Lincoln's Birth Story

Does anyone remember when I used to write on this old blog?

Seeing how my last post was Cal's birth story, that just goes to show how neglected this has been. And I honestly don't see a comeback anytime soon. Apparently 3 kids 3 and under keeps me pretty busy. 

But I did want to write out Lincoln's birth story. Not only for all you suckers out there like me who love birth stories, but also for my record while its still fresh in my mind, so when I get around to his baby book I have all my facts straight.

So without further ado: Lincoln's birth-day!

Fresh out of the womb!

Thursday morning August 11 - 4 days before my due date, I woke up at 4:15am and just wasn't feeling well. I rolled over hoping to alleviate some pain, and I must have fallen back asleep, because next thing I know I woke up to a contraction at 4:30am. I remember laying there thinking "ow, that kind of hurt" but I tried to go back to sleep as I had been having contractions for weeks leading up to that. However just a few minutes later I had another one and again I thought "ow, that kind of hurt...and felt more crampy than usual." I decided to get up and go to the bathroom to see if that would help. I had another contraction while peeing and again thought. "Yup. These are more painful than they have been." And sure enough I stood up and noticed I was bleeding. Almost identical to the time frame and series of events in Reagan's birth story. I walked back to the bed and told Matt what was going on and I had another contraction while talking to him. I told him I was going to call my mom and then take a shower. Looking back now only about 6 or 7 minutes had elapsed, but I had had 4 contractions in that time, so things were already moving quickly. 

I told my mom what was going on and she said she would head on over. I remember telling her that they weren't too painful and weren't too close together yet (yes they were!) and not to hurry. Good thing she didn't listen to me and headed right over. I had several more contractions in the shower. While I was getting dressed Matt showered and packed stuff up, and then my mom arrived. Reagan woke up and seemed confused as to what was going on, but I snuggled him for a bit and told him we were going to the hospital to have the baby! We had talked with him about this a lot beforehand.

Reagan was pretty smitten ;)

We left for the hospital at about 6am, and I remember saying I didn't want to have to sit in the car. Standing and walking through the contractions was so much better. Thankfully its only a 10 minute drive! The contractions were coming 2-3 minutes apart, and while they were definitely uncomfortable, they were totally bearable. 

We walked into ER, and an old friend met me in the ER triage, so we chatted on the way up to the OB floor. They put me in the OB triage room and had me change and go to the bathroom, and then wanted to hook me up to the monitors. Contractions were about 2 minutes apart, and very uncomfortable, but still not grueling awful. The one nurse wanted to get an IV into me (as they always do) and blew my first vein. She tried again and blew my second vein. (Those bruises are just now looking healed at almost 3 weeks postpartum!) She then said that she would let the fresh shift do it when they came in at 7am. It was about 6:45am by that time. She then checked me. Having contractions while having your cervix checked is the WORST! She kept saying it was tilted and way back there, and it took forever it seemed like. I joked with her and said I better be pretty far progressed. I said I would be so disappointed if I was at a 1. She said "well if you are then I just won't say anything." When she was done, she didn't say anything, so I was like "awww crap, my body hasn't made any progress!" I knew I felt like I should be closer to 5 or 6cm, than 1! So then the other nurse came into check me and said I was 6cm! Yay!

They told me I was staying (obviously) and I asked if I could get off the monitor now. They said I could because I had been on for 20 minutes and we started walking down to my labor room. I had 2 contractions on the 20 foot walk, and by the second one I turned to Matt and said "I need to push" and then I turned to the nurse and said "I need to push!"

My nurse then told another nurse that they needed to call the doctor.

They got me into the room and things started getting a little more frantic. I think they realized how quickly I was progressing. Now with each contraction I was definitely feeling like I needed to push, and I told them that. About this time I started getting slightly nervous. I remember turning to the one nurse and saying "he is too big, I am going to want meds, I feel like its too late to get any meds." And she said "oh honey...its too late..................but you can do this!" To which I replied "no, I can't! I know he is too big!"

Again a nurse asked if the doctor was on his way, and another said yes.

They still hadn't even got an IV in, so a few more nurses tried and kept failing. I wanted to yell "forget the dumb IV! This baby is coming out right now!" But I kept my cool and let them keep on trying while I was breathing through very strong contractions.

Another different nurse checked me and said I was complete. And I think I remember saying "oh good" Again they asked if they doctor was on his way, and someone said yes. Then another nurse said to call up a doctor from ER, since they didn't think the OB would arrive in time.

The big boys saying goodnight to their new brother.

In both of my previous pregnancies I received Pitocin; a drug used to make contractions stronger. This time around while my contractions were very strong, they seemed very short in duration, and had breaks between them. Even though I was obviously in the intense transition part of labor, I kept thinking (and saying) "I don't feel like I should have to push yet. Why do I need to push? My contractions aren't strong enough yet." I guess because I was used to Pitocin contractions that gave me wave upon wave with no break, this time without Pitocin my contractions just seemed weak. Now that I know that, I MUCH prefer not having any Pitocin!

The ER doctor arrived. He was a young guy who looked slightly frazzled and he said "is she ready? Did she progress really quickly?" And one of the nurses said "yes, very quickly!"

About 30 seconds later, my OB arrived, and he set up shop and it was GO TIME!

The next 10-15 minutes were INTENSE! I remember feeling like I was losing control and feeling like I couldn't do it and I felt like I had to reign myself in and bring myself back to reality. In fact I told the nurse, and Matt, and another nurse, and the doctor and basically anyone that I could see that I could.not.do.this. Even though I was still sane enough to be telling myself in my head that I HAD to do this. There was no turning back. So I just pushed as hard and fast as I could, because I knew once he was out the pain would stop. At this point, I don't remember the contractions hurting. I just remember a whole heck of a lot of pressure. I remember telling the doctor, "oh my gosh his head feels so big!" and then I also calmly tacked onto the end "....so can you see if he has hair?"

Spoiler: he did have hair. And about 2 pushes later his head was out, and I was expecting relief...because in my previous pregnancies after their head was out, the rest of the body just kinda slid out and followed behind. Not this big boy. The doctor told me his shoulders were stuck and I needed to push. Hard. With the other boys I remember pushing, but I didn't actually have to work at it. This time every push was with all my might. My body was working hard! A few days after we came home I told Matt my abs hurt and I couldn't figure out why. Then it occurred to me...it was because my abs had to work hard to get him out!

After just a few seconds the doctor motioned to the nurses, and all the sudden they grabbed my legs and brought them clear up back by my head and he started yanking back and forth to get him out, and FINALLY out he came!

The doctor cleaned him out (he had pooped in utero) and rubbed him and tried to get him screaming, and after what seemed like a very long time I looked up at Matt who had a ghostly look on his face and he quietly said "is he ok?" and Lincoln must have heard him because them he started crying, and boy could he cry! It was so loud! And we were so relieved!

They handed him to me, and the first thing I said was "he's so tiny!" HAHAHAHA. The doctor looked at me and said "no...he isn't!" I guess I was just used to my 18 month old and 3 year old. My next question to the doctor was if I tore, and you should have seen the shock on my face when he said I didn't!

We had skin to skin and snuggled for awhile. They had to monitor him intermittently, because he had aspirated meconium,, but all seemed well and we just kept snuggling. I had a lot of pain right afterward. I just kept saying "oh my word my butt hurts so much!" It just felt like everything was so smushed...probably because he was so big and everything WAS smushed! And a few minutes after he was born I started having a lot of cramping. The nurses came in and smushed on my belly (isn't that the worst?) and then they called the doctor back in and he smushed on my belly (SO MUCH WORSE than the nurses smushing on my belly) He said there were some clots blocking my cervix that he had to get out. 

After a good amount of time they finally took him to get his measurements and such and I was SO shocked when they said he was just an ounce away from 10 pounds! The nurse laughed and said "he would have been a 10 pounder if he hadn't pooped on the way out!" I could not believe my body gave birth to such a big boy...and so quickly! And I never did get any meds! They didn't even ever get the IV in! Isn't the female body amazing?!

He was born exactly 3 hours after I woke up to that first contraction. I am still in awe at how quickly it happened! My recovery has been good. My stomach was really tender for the first week, but things are healing. I obviously have some work to do. I've had an almost 10 pound baby and 2 almost 9 pound babies in the last 3 years, so my stomach is a bit of a hot mess, but it'll tighten and tone...and I'm not in any hurry to rush it. I would say my easiest recovery was with Cal and by far my worst was with Reagan. Even though the actual delivery was INTENSE this time, this was my easiest labor. Everything happened so fast that I didn't really have time to suffer through agonizing contractions. I kept saying for days after "did that really happen?" It was just so crazy...the whole 3 quick hours were so crazy! But I would totally do it all again...and I hope future labors all go equally as fast (fingers crossed!)

He is pretty comparable to his brothers. Maybe a little fussier occasionally, but I think we always have pretty easy babies. As long as they are fed they are usually happy. He LOVES to nurse! He is getting on a good schedule, typically up 1 or 2 times to nurse during the night...and still sleeps a lot throughout the day. He has fit right into our family perfectly and we have loved getting to know him and especially watching the big boys with him.  I was a little nervous how the transition would go, but they are absolutely obsessed! We are so thankful for the healthy arrival of our sweet Lincoln Montgomery!