Baby Book Entry

This morning I was thinking about how I needed to be good at recording milestones of my baby's life. Having a baby book that I write in all the time seemed a little too ambitious for me considering that everything is either online or digital--and I'm no scrapbooker! Putting it on the blog seemed like it would work. Let's just hope the internet is still around years from now! ;) So, my posts about Lincoln might not be terribly interesting anyone that reads this, but that's not the only reason to blog, right?

Anyways, Lincoln has been here for 1 week. It has been wonderful! So far he is extremely content. It is very easy to make him happy. He eats very well. He usually nurses for a while and then decides he's done. But 20 minutes later he decides he's still hungry and wants to eat again. After that he's officially done. This is probably the only thing I can complain about because when he started doing this in the middle of the night I would have already laid back down, and then he'd decide he was hungry again so I'd have to get back up and get all ready to feed him. Now I've learned my lesson to just hold him and pat his back for those 20 minutes til he's ready again. He loves to be burped. He must know when he's gassy because even if he hasn't just barely eaten he still calms down when we pat his back. So far he's not too fond of lying flat on his back on either the bed, his pack and play, or in the crib. He likes a little cushion. He seems more content at a slight angle in his swing. And his most favorite is on mine or Sean's chests. Makes sense since I know I'm especially cushy right now! He's also been very good about letting us get decent sleep through the night. Last night Sean fed him around 2 and then he didn't wake up again to eat til almost 7. I have been very impressed. I gave him his first bath yesterday--meaning that I filled up the little pink bin thing the hospital gave me with water and sat his bum in it. He actually liked it.

He seems really happy to be here. Maybe his little spirit was just so anxious to be here finally that's why he decided to come early--but not too early to make sure he would be healthy enough. This could also explain why I got pregnant 2 weeks after stopping birth control pills. Little Lincoln was ready to go! We are so happy he's here! Our home feels even more like heaven now that he is with us.

BABY LINCOLN

LINCOLN HAWKE MCWHORTER was born Friday, September 23rd 2011 at 6:24pm. He came two weeks early! Surprise! He weighed 6lbs 3oz and was 18 inches long. He has light brown hair and dark blue/gray eyes for now.

I wrote the following to my sister Melissa, who is in the MTC. It's my story of going into labor and giving birth. I thought I would just copy it because re-writing it seemed like a hassle. :)

Thursday all day I was totally miserable. I woke up and my lower abdomen was in a ton of pain. I could hardly lift my legs to even walk, let along get in and out of bed. I slept for a few hours and then got up and Sean and I went to the post office to mail you that little package and we went to Target and then ate at Texas Roadhouse. Luckily Sean wasn't working that night so we just came home and relaxed and then I went to bed. Of course I woke up like every 2 hours to pee during the night, and when I got up around 7am I realized that I was having contractions. It was fairly subtle though because they actually just feel like menstrual cramps that come and go in little waves. It would just get real painful for like 15 seconds, and then taper off. Then 5 min later it started again. They were already 5 minutes apart when I had a chance to start timing them. I told Sean and we just layed there and waited to see how long they would last. I went for about an ho
 ur, no change. I got up, changed positions, no change. I already had an appointment with the Dr scheduled that afternoon, so I called them to see if there was a way I could come in the morning so they could check me and see what they thought was going on. We packed our bags for the hospital, got all the baby stuff, showered, and then headed to AF. I was still having contractions the whole time and they were only getting stronger. We got there and when the Dr examined me he realized I was almost 5cm dilated. You push at 10cm. So i was half way there! He decided to send me to the hospital! I was havin the baby!! It was kinda surreal when we got there cuz I was surprised to be going into labor 2 weeks early... but I knew that I couldn't be in pain like i was the day before for 2 weeks either so having the baby seemed like the better option! 

We got to the room and they got me all hooked up to the IV etc by about 11am. I waited and labored without pain meds til 2pm when they gave me the epidural. That was amazing! It made me feel like I was more relaxed than I've ever been in my life. All the while my contractions were getting stronger---I just couldn't feel it. At 3 they broke my water, and then the contractions were even stronger. I was dilated to a 6 and they had me roll over on my side. Within 1 hour i was dilated to a 10. The nurse checked and said, "You're a 10! Do you want to push now, or wait a little bit?" haha... I was surprised, so I decided to wait about 30 minutes to mentally prepare myself to push this little guy out. I knew I could potentially be in the pushing stage for a few hours, so I was actually pretty nervous. She came back and I just decided to give it a go. So just with the nurse and Sean we waited for a contraction, they held my legs up and then I pushed with all my might 3 times each contraction. Surprisingly I was making progress really fast! The Dr came in and realized that his head was really close. I only pushed for about 45 minutes and then all of a sudden he popped right out! haha. I don't know exactly what happened... I mean I pushed real hard, but his head just came out like very suddenly. Sean and the Dr were both pretty surprised! haha. It was crazy to see him and realize that he was in my tummy. Of course he was covered in gunk... but having him out and finishing the labor process was really awesome! I felt a lot of love and just excitement/happiness to be able to see him finally. 
They cleaned him up and then let me hold him. Sean got to hold him too obviously. Dad and Nate and McKayla and Sean's parents were all waiting outside. They left to grab food like right before I found out I had dilated to a 10 and by the time they came back he was born like 15 minutes later! It seemed real quick! 
Sean went to the nursery with him and they got him all cleaned up and examined while the Dr's and nurses cleaned me up in the delivery room. Then everyone got to come in and meet him. McKayla was very excited obviously! Nate was funny cuz he wasn't sure he wanted to hold him, but I made him do it! :) 
The first night he slept quite a bit. I was a little out of it from being tired and also being really sore, so I didn't end up sleeping too much. he had a hard time nursing at first too. Especially cuz there's not really much to get out anyways, so each day he's been getting better at eating as my milk is coming in. Sean had to finger feed him a lot the first 24 hours or so just with a little seringe. Saturday was a great day! We had visitors and just spent time with our little guy. The next day he already looked older! We just started to fall in love with him. We love his cute little cry and laugh at him cuz he's just so droopy and tired all the time! 
We left the hospital Sunday late morning. We got home, got cleaned up, and then just rested for a bit until about 4 when we went back up to Highland to see the families. Last night he did pretty good. Slept quite a bit, but also got a little gassy and was awake and crying. But he's a good boy. He doesn't cry unless he's hungry, gassy, or getting his diaper changed. So far it's easy to make him happy. 
Today was good too. I got about 4 hours of sleep straight from 5-9am while he slept and Sean stayed in his room with him. Sean's mom came over today to help clean up, do the laundry, and make us lunch. That was a lifesaver because I had obviously missed doing all the laundry over the weekend, and the downstairs was a little messy. She also watched him for a little over an hour while we took another nap--just prepping for tonight and getting less sleep possibly...
I'm loving it though! He is such a little sweetie. I think he kinda looks like us 4 as babies, but we'll see. I'll have to give him a couple months to decide who we think he's gonna look like. We're still not sure what color of eye's he will have--right now they are super dark grey/blue and apparently that color at birth can change to either brown or green or grey... or blue, but its less likely. I'm excited to see! 
Anyways, that was a long story! :) Thanks for listening! :)

37 weeks

I went to the doctor on Friday. We discovered that I am already 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced. This all happened without contractions--unless they are extremely mild, cuz I haven't felt anything significant. I was completely shocked. The doctor said he would see me next week--if I'm still pregnant! I don't want to get to psyhed out though... I hear about women walking around for weeks 3 cm dilated, so I'm not gonna get too anxious yet. So far it's working... but Sean isn't helping. He wants to get the baby out as soon as possible! So we'll see! I didn't even consider the option of him being born even a day early, so now it seems like this game has sped up significantly! Wish me luck!

A Promotion

It's funny how when we have these mass forms of communication we become sort of caught up in small details as we intend to sort of pose for our cyber audiance. I was just thinking about this as I posted my pic below of my belly. Sure, I want to document my pregnancy. I want to remember how big my belly was so that I will be grateful for my (hopefully) much smaller one after this experience is over. But, when I think of how it's become sort of a fad to post pregnant pictures, or other pictures of the like, I thought of how much it downplays the meaning of these events. My special experiences seem to be accomplished for the sake of following trends or even the crowd.
In reality, there is a little baby in my tummy. And as crazy/amazing as it is for me to say, he is my son. I am his mommy. And as soon as I think of how great my new responsibility will be, I am just so grateful that it's happening. I know that it will change my life forever in one of the greatest ways possible. A few weeks ago I asked Sean what it meant to him to be becoming a father. I felt like the male perspective was probably different than mine . . . He said that he felt like it was a promotion, like at a job, but in a spiritual sense. It was God giving him a promotion to become a father to one of His spirit children. What a great responsibility. We will gladly take it.

30 weeks!

Nesting Instinct

I've read a little bit about this pregnancy symptom, so to speak, called the 'nesting instinct'. Basically its the need to prepare your home for your baby in every way possible. I don't know if this is what I have, or if my need to home-make is more based upon my realization that we will probably live here longer than I originally planned. Either way, I have been going crazy trying to re-organize, decorate, clean, and beautify our little home. Sean and I were extremely blessed when we got hooked up with our little townhouse. His Uncle's sister, who used to live here, passed away a little over a year ago. She was in her late 50's and single so her brothers and sisters were kind of responsible for her belongings, etc. Probably the day after her funeral, Sean's aunt called to ask him if we had found a place to live. We hadn't and were a little desperate for guidance. We came to see it, told them how much we had been looking to pay for rent, and they accepted. We have seriously been so fortunate. We have two bedrooms, a garage, and a little backyard. They also didn't have a place for her furniture so they left us a couch, la-z-boy, a beautiful kitchen table, and two king size beds with dressers and nightstands. Our bed has a solid wood log-style frame and matching furniture. It's beautiful--and way out of our budget! All this furniture was a life-saver considering we only had Sean's desk to claim as our own. Now we have Sean's desk and a TV/entertainment center! Making progress. Anyways, when we first moved in I didn't really do much to decorate probably just because we had no money and I also didn't really feel like we would be here long. But now, we're planning to be here til Sean graduates from UVU. We still don't have a lot of money to spend on decorations, but that 'nesting instinct' has kicked in and I've been getting really creative as to how to add some simple things to turn our townhouse into our HOME.

This is what the outside looks like from the front. And then below is a picture of our backyard. Sean's uncle's other brother is a landscape architect, so he did all of this for his sister before she passed away. It's beautiful!

I made pillows for the couch downstairs as well as bought these frames to put wedding pics in. This couch isn't exactly my ideal piece of furniture . . . but it is about $1000 cheaper than a new couch. Also, it has two recliners as well as the middle coushion folds down and becomes cup holders and a little table. Sean only discovered that about 3 weeks ago--it was a big deal! So all in all, we like this couch, and I like it a lot more with the blanket, pillows and photos above it. It's a keeper!

I also improvised with all of these black frames I already had, but never put up. I got the Family Proclamation for free at the bookstore, and then I cut up chunks of these photos of flowers I had from last year's calendar. The temple photo is actually a card someone gave to us when we got married. Haha. And then I spent a total of $1.50 on the 8x10 photo. Not too shabby.

Other things I've used to decorate have been stuff I've snagged from my old room in my parents house or from old decorations my mom had kept. Nobody has noticed . . . hehe. And my next project for a wall in the kitchen involves another 'borrowing' from there as well! :)

I'm super excited to keep going especially when we get a little further on setting up the baby's room. We have a crib, a dresser, a rocking chair, and a full bed that will all be in there. So far I've made his blanket for the crib and a cover for the rocking chair. Pillows are on my to-do list still. And we'll see how creative I'll be able to get when it comes to hanging things on the walls . . . But this is a pic of his blanket and the monkey I had that someone gave to me when I was a teenager. His room will be jungle themed and mainly yellow, blue, and green. I've been sooo lucky to get furniture from our parents. This pic is my fav! I love the jungle fabric! So fun!

Yogurtland

About a month ago I took Sean to one of the popular frozen yogurt places that seem to be popping up all over the valley. This brilliant idea I had is costing me big time. HE LOVED IT! And now we might as well as sign our date night budget money over the franchise every month. I've never been much of a frozen yogurt lover--ice cream is where it's at. Part of my true Forsey blood I guess. But, I love that I get to put whichever toppings and as much of those toppings as a want on my frozen yogurt. So I guess it's a good trade off. Sean is there for the frozen yogurt as much as he's there for the fresh fruit which he heavily dumps onto his dark chocolate cake batter yogurt. We've decided that Yogurtland, over across from the University Mall, is our favorite one. Maybe you'll see us there!