Welcome baby Lincoln!

It was so strange, but exciting just dropping Claire and Tommy off at a friend's house on baby day!  Jacob and I both thought, I can't believe we are just calmly driving to the hospital and in a few hours our baby will arrive.  We appreciated getting almost a full-nights rest before baby day so that we were not so exhausted when baby arrived.  I actually woke up around 2am the night before have super strong contractions.  They lasted for a couple of hours...I almost thought we would be heading the hospital much sooner than later.  Thankfully I was able to go back to sleep and the contractions stopped.

One last pregnant belly shot!

Looks like I'm not the only one who grew something! :)

I got a pedicure a few days before baby day.  I just love having cute toes!  The nurses appreciated them too!

The whole planned c-section experience went very smoothly.  We arrived at the hospital at 10am.  We spent an hour getting situated, filling out paperwork, and monitoring the baby.  I was having contractions the whole time we were there!  That helped me to feel confident that the baby was ready to come.  The last hour we just relaxed and very promptly a little before 12:00pm, the nurse told us it was time to go.  It was such a strange experience just walking right into the operating room with the nurse.  I had quite a bit of anxiety about receiving the spinal tap and being cut open again.  The nurse was great and let me squeeze her hands (probably too tightly) while I received the spinal tap.  I was very quiet and non-emotional because I was anxious about the experience we were about to have.  As soon as I received the spinal tap, the nurses laid me down and everyone went right to work on getting baby out.  Jacob was brought in and 15 minutes or so later our baby was born!

Suited up for the operating room selfie by Jacob!

Here he is!!  The doctor held Lincoln up over the curtain and I didn't even know what to say, so I didn't say anything.  So many emotions of excitement and anxiety.  I really wasn't feeling well and felt very nauseous.  I was throwing up almost the entire time I was being sewn up.  Jacob actually filmed the whole c-section so it was pretty cool to be able to watch later what happens on the other side of the curtain.

Lincoln a little calmer.  Lincoln Arthur was born at 7lbs 15oz and 20 inches at 12:18pm!

After I was sewn up and ready to go back to my room, a nurse tucked Lincoln right in to me and he got to ride back to the room with me.  I just held him like that for a long while.  Lincoln was so calm and it was such a sweet experience, I didn't want to stop!!

Look at that sweet face!

Jacob took Claire and Tommy to church on Sunday and after church he brought the kids by to see Lincoln. The kids were both so excited to see Lincoln, but that wore off very quickly. The kids were just being kids and were looking at everything and touching everything and being loud.  It was very overwhelming to me.  We didn't event take any pictures of their visit.  Jacob took them back home and he had to wait a while at home before he could come back.  By the time he got back I was in so much pain from trying to do too much while he was gone.  I had to get in and out of bed way too many times for just having a c-section the day before to take care of Lincoln.  Lesson learned...

We had Lincoln on Saturday and by Monday we were very ready to leave the hospital.  Jacob surprised me and bought Lincoln this coming home outfit.  I was a little sad we didn't have anything new for Lincoln to come home in.  So here is Lincoln in his new outfit with daddy while we are waiting to be discharged.

Love this boy!!

 It took forever to be discharged so we didn't get home until around 5pm on Monday.  We are so grateful to all those people who watched Claire and Tommy while Jacob and I were in the hospital!

Let's go home Lincoln!