April in Our Home

Life has been very full with a newborn, so I skipped updating on life in March, and am very delayed in writing about April, but I wanted to write at least something, and figure its better late than never.

We were expecting Hudson around the 10th of this month, but he decided to come about 2.5 weeks before his "due" date.  So, we took most of April day by day as we adjusted to life with a new little one in the house.  I was very intentional about resting much more this time around than with Esther's birth, and I am thankful I did so.  Recovery has gone well, by God's grace.

Our Rowdy Little Rhino, at 3.5 weeks old

The first few weeks of Hudson's life were pretty rough.  In the hospital, he had a possible infection that had to be treated and for the next few days the doctors kept an eye on him.  When he was a week old, he was diagnosed with a tongue and lip tie and had to have these surgically corrected.  Poor guy had the biggest fat lip as a result and couldn't nurse for almost a day, so we had to spoon feed him all of his meals.  He was very fussy for almost a week and was clearly in pain.  And if that wasn't enough, a few days after his surgery he came down with a cold that had been passing through our family.  It took several weeks to recover from all of these things, and he received chiropractic care and physical therapy for the whole month to help with his tongue tie surgery recovery, but now he is back to normal and nursing well.

Esther took the adjustment pretty roughly.  We have had two foster babies join our family since Esther was born, and she did well with both of those new additions.  But Hudson has been a bit different.  I think two factors have lead to it being harder for her.  First, because she's older now, and realizes how much attention she has lost. Secondly, because with giving birth, there is a physical recovery aspect for me, making me much less capable of doing things with her, whereas with welcoming a new foster baby, my physical capabilities remained more or less the same.  Fortunately as the month went on, she warmed up more to Hudson, and is now playing the big sister role beautifully (most days :) ).

Our church had a women's retreat scheduled the weekend after Hudson's due date.  I assumed all the way up to his (early) arrival that I wouldn't be able to go, but decided (in the hospital) to sign up since he would be nearly 3 weeks old by time the retreat arrived.  I am thankful that I got to go (just to the daytime portion of Saturday), enjoying a day to get away and focus on God and the other women at church.

April was also the month of planting our garden.  Another reason I was thankful for Hudson's early arrival: it meant that when our community garden opened mid-April I was in (more or less) good enough shape to be able to till, fertilize and plant (with the help of my mom, as we are venturing in on this together... thankful to not be doing this on my own!).  So far we have planted beets, peas, radishes, winter squash, pumpkins, melons, peppers (sweet and spicy), tomatoes (regular and cherry), swiss chard, spinach, parsley, zucchini, lettuce, basil and cilantro.  Writing this out, it seems like a lot of plants; however I really wanted to plant so much more, but we simply didn't have room (our garden plot is 10'x20').

Books I read this month:

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

The Railway Children by E. Nesbit (in progress)

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs