Life with Max

Life with Max is great!  He has been such a good baby and gets cuter and cuter everyday!  I don't know how he does it!

Max has had a very busy beginning to life.  He made it in time for Thanksgiving, made it through his first move to a new house, and is getting prepared for Christmas!

I know I have said this before, but it is such a huge blessing that both Jason's family and my family live so close.  For Thanksgiving, we were able to have lunch in Adel with the Stopek side and dinner in Johnston with the Rude side.  Max pretty much slept through both get togethers, but loved having aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmas, and grandpas, ooh and awh over him!

For those of you who don't know- we moved!  We have had so much help from friends and family to clean, paint, and finish the bathroom on a foreclosed home.  We are so thankful to everyone that helped with the house or spent some time with Max so that both mommy and daddy could work on the house.  We are still unpacking and getting organized so I will put up pictures when we are more settled!

We are looking forward to Christmas!  Max and I have been talking about it and he is pretty pumped for our holiday schedule the next couple of days!  He has been such a trooper while shopping and is excited to wrap the gifts with me today!

Here is a preview of some pictures we did with my grandma, niece and nephew (Thank you, Meghan at GraceJuliet Photography!). I will put up our family ones soon!

Max Robert Rude

Our little man is finally here!!!  Jason and I are totally and completely in love with him!  He is super cute, and such a good baby!  We feel so blessed that God chose us to be this little guy's parents.

As some of you may know, at our 35 week OB appointment, the doctor wasn't sure if Max's head was down or not.  He scheduled an ultrasound for us at 36 weeks to see if perhaps Max was breech.  He was.  They told us there was still a chance that he could turn and so at 37 weeks we went in for another ultrasound.  Since he was still not head down, they told us our options. After some careful prayer and consideration, we decided to leave it up to Max and the Lord to turn him around, if that was the plan.  We scheduled a c-section for November 18, went home and relaxed.

Well... there was a different plan for our family.  At 2AM on Friday (11/11/11), I woke up, took a couple steps and my water broke!  Jason and I had not packed our bags yet because we thought we were going to have more time, so we rushed around throwing our things together and got in the car to head to the hospital!

We arrived, checked in, and I was prepped for surgery (Max was still breech).  By 5:31AM our little guy had arrived!  Looking back on it all, Jason and I are so thankful for the way everything turned out!  I probably only had about 6 contractions and they weren't even that bad before I was taken into surgery.  The worst part was getting the IV in.. they had to poke me 5 times.  Recovery has been great as well, so after such an uncomfortable pregnancy, the Lord really did bless me with and easy labor/delivery!

Jason getting ready for surgery.

Our first family photo.

One of the many pictures Jason took for me while I was in the recovery room.  I hadn't had a chance to take a good look at Max, so Jason took pictures so I could see him!

Some of Max's first visitors!  Aunt Heather and cousins, Hailee and Brody.

My little Man!!!

We first learned of his independent personality when he took that oxygen mask off all by himself!