Brad Was Right ...

It turns out that Brad was right after all. Just as the olympics came to a close Sunday evening, my contractions began and Caedmon began his decent into this world. It all started at 11:45pm, August 24. (If you haven't heard before now, baby Hodgson's name is Caedmon Williams Hodgson. Here's a little background behind his name:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caedmon
• http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03131c.htm
  

At that point, my contractions continued steadily every 5 minutes for over an hour and we knew that it was time to call the doctor. With the go-ahead from the doctor, Brad and I began to get the last few things together in our hospital bag -- iPod, speakers, laptop, razor -- you know, the essentials and headed for the hospital at 2:30am. (Listening to Coldplay in the Labor & Delivery room was awesome!)

When we arrived, there were no labor & delivery rooms available, so since we had to pass through triage any way, we camped out there until 7:30am and paced our way through the 4th floor hallways to try and speed things up. Once 7:30am rolled around and I had walked over 40 laps between the NICU and the elevators, we were escorted to our labor & deliver room. From there, after a nice, stiff epidural, Caedmon's entrance was not too far behind.

Then, at 12:59pm, August 25, Caedmon Williams Hodgson was born!

Sunday & Still No Baby

Ok ... so much for saying that baby Hodgson is going to be an "on-time" baby, but I'm sure that he has a good reason for his tardiness. Brad's thought is that he's boycotting the Olympics, and therefore after the closing ceremonies tonight, he'll make his grand entrance. Why should he have to share the spot light anyway? We'll see if that's truly the case this evening.

On a different note, our friend Amy Hathaway just finished developing the maternity pics that she took of us earlier this month and they turned out really cute. Here's one of Brad and his little boy bonding:

Thanks for the great gift Amy!

Still Waiting ...

Well, still no baby Hodgson, but hopefully that means that he'll be an "on-time" baby, since he is due tomorrow. But for those of you who are hanging by this blog to see if he's come yet, you're out of luck.

With all the free time that I have these past couple of days though, you'll see that I've been able to post all kinds of pictures of the past few months to our slideshow, showing our trip to Puerto Rico, Family Shower Weekend, Amy's Beach Weekend, Amy & Jason's Wedding and several other fun moments this summer. So, as you wait in anticipation with us for baby Hodgson's arrival and the "official" unveiling of his name, have fun browsing through our pictures, and we'll be in touch soon!

If you think you might miss exciting news from this blog though, feel free to subscribe to our blog feeds on the right and every time we update "Hodgson Tales," you'll be notified through email.

Under Contract!

After 10 long months, we are excited to announce that we have finally received our 2nd offer Monday night and it's one that's going to work for us. So as of last night at 8pm, our house is officially UNDER CONTRACT! I can't believe it!?! What timing!

And with that great news, Brad drove up to Greensboro this

morning and picked up Aslan, our little orange tabby cat who's been away since October. As you may remember, we dropped him off at Brad's brother's house last Fall, to get him out of the way of potential showings and thinking that he'd only be there for a few months. And now, 10 months later, and right before baby Hodgson arrives, Aslan's home! Welcome back!

The Countdown ...

Well, I just finished up my last day of work yesterday before beginning maternity leave and the countdown until baby Hodgson has really begun ... T-4 days until August 23. I think we're in good shape for the most part, the only thing we're still working on is the crib -- this is the one that my grandma gave us, the one that my dad slept in, that I slept in, that my brother slept in, that will soon be baby Hodgson's! Brad has been working late nights in the warehouse at work, staining, hanging and cutting. If you could only see him work: He's rigged up the crib with fishing line so that it hangs from the ceiling or from a pole between two ladders outside(depending on the weather outside) to stain and wipe each coat. At first glance, it looks like quite the art exhibit. But thankfully for Brad, the final masterpiece is almost in sight and it's going to be beautiful. Brad's such a great handyman!


Here are some "before" pictures of the crib: