Lincoln's Arrival!

My belly at 39 weeks.  I was much more uncomfortable at the end this time!  Swelling feet, pinched nerve in my back, baby pushing on my ribs, etc.  It didn't help that I had convinced myself that he would arrive early since Kaitlin was 10 days early.

On Friday night (July 29th), Clint headed off to help a friend move, and I got the kids in bed by 7:30.  I decided to speed walk in the living room while reading a book, and my water broke within 5 minutes (about 7:45)!  So I called Megan to come stay with the kids, and then I called Clint a few times, but he didn't pick up!  I ended up calling our friend Leng to tell him to tell Clint to come home!  Clint's friend Zach sped him home, and we headed off to the hospital.
(Beware:  stop reading if you don't want to know any delivery details).  The hospital was busy and out of rooms!  Luckily, they had one cleaned out for us shortly after we arrived.  The nurse asked if I wanted an epidural, but I turned it down.  I had planned the whole time to go without (I didn't think there would be time to get one), and I didn't think the anesthesiologist would arrive in time.  The contractions weren't too bad until the last 45 minutes or so.  I had Clint push on my pressure point in my hand to help with the pain.  The nurse kept asking, "Do you want to...?"  (Lay on my side, sit up, etc).  I kept answering, "Will that make it go faster?  Whatever will make this go faster."  Finally, it was time to push.  His head came out on the first contraction, but everyone kept telling me to push (even though I wasn't having a contraction), so I could tell they were a little nervous.  It ended up that his shoulder was stuck.  Clint said the doctor did a good job doing a quick twist/manuever to get him out.  It was sooooo painful!  I had an episiotomy, which I didn't even feel with all of the other pain!  Lincoln didn't cry for about 15-20 seconds while the doctor did a lot of suctioning, but then he got going!  Clint said he could tell right away that Lincoln was a lot bigger than our other babies--and he was!!  9 lbs. 13 oz. and 21 inches long!  (2 full lbs. bigger than Lucas and Kate).  His face looked so chubby!  He was born at 11:16 p.m.  It ended up being a 3 1/2 hour labor.  My nurses were great, Nancy and Jewel.  They kept telling me I was awesome.  I loved it.  :)  I had Kaitlin naturally, and afterwards I felt like, "I am woman!  I am so awesome!"  After having Lincoln, I didn't feel that way.  Probably because he was so much bigger.  Instead, I felt like, "If I ever do that again, I will be having an epidural."  It was an excellent experience, even if it was very painful.  We are so glad he's finally here!  They tested his blood sugar a few times since he was so big, but he's perfectly healthy!  Lucas was concerned that he might be deaf or blind, so he was very happy to hear that his brother is just fine!

The kids slept all night and didn't even know Megan was there until 6:30 the next morning.  I thought they might cry when they woke up and found us gone, but she said they were soooooo excited!  She took them to get donuts and then brought them to the hospital.  Watching them come meet Lincoln was one of the best moments of my life!  Lucas was so thrilled to see Lincoln, and Kaitlin was constantly holding out her arms to hold him.  She kept saying, "That's my baby brother!"  Lincoln was very tolerant about being passed around and held in a U shape by little arms.

Lincoln had a present for each of his siblings.

Our first family picture.

The boys!  We told Lucas that Lincoln is a true Salo--he was farting up a storm!  Lucas loved that!

We had lots of visitors!  My dad, Diane, Leo, and Grandma Biasi drove down to meet Link.

Aunt Megan, Uncle Wyatt, Uncle Devin, and Grandma Claire

Our friends, Jamie and the Woolf family were also able to come by.

24 hours after Lincoln was born, we checked out of the hospital.  We had hardly slept the night before and we were ready to get back to our own bed.  We got home about 11:30 p.m.  Lincoln slept great.  Lucas woke up around 2 a.m. and talked to me for more than an hour!  He was too excited and had too many questions to ask!

It was a whirlwind.  We are so happy to have our sweet baby home and that everything went so well.  Thank you to all of our friends and family for taking care of our kids, coming to visit, and for all the yummy treats and well wishes!