First Easter



Not sure which side his crazy hair came from, but he sure is the cutest bunny on the block.

Happy First Easter Lincoln!

week 1

We totally get it now. Once you join the parenthood club (P.C.), all those idiosyncrasies you see in "parents" becomes a part of you. For example: parents think whatever facial expression their baby makes IS. THE. CUTEST! Let me set things straight. Because my Lincoln IS. THE. CUTEST. OF. THEM. ALL! Even if he just stares blankly back at me and rips one, it is the CUTEST! :)

One thing parents do once you're in the P.C., which I caught onto very quickly, is picture-taking OVERLOAD....especially with the first. The pictures from Lincoln's first week is enough to prove it! :)

Here's two things I picked up this week...my P.C. knowledge:
1. Keep the boys "equipment" covered while diaper changing. Who would have thought twice in one day we would see old faithful during our diaper change?
2. Just because you give him his first bath doesn't mean he won't have a massive diarrhea attack on his bath towel afterwards. Pretty much defaced it.

Ironic they both have to do with pee and poo? Part of the P.C. initiation.

day 1

 
 

I'm completely smitten. And of course, Ryan is too.

We stayed in the hospital for 2 nights and in those 2 nights there were probably 2,000 kisses given-- a few between Ryan and I, but a majority on Lincoln's chubby cheeks. We celebrated his 1 day old birthday the following night at 8:47 by smooshing his face with both of our kisses. I like to imagine what he's thinking and in this last picture he's saying, "Oh come on guys, you're embarrassing me here!" 

 

Isn't life wonderful? As a whole of course. Because there are moments and periods in life where stuff just down right sucks. But as a whole, life is beautiful. Creating life is a humbling gift we've been blessed with and has made our life even more beautiful. :)

 

The two nights in the hospital were magical and quite peaceful. Lincoln was SO pleasant and easy to take care of. But he fooled us, and my mother intuition tells me this won't be the last. He wasn't quite a breeze like he was in the hospital the night we brought him home. I don't know what it is about the transition from hospital setting to the home-- I bet those nurses have something to do with it. They probably have some secret with keeping a newborn asleep through the night, but hospital policy doesn't allow that information to leave the hospital. Unfortunately, as a surgical nurse, I didn't receive that particular training. Maybe I can make friends with with an L&D nurse and swindle the secret out of her. I'll get back to you on that...

 

Which brings us to the day we brought our son home for the first time. And he slept and he slept and he slept.. which is great right? Except it was all during the day. And then night came, which was the longest night of my life-- this is coming from the girl who requires 9 hours of sleep a night. It's a requirement, not just something I enjoy. And then the second night came, and it was the same.

 

Only a few days in and I found myself breaking down crying. Normal right? Almost like a mother's rite of passage. Lack of sleep, lack of energy, a recovering body, let's not forget extremely sore breasts, and lack of faith in myself to be the mother he deserves. Our middle of the night feedings are the most endearing to me. I hold him in my arms, stroke his face and play with his little fingers. We rock back and forth and I tell him over and over how much I love him. I won't be perfect and I won't know everything, but one thing I will do is love him with all my heart... the heart that he's already stolen from me. :)

Lincoln's day

Lincoln's due date was March 19th. I posted that night about his decision (not ours) to not come on his due date. But as a celebration to the 40 weeks-- and maybe a hidden agenda of inducing labor-- we went to our favorite indian place and ordered us a spicy dish --one of the natural ways to induce labor according to the internet :)

 

Next morning, March 20th, at 3am sharp, I woke up with terrible stomach pains. Clueless they could actually be contractions, I blamed the indian food and tried to go back to sleep. It wasn't happening, the pain kept coming back, every 10 minutes...

 

Silly me, I was certain the contractions would go away. Ryan and I timed the contractions up until 6am when they finally got down to 5 minutes. This is it!! We drove to the hospital just in time to watch the sun rise. Awesome way to start a day of labor too, i highly recommend going into labor around sunrise to any of you who are expecting :)

I wish I could write details of everything that day, but no joke, it's all a blur. For the first 14 hours of labor I wasn't in terrible pain, but I took some Dilaudid to take the edge off and it pretty much put me in a state of complete daze. When my biff drove up from Tucson that day to be there, I couldn't even pull it together to open my eyes. That's what happens when you give a narcotic to a girl who NEVER EVER takes medication for hardly anything. I'm more of a gargle-with-salt-water and spoonful-of-raw-honey kinda girl when I'm sick. Anyway, let's just say I was out of it just from the IV meds.

 

By 5pm and not progressing since the afternoon, I was put on Pitocin. At this point, things got ugly, painfully ugly, and definitely the most painful part of the entire experience. So my loving and concerned husband helped round up the anesthesiologist to give me an epidural. After the epidural, I gave a huge sigh of relief and a big thank you to Dr. Hackit. He cracked a joke about his name afterwards saying, "It's a good thing I'm not a urologist huh?" I'm sure he uses that joke with every patient and rightfully so, it's a good one!

 

I was surprised at how quickly I progressed from that point. Next thing I know, it was time. This bundle of joy we had been anxiously waiting to meet, love, hug and kiss for the last 9 months is finally coming to us. Ryan and I had a few minutes alone to ourselves. The words we exchanged of our love for one another and our baby that Heavenly Father was blessing us with.....it had to have been one of the most precious moments of our marriage next to our wedding day & birth of our son.  And then he was here...

Our perfect baby boy!

 

 Introducing the newest member of our family

who is already showing off his guns to the nurses :)

 

Lincoln Joel Shideler

March 20, 2013

8:47pm

21 inches long

7lbs 12 oz

YOUR FIRST OUTFIT

Your grandma sent us a special gift in the mail, which just so happened to be your daddy's shirt he wore home from the hospital almost 29 years ago. It's washed and folded in our hospital bag for you to wear home as well. I know I'm the only person who is super stoked about this-- but then again I am your mother.

DUE DATE

COMPLIMENTS TO MY HUSBAND FOR HIS AMAZING PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLZ. HE'S VERY PROUD OF HIMSELF AND SO AM I. :)

THERE'S BEEN  SO MUCH BUILD UP AND ANTICIPATION FOR TODAY'S DATE, BUT BABY BOY WASN'T FEELING IT. HE LOVES HIS MOTHER'S WOMB  TOO MUCH. I DON'T BLAME HIM. I TRIED MAKING IT A LITTLE UNCOMFORTABLE FOR HIM TONIGHT WITH THE SPICY INDIAN FOOD. APPARENTLY HE LIKES THAT TOO.

 

HOSPITAL BAG: CHECK

FREEZER DINNERS MADE: CHECK

BABY'S CRIB NEXT TO MY SIDE OF THE BED: CHECK

CLEAN HOME: HALF A CHECK

 

WHAT ELSE AM I MISSING? OH YAH, OUR BABY. :)