was done ahead of time.  As I walked into the room which was all set up for me, Dr. She was there waiting and our midwife for the day was there as well.  I was amazed that my doctor was there reviewing my chart and waiting for me, she had 3 patients that day and was on a 24 hour shift so she would most likely be delivering our little girl.  Once they checked me and got my vitals, I changed into the lovely hospital gown and they started cervadil (a medicine string which i hadn't seen) which i had the day before i was induced with Blake in a gel form to start the process.  They wanted me to be on this for two hours then check my progress.  The midwife assigned to us would stay in our room all day, act as the nurse for the IV, medications, and take care of anything we needed.  We also met the head midwife MK who was amazing, she assured me that we would have this baby today, and she was guessing on times :)  She has been a midwife for over 30 years and around 26 years were in NYC.  While we waiting I was able to put in my order for both lunch and dinner, they even offered me breakfast.  In China the doctor said they really don't see a reason for a regular delivery to have you not eat, so I ordered a nice piece or broiled salmon with some veggies and ate my lunch before they checked me again!

Around 12pm the doctor came in to check me I hadn't progressed much so she decided it was time to stop the cervadil and go on to pitocin for the induction.  Once they hooked me up they would increase by 6 units ever 20 minutes and monitor the contractions for the first 80 minutes.  I was able to walk around the floor with my IV and lovely hospital gown.  It wasn't crowded, there really weren't a lot of people walking around mainly just the nurses and midwives.  As I got up to 24 units I could really feel the contractions and the monitor was picking them up.  At this time it was around 1:30pm, the doctor came in to check on me and of course the midwife was in the room the whole time monitoring me.  Brian and I were passing the time watching the few English channels on TV, mainly Discovery Channel :)  By this time I was thinking i was doing ok, by 2:45 I had requested the epidural and the anesthesiologist came up to my room immediately and got the medicine going for me.  by 3:30 I was feeling good and the pressure from the contractions was bearable, by 4pm the baby was down and I was starting to feel more pain, they called my good friend the anesthesiologist for another dose of medicine.  He promptly arrived and gave me the extra dose of medicine, the midwife MK has been guessing 5:30pm for the delivery, but I started pushing shortly after the second epidural dose and after pushing through 4 complete contractions with Brian by my side we had our baby girl, Grace Helen in my arms!  After pushing for almost 3 hours with Blake and facing a possible C-section, this was a breeze!  I was so relieved to have her in my arms, she weighted 3.64kg or 8lbs and was 19" long or 49cm.  As the midwife said 3.64kg Brian and I were both asking so what is that in lbs.  trying to figure out how big she was.  I was surprised she was 8lbs. and grateful at the same time that we didn't wait longer to have her and risk not being able to push her out due to birth weight/size. I was given a shot in my leg to help with the blood loss, but didn't have any complications, some stitches and I was able to move around.

Once they cleaned Grace up and we were able to hold her, she latched very quickly for breast feeding.  She was given the Vit K shot from the pediatrician who was on-call, just so happens he is from Phoenix, AZ as well and we plan to continue to see him.  After everything was taken care of in labor and delivery we were moved to another room, Blake was brought to the hospital to meet his new baby sister, I lifted him up to see her and he said "wow" , then for the next week has continued to say "baby" and point to her often.  They brought dinner to the room so I was able to eat, Grace was taken off with Daddy to the nursery for her first bath and then we had our first night together.  She is a pretty good sleeper and cuddler, we both enjoyed being able to hold her and just stare at her face.

Her blood type came back like her daddy, O+ therefore I needed a final Rhogam shot since I am rh negative (A- while Brian is O+).  We stayed in the hospital for three full days, they gave Grace a BCG or TB shot on her foot (this is very typical in China) as well as her first Hep B shot.  The APGAR score was 10-9-9 and she passed her hearing test.  When the nurse came in to take blood and check her bilirubin(for jaundice) and complete the newborn screening I expected lots of crying an tears as we experienced with Blake, but with Grace I gave her a pacifier and she let the nurse take all the blood she needed without a peep.

On Friday November 7th we were both released from the hospital, they came to our room to sign the final paperwork and it was very easy. We now have a family of four and couldn't be happier for her to be here.  Grace is named after Brian's Great Aunt for her middle name, Helen, and we both really liked the name Grace when searching for baby names.  For those curious, had she been a boy we would have named her Drew Michael.  The experience with all the doctors and nurses throughout my labor and delivery was amazing, I felt like i had the best possible care.  If i pushed my call button for anything they were there immediately, I guess that is the difference between a public and private hospital even comparing to my experience at Good Sam in Phoenix with Blake, there was much more staff available here, and they only had 5 babies born on November 4th.

On Monday November 10th we took Grace to the U.S. Consulate to file for her birth certificate from abroad, passport and ss# so that we can return home to visit with all the proper paperwork.  Getting a passport photo with her eyes open wasn't too fun, but we accomplished it!  That afternoon she had her follow-up visit with the pediatrician, she is at 3.65kg so just above her birth weight within 6 days and was very responsive with good reflexes!  She does have a clogged tear duct so we have to continue to keep her eye clean and she will grow out of it eventually once the tear duct opens, for now she is a very healthy baby girl!

I know we aren't back in AZ to share her with all our friends and family, but I will try to post photos when I can , I will try to add things to the blog when I can, and we will be back for a visit soon!

Thank you all for reaching out to us, sending your congratulations, sending cards and gifts and well wishes, it is all truly appreciated!!!  We are just taking some time to ourselves to adjust to our new family dynamics and enjoy each other.  <3

Our last week in Changzhou as a family of 3....

This week I am approaching the 37 week mark in my pregnancy and the doctors in Shanghai feel it best for me to be close to the hospital in case baby decides to come earlier than her due date!  Personally, as a planner i feel good about this decision as well so that i am not in a panic in Changzhou about going into labor and ending up in the local Chinese hospital where i haven't been seeing doctors, or driving 2.5 hours to Shanghai while having contractions.  You never know with each baby its different, Blake didn't want to come out he was cozy and comfy in my belly, we evicted him via induction at 41 weeks and I delivered him at 8lbs. 3oz.  I think this is about as big of a baby as my pelvis will allow after the long labor and coming close to a c-section so our hopes are that this little one is under that weight and not late!

As of Saturday Blake and I will move to a serviced apartment in Shanghai, Brian has a driver on-call 24/7 so if i call he will be on his way to Shanghai.  I will be a 10 minute taxi ride from the hospital with a grocery store near the hotel, some restaurants including Papa Johns, Domino's and Starbucks, and have a food delivery service i can use to get food from many other local restaurants so i am not going out to eat with Blake for every meal.....we also have a full kitchen in the apartment so I can continue to cook breakfast and some dinners and we can stay in on the days I am worn out!  I am working with an agency to have an Ayi to spend the days with us to help chase and lift Blake and then to watch Blake when I go into labor and have to be at the hospital, not a site I want him to see at such a young age, his birth traumatized Brian :)  I know everyone at home wants to know the plan, so there you have it.  Now just keep your fingers crossed this little one is here by November 8th so I am a happy mama!

36 weeks and growing!

We now know we are having a GIRL, I am sure everyone by now has heard through the grape vine, seen on facebook or we have been able to tell you ourselves.  We are thrilled to be having a daughter, she will have her daddy wrapped around her finger as soon as she is placed in his arms I am sure.  How did we find out, well we have been seeing different doctors at the hospital, there are a total of 5 regular staff OBGYN doctors and the past two visits we had one we hadn't met before.  When she came in the room before we could say anything, she said Oh I see you are having a Girl...I immediately said we don't know what we are having and want to keep it a secret.  She quickly back peddled and said she saw something on my chart but must have misread it and went about my exam.  I find many people in China don't use He/She they only use She so I told Brian maybe it was just a mistake, then we saw her again 2 weeks late.....she came in the room and said "Blake are you ready for a little sister!", seriously lady did you really just say that!!!  I looked at Brian and we didn't know what to say at this point but we were excited and let down at the same time.  We had waited so long for this surprise and really hoped to find out in the delivery room.  So we had the exam and went home, talked about it and decided to open the envelope we had from our 20 week ultrasounds which revealed the gender.  Although we had no idea what we were looking at, it said on the photo "Girl".  So there you have it, we will welcome our daughter into the world with open hearts and love!  The good news is that i was able to then purchase some girly clothes for her so she won't be in yellow, grey and white in all the photos!  I bought some 0-3 months onsies, ruffle bottom pants, tights with hearts on them, pj's, socks, and headbands!!!

Another thing to take care of before we leave town, among packing, making sure we are ready for the new baby, having Brian work, Blake going to school and mommy being tired and beat up by this active little girl in my belly...my hair was still RED!  I made an appointment to go to the salon for Monday morning after I took Blake to school.  I arrived at 9:30 and was told the hair dresser i booked had a meeting so someone else was going to do my color, no problem!  I sat down and as three men looked at my hair trying to determine what they were going to do to get rid of this color they were typing into their phones to translate.....I ended up getting a conditioning or nutrition treatment where condition was rubbed into my hair, pinned up, then covered in saran wrap and I was placed under a hair steamer for about 15 minutes :)  They washed my hair afterwards, dried it and then again tried to decide what to do about the color.  After mixing up some dye they told me it would take two times, so they would color just the red and then do a brown all over (which is what i wanted so when it grows out and I am home with baby i don't have to worry about it).  I stopped taking photos, but they put blue dye on my hair this time, no more pink and continued to rub it into the hair to help remove the red pigments.  After a bit i was washed and rinsed again and had the brown dye put on my hair, after having two men put the dye through my hair I sat for a bit and waited.  Once the color was ready, they washed it out, dried it and this is the end result, I am very happy with it :)

Finally, as if this week wasn't busy or this month for that matter.....Blake is turning 2 on October 27th!  Since we will be in Shanghai we wanted to celebrate his birthday here in Changzhou and have a party with his school friends!  I am not sure he realized the party was for him, but he had a blast!  It was at the gymnastics place we take him to on Sundays, we had the whole place for the party, both he and his friend have birthday's this month and are in the same class so we got together and planned a joint party!  The theme was CARS and DORA and both kids had so much fun running around the gym, playing games with the parachute and singing songs!  He got lots of presents, cars and trucks which he loves, grandma and grandpa Hudson got him a train track with talking cars, grandma and grandpa Schumer got him a giant fire truck to play inside of and race cars on top!  Mom and Dad bought him his first basketball hoop which he went right for when he woke up that morning!  Looking back I can't believe he will be 2 years old and I will be again holding a baby soon wondering where the time went, I was just holding Blake in my arms for the first time.  So I am sure we will do something fun just the two of us on his real birthday but here are a few photos from his party!  Happy Birthday to my little man, i love you more than you can even know! <3 

And one cool gift to my amazing husband whom I am celebrating 5 years of marriage with later this month.  The 5 year gift is wood so I had this made for him and gave it early so I didn't have to risk breaking it in Shanghai!  I love you Brian Hudson, you are still and will always be my favorite!

And now I will get back to packing and making lists of things i need to remember to do....my next post will be from Shanghai!

Surprise....It's A Baby Shower!

It was a Monday morning and I was so tired from not sleeping well the night before.  I woke up and got Blake ready for school, planning to meet a friend for brunch at a restaurant that had just started trying to serve a western style brunch menu.  On the way to school I was so tired, I figured I might just stop by have a quick bite and then go home to get some rest.....little did I know that wasn't the case.

As I walked into the cafe I noticed my friend who had invited me sitting in the back, I went to walk up to the table and also noticed i recognized all the other ladies at the table, and said "hello".  I caught them off guard as they were waiting for me to arrive for my Surprise Baby Shower!  So I walked back out and came back in for my surprise...haha.  Once I came back and and looked around, I was really tired, I saw all the beautiful decorations, flowers, and food they had organized.  I really couldn't believe it, since we aren't at home in the US I really didn't think twice about having a shower or get together BBQ for the baby's arrival, but this was truly amazing that these ladies did this for me!

As we are "Team Green" it was perfect that the colors were Ivory, Maroon and Green!  We played games as we would at home, we chatted as ladies do, discussed everyone's kids in their lives and ate some delicious food, then opened presents!  I am very lucky to have a French friend who enjoys baking as well, she made a delicious chocolate cake, with raspberries in the middle and chocolate ganache on top, AMAZING!

Games:  "Don't say Baby" with clips on your blouse, "How big is the belly" with toilet paper measurements (I am 107-108cm), "How to tie your shoe" with a giant belly (balloon in place of belly).  It was lots of fun and I feel so luck to have these ladies in my life and in baby #2's life as well.  Since we haven't decided on a name and don't know if its a Boy or Girl I keep calling the baby, "#2" :)  Here are some photos of my lovely surprise today!

Thank you again to all the thoughtful ladies who made this day special for me. I also love the postcard book with well wishes from you all and photos of us together!  We had representation from around the world, America, France, New Zealand, Holland, Costa Rica, China, and Chile!

Baby Guesses....

Hello friend and family....
So many of you have commented on being excited for Baby Hudson #2 and to know the babies gender I thought it would be fun to set up a friendly (and free) baby pool!  You can go online and take your best guess as to the birth date, gender, and size (weight and length), eye and hair color of the baby!  Just a fun way to keep everyone wondering about our little one!  The winner will receive lots of love, hugs and kisses from baby #2 and bragging rights!

Here are the stats for Blake in case you think it might help you out!

Blake Sander Hudson
Due Date: October 19, 2012
Birthday: October 27, 2012 @ 2:28am
Weight: 8lbs. 3 oz.
Length: 21.5"
Eye Color: Blue at birth (now Brown)
Hair Color: Dark Brown

Once you visit the page, click 'Enter New Hunches' to submit your hunches...

          Click Here for Baby Hudson #2

http://www.babyhunch.com/poolpage.php?poolid=b0b1161662fd53564818e93a28913215