1 month & smiles

I've been doing weekly updates on Lincoln since he was born because the first month is a whirlwind of precious moments needing to be soaked in and commemorated-- at least by his own parents. I posted this picture of Linc on Facebook and had a few comments about him smiling with the angels, which made me want to share similar thoughts Ryan and I had.

Lincoln is for sure a smiler. He smiles when he's awake, but more so when he's sleeping. Although I tease about it being gas or something funny, Ryan and I talked about what's behind our baby's smile while he's sleeping. 

We think Lincoln is smiling because he's remembering/playing with his friends from heaven. We know Lincoln was waiting patiently in heaven to join our family. And why couldn't he be visiting and laughing with those he knew before he came to us? And now that he's in our arms, he's the closest thing to heaven we have in our lives. And if anyone's smile is contagious, it's Lincoln's. 

And now for more pictures.....of him sleeping and smiling of course....

So it takes my mother-in-law to point out the fact that all the pictures we've been sending her are pictures of Lincoln in the nude. When Ryan told me what she said my initial reaction was, "yah, so what?" After reviewing the thousands of pictures I've taken of him, I laughed because it's true. I'm pretty sure Linc made it his first month on earth dressed a total of 10 days or so. And the only reason for dressing his free spirit is for when we take him out of the house. Point being: if I could go a month sporting just underwear I would, but I can't. What kind of mother would i be taking that away from my baby who can?

PC knowledge:

1. Don't buy excessive newborn clothes. I think the few times he has been dressed, its been the same 3 onesies. Exception to this rule, if you live somewhere cold and it's winter. Obviously then, and only then, would I not recommend newborn nude month. 

2. Bulk buy pacifiers. This is only for parents who use pacifiers. At first, I avoided using a paci like the plague. I remember Ryan asking to give him one..... "He'll become too dependent on it!" I said. HA. How quickly my views changed.  We only had two...and then we lost one. And now the one paci goes wherever Lincoln goes. Next trip to the store I'm buying them in bulk and have one placed in each room of the house. Costco should look into that....

anyhoo. happy one month Lincoln. :) you rock!

 

peanuts and crackerjacks

This weekend was a first for Lincoln.

He went to his first baseball game and he loved it!

It was actually a first for Ryan and I too-- first time on the big screen! I'm sure the stadium was laughing at the girl who was freaking out on the big screen; I was overly excited and had to show off Lincoln. Ha. Ryan was digging in the diaper bag so he missed the first 5 of our 10 seconds of fame. I didn't even care the Diamondbacks didn't win. We had great seats (compliments of Ryan's work) and our little boy did great!

Did I mention he turns 1 month old this Week?? I think a little party is in order.  :)

week 3

 

is it normal to have my days blend together? because they do. Just call me Bill Murray from Groundhog Day.

 

Lincoln and I are starting Baby Wise. Yes, both of us. Because this mom likes to eat every 3 hours and sleeping inbetween feedings too! We have our good and our bad days. He does well with cutting me a little slack here and there since I'm new at this. :)

 

I strained my back breastfeeding Lincoln. I was using pillows to prop Linc up on my lap and then hunched over the rest of the way. Purchasing a boppy pillow became my top priority. After getting my back readjusted (jk), I went and made my boppy pillow purchase at Target. Which brings another lesson learned from parenthood....

 

P.C. knowledge:

Nothing will be "new and clean" ever again. And if it is, the "newness and cleanliness" will only last a max of 5 minutes.

 

 I picked out the pillow and a stellar pillow cover too; yes, I was stoked to come home and feed Lincoln in style and comfort (at least with my body alignment). I made it home in time for his next feeding. I got home, got my new boppy pillow out and put on the pillowcase, sat on the couch, and Ryan handed Linc to me.

 THIS IS AMAZING!!!!!!!

Well, that amazingness lasted about 5 minutes. And then Lincoln sharted. He sharted real bad. So bad, in fact, that it came out the back of his diaper and onto my new clean boppy pillow.

 

Lesson learned.  

week 2

 

This mommy here is such a softie; I'm bound to be an emotional wreck the rest of my life. Ryan may say I've always been emotional, but I'm talking "emotional" on a different level. Last night Ryan showed me a picture from Lincoln's first few days and my heart sank. He's already grown so much!!!! Stop growing Lincoln! Can't you stay at this stage a whole lot longer? It would be deeply appreciated.

 

Week 2 Updates:

First doctor's appointment and he's perfectly healthy. Yippee.

His umbilical cord made it's way off his cute belly. Here comes the tummy kisses!

 

It was inevitable it would happen to me eventually, but I wondered who it was going to happen to first. I'm talking about having a diaper explosion out the backside of the diaper while holding him. Well, it was me. Luckily, the explosion happened minutes before grandma arrived to help with the baby for a few days.

 

I opened the front door with a mess over my pajamas and lovingly handed him to grandma and said, "I'm so happy you're here. Lincoln wants to be held by his great grandma. " :)

 

P.C. (parent club) knowledge for this week:

1. Keep your phone on vibrate. I usually always do but one of the few times I had my ring on high, my cellular device was right next to the sleeping baby. I curse the person who called me at that moment, but really that's just my way of putting the blame onto someone else.

2. Babies love to be swaddled; my son is the exception. When Ryan and I were in the hospital we saw the nurses "swaddling" Lincoln. I asked the nurse to show us her technique because she had some mad swaddling skills. Turns out, after numerous times of swaddling and Lincoln repeatedly fighting his way free, we've learned Lincoln is the exception. He is a free spirit who likes to be sprawled out in his crib.. A trait he inherited from his mommy. :)

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. :)