This first post will be all about the birth of my beautiful son Lincoln Chad Christensen.
After being pregnant for almost 40 weeks the official due date was coming up quickly. But my body wasn't progressing on it's own. I had been dilated only to about half a centimeter for about 3 weeks at this point and I was getting discouraged to the point where I would leave the doctors office crying my eyes out and be down and out for the rest of the day. The due date came and went and I was again finding myself at the doctors office in the same place I was at the week before. The doctor wanted me to go get an ultrasound that Wednesday to make sure that he had enough fluid around him and also to do a non-stress test to make sure that his heart rate was nice and strong. I had to go home and talk to Chad about being induced that week. Later that night after discussing it we decided it would be best to be induced that week on Thursday night. After the ultrasound that Wednesday we discovered that our little man may not be so little. The tech was measuring him to be about 10.5 pounds. You can imagine my surprise. I didn't think I was big enough to be holding a 10 pound baby and I'll be honest with you I was a little bit scared as to what that might mean. After talking to the doctor about the results of the ultrasound she said that we would proceed as planned but if I could not get him out on my own I would go for an immediate c-section. But she was sure that I was not carrying a 10 pound baby in the first place.
Thursday, February 21, 2013. Induction date! I went about my day trying to get everything ready that we needed to go to the hospital and getting the apartment clean to come home to. Once Chad got home from School we relaxed on the couch for a little bit and watched some TV while we decided what we were going to do until we went in to the hospital. We decided to hit our favorite burger joint here in Des Moines, Zombie Burger. We were scheduled to be in the hospital and starting our induction at 9. After we left Zombie Burger we headed to the hospital to wait for a bed to get the induction started. An hour went by and still no call. Pretty soon it had been a couple hours and we were getting pretty frustrated. Finally 20 minutes after midnight they finally called to tell us they had a bed ready for us. We rushed up to the labor and delivery unit to get everything started.
After a ton of patient history questions it was finally ready for the iv and to get the meds started. The iv was, believe it or not, the worst part of the whole entire labor and delivery process. She tried one arm and couldn't get the vein to cooperate and so she had to go to the other arm and finally, success! But that process made me want to throw up and I was sweating, shaking, and on the verge of tears. Chad so kindly leaned over to me when the nurse left and said, "You are going to have to toughen up!" Clearly thinking about the epidural I was going to get the next day. The meds were started and they gave me a sleeping pill and I went to sleep. The doctor came in and checked on me a couple times throughout the night and finally at 10 am they got me started on pitocin. Within a couple hours I was dilated to a 4 and my contractions were as strong as my menstrual cramps I used to have (which were pretty bad) so I was able to handle them. They turned up the pitocin and I shot to my pain level with the contractions to a 5 out of a 10. I didn't want to wait for an epidural because the advice my wonderful sister-in-law Kristen gave me I wanted to be able to hold still for it. I called the nurse to get the epidural. At about 1 pm the anesthesiologist was there to give me the epidural. I immediately got scared and started to shake (I hate needles). I was pretty sure I was going to shake off the table and also squeeze the heck out of Chad's hand. The anesthesiologist was telling Chad everything he was doing as he did it. Then Chad looked at me and told me not to move. The next thing the anesthesiologist said to me was he was going to put the catheter in and pull the needle out. I had not even felt him put the needle in my back. Either he was really good at his job or the local anesthetic was working really well!! Within minutes I was numb from just under my ribs to my toes and feeling absolutely no contractions!
Chad and I was able to just relax. I took a nap and we watched a movie. By the end of the movie I was feeling immense pressure from him moving down getting ready to come out. At around 4 the nurse started me pushing. After 20 minutes of pushing my parents were finally in Des Moines after driving about 18 hours to get there. They came in and said hi then the doctor walked in. My dad went to the waiting room and my mom stayed. We were in full blown pushing mode after that and about 25 minutes later we had our beautiful baby boy! Lincoln Chad Christensen 10 pounds 21 3/4 inches long!
We couldn't believe how big he was and that the ultrasound was actually correct! He was alert from the moment he came into this world. The nurse actually had to keep tickling him to keep him crying because he did not want to make any noise for us when he came out! After getting stitched up and cleaned up we waiting for a recovery room. My dad then came in to hold his first brand new grandson!
The next couple days in the hospital were all about recovery and making sure Lincoln was good, strong and healthy! Getting the hang of nursing was a bit of a feat for both of us but we eventually got the hang of it. We were taken very good care of in the hospital and are very grateful for our nurses and the doctors!
After 2 days in the hospital it was time to go home. Chad and I were both still kind of in a daze and couldn't believe that we were actually parents. Our next step was introducing Lincoln to Kort. We were worried that he wouldn't like us bringing a little something home with us that wouldn't be leaving. But our little Kort came through for us and immediately showed love to our little Lincoln!
At Lincoln's first doctors appointment he weighed 10 pounds 2 ounces and was 22 inches long. He is a good eater and the doctor gave him a clean bill of health!
The days since being home from the hospital have been an amazing experience. It has been very different for both Chad and I. But we are very lucky and have a very good baby. He sleeps through the night which is nice not only for me but for Chad as well. We couldn't imagine life without this sweet boy in our lives and are so grateful to be parents. We are also very grateful to my parents who were here for the week after he was born and helped us through the transition to parenthood. We are also thankful for all of the meals that were brought to us by ward members and friends and thankful to Chad's parents especially his mom who came to be with me while Chad went to Honduras. We have such an amazing support system and couldn't ask for anything better.
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