Lincoln & the past 3 months

Well, Lincoln is 6 months already... where did the last 1/2 of a year go?!?! He is growing so fast: 17 lbs & 26.5 inches. He has 2 teeth, is crawling, pulling himself up and trying to stand (although he often forgets he has to KEEP holding onto the furniture! LOL), babbling and starting to feed himself. I look back at pictures as I update his babybook and already wonder how he can have changed so much! (and I'm already dreading looking back at all of this when he is a teenager or having babies of his own!) I am so glad I have been blessed with the ability to stay home and wittness all of these changes (a luxury I know many of you do not have, and I certainly do NOT take for granted, even on his (and MY) crabbiest days!).

In the last 3 months we have tried to spend time with the Grandparents, although I think they would say that they don't see Lincoln nearly enough! Living an hour away from each of them makes it hard to just pop over to visit, especially around a 6 month old's schedule of naps and eatting. We did get to see both sides for Thanksgiving, and even the Great-Grandparents on my side and the Finers on Brian's. Lincoln has definitly become the center of attention at family functions!

We were hoping to see some of the extended family on my side at my cousin's wedding this past weekend, but we had a blizzard and were quite literally "snowed in". At our house we got 15", and it took Brian 4+ hours to shovel the driveway (when we only had about half the snow). So we couldn't leave our house to drive across the cities to where the storm was even worse. I was disapointed we didn't get to see everyone, but many of the people we haven't seen in a while or hadn't met yet (the new little ones!) didn't make it either. Hopefully there is another time soon we can all get together before there are too many more new ones to meet!

Christmas is already next week! (Luckily the tree is up, the presents bought and wrapped, and plans made) I am excited for our first holidays as parents! As I looked back while writing our Christmas cards I realized each of these past few years we have had major milestones: in 2007 we were engaged, 2008 we were married, 2009 we were pregnant & 2010 we are parents... wonder what 2011 is going to bring! Hopefully each of your holidays are as wonderful & blessed as I know ours will be!

Busy with baby!

Wow, it has been a really long time since I posted anything on here! Preparing for Linclon's arrival, and then having so much fun with him once he came made me completely forget, so I apoligize!

Lincoln arrived on his due date, May 24. His birth was kind of crazy and didn't go at all as I'd expected, but he was healthy and that is all that matters. I ended up going in on Friday May 21 for an appt. and by BP was a little high, so my midwife sent me over to the hopsital for tests. Everything came back fine for baby and me that day, but there was a 24 hr one they were still waiting on. We didn't hear anything Sat. so we assumed that it all was fine, but Sunday we got a call from the hospital saying the test came back showing that I had preeclampsia. The only cure is to deliever the baby, so I was going in later that afternoon to be induced.

We got to the hospital at 5:30pm and they gave me some medicine to ripen my cervix and get things going because I was at 1cm. I only got one dose of that because it started making me have more than 3 contractions every 10 mins, but it wasn't doing anything for my cervix. At 8 the next morning I was only at 1.5-2cm but they started me on pitocine to see if they could get things going with more/stronger contractions. By 12 I was having contractions almost twice as hard as they want to you have in the last stage of labor, and was only at 3 cm. They decided to break my water and see if that did anything. I only got to 4cm and had been in labor for 22 hours with no drugs and quite strong contractions, so they decided that I should try an epidural. They thought that might help relax me enough to progress more, and if not I'd need it for a c-section anyways. I didn't progress any farther in the next 2 hours, so after 24 hours of labor that should have had progress a lot, if not had the baby out I was going no where. So I got prepped for a c-section.

At 6:31pm on May 24, 2010 Lincoln Alexander Hanson was born. He weighed 8lbs and was 19 inches long. He is healthy and beautiful!

While they were getting ready to close everything up they looked at my uterus to see if they could tell what the issue was, and see the severity of my "heart shape" I talked about in earlier posts. They saw that my uterus (a muscle) was only 1/3 of the thickness it should be at the top of the "heart shape", but normal elsewhere. So they think I was having strong contractions pushing in on the sides, but not strong enough at the top to push him out (he wasn't even engaged in my pelvis when he was born). This made all of my labor pointless and risky, because I could've had the uterus tear being it was so thin. This means I am going to have a scheduled c-section for the next birth, since there is a 95% chance I would have to anyways, and it would be risky not to.

Lincoln is now 3 months old! He is smiling, giggling, and holding onto his favorite thing: a bear blankie. He has been to the cabin and gone swimming in the lake, we go on walks at the park, and will soon be doing a baby class through ECFE. We are enjoying every minute of being parents, and I love getting to spend time at home with him. I am fortunate enough to be able to do that until he and his future sibling to school. Hopefully from now on I will get on here more often and update, but if I don't I am sorry... I will be out enjoying life with our new little son! :-)

4 weeks! :-)

We have 4 more weeks until Lincoln is due! We are getting very excited to meet him, and I am getting more uncomfortable everyday! (although, this is the only thing I have really had to deal with during this pregnancy, so I can't really complain!) We have one more baby shower this weekend and then I am hoping Lincoln decides to make an early appearance anytime after that!
We start going in for weekly appointments this Thursday, so hopefully he is head down (they thought he was 2 weeks ago, but couldn't be sure). It will be nice to see if any progress is being made for his arrival! We are all set at home: room is ready, car seat figured out, hospital bags packed, etc... All we have left to do is wash all of his new clothes (we were waiting until after the last shower so I could do it all at once) and set up the pack'n'play bassinet in our room.

Both of the Grandma's-to-be are going to be out of town for mother's day, which I thing would be a perfect day for our little one to come! But I think they will be disappointed if they can't be there right away to see him! (knowing him though, he will be stubborn and come then just to be a pain! LOL!) His mommy would love it, so we will see.

We have a bet going on his weight which will be fun to see who wins. This is a bet I am hoping I will lose, but have a feeling I wont. Brian thinks he is going to be 8lbs something, I think he is going to be at least 9lbs. Brian was 8 lbs 2 oz and I was 9 lbs 10.5 oz so he is probably gonna be a bigger than average baby anyways! ( I would love if he was 7.5-8.5 lbs though!) Hopefully we find out more at our appointment Thursday and we get to see our little boy soon!

Crazy Busy!

Wow! I just realized how long it's been since I updated this! We have been really busy these past few weeks, and it's not going to slow down anytime soon.

We only have 7 & 1/2 more weeks until Lincoln is supposed to arrive, and it seems every one of them is full! This past weekend was my brother Matt's 23 b-day, and a trip to MOA & dinner for my upcoming b-day. This coming weekend we have a Dr. appt on Friday, a tour of the Birthing Center on Sat and Easter/Family celebration of Matt & My b-days on Sun. The week after that is Bro-in-law Chris' 24 b-day on the 8th, my 25 b-day on the 9th and a baby shower on Brian's side Sat the 10th. Sat the 17th is a BBQ/Baby Shower for family friends. As of now the weekend of the 24th is clear, but I am sure something will come up by then! Sat May 1st is a baby shower on my side. May 9th is mother's day, the weekend of the 15th is empty, but hoping maybe baby is here by then, and the weekend after is preparing for d-day, since I am due Monday the 24th.

It's gonna be crazy, but hopefully it will make the time go fast and he'll be here before we know it! We are getting really excited (and I am getting more sore, and sick of waking up every hour to pee or turn over (which is quite and ordeal with this belly!)) and ready for his arrival!

Shopping and Dr.'s Appointments

On Tuesday I went shopping with my friend Kim. She is about 8 weeks behind me in her pregnancy with her 2nd little boy, so it was fun to be looking for cute little boy clothes! We found some good deals at gymboree (a rack of $2.99 and under for spring/summer outfits that were originally like $25). So many cute clothes! Plus it was just nice to get out of the house, since I have been cooped up in here for a while!

Wednesday Brian came home from a bussiness trip. It was a crazy day though, his truck wouldn't start in the airport parking garage, so he had to pay a towing co. to come jump it. Then on the way home he stopped to get gas and when he went to start it back up it kept dying! Now it has been sitting in the garage and we are down to one car until we get it fixed/find a new one. One car is usually ok for us, but of course Thursday I had a doctor's appt so right away we needed 2 cars! I had to drive Brian to work and pcik him up so I could have the car in the middle of the day.

My Dr.'s Appt. didn't go so well either... I got a call at 9am saying my midwaife was at the hospital delivering a baby, but since it was my glucose screening that I should come in anyways for that and hopefully she would be able to make it over. I am not a fan of getting blood drawn, but I have to say I hated the finger prick even more (ouch! my finger it brusied they did it so hard!). I had levels of 132 when the cut off is 130! So I just missed it, so now I get to go back again on Monday for the whole stinking day! I get to have my blood drawn 4 times in 3 hours and drink 2x as much of the sugary drink without being able to eat for 8+ hours before. So that is from 8:30-11:30, and then I have an appt. with my midwife at 1:30 because she never was able to make it over. So there is another day we need 2 cars! Hopefully everything with that test goes fine and I don't have to think about it again!

Please, please can next week be less stressful than the end of this one!?!?

All stuff baby!

Thursday I had another Dr. Attp. They started measuring my giant belly, and it was right where it should be: 25cm. I also got weighed again and FINALLY gained weight! 6 lbs after 6 mths! LOL :-) Hopefully I don't just gain weight like crazy now though! We got to hear the baby's heartbeat again: 160 bpm. It is always so reassuring to hear that little flutter! Next time I get to do the glucose test, which I heard is not so fun! But I will also be ing the 3rd trimester finally then, so that will be exciting.

This week we went to register for all of our baby stuff at Babies'R'Us and Target. It was fun, but definitly a long day! We picked up our changing table at the same time, it was a little more work to put together than the crib and doesn't match exacty but it still looks nice.

While registering we found out all of the main stuff we wanted (high chair, pack'n'play, travel system, etc...) was getting clearanced out, so we needed to either find another one or buy it ourselves. I had done a ton of research trying to find which one we wanted and tried looking for another after we found this out, but couldn't find one I liked 1/2 as much. So we dropped a couple hundred bucks and bought the things we wanted.

After we registered we had Brian's work party. It was fun to see everyone (last yr they didn't have one, so I had only met most of them once before we were married). We had a casino night and played some Texas Hold'em. Brian did pretty good, I was just ok. It was nice to get out and have a date night though.

Sunday we went to IKEA to get the rest of the buckets for our closet and then headed to Brian's parents for lunch. We were planning on staying for the Super Bowl, but the snow started and I was getting a cold so we decided to go home and relax there. Now the snow has stopped and hopefully we can dig ourselves out!

More Preparation for Baby and a Vikings Game

On Saturday we went to Babies"R"Us in Richfield to look at changing tables and carseat/Pack'n'Play/High Chair Patterns. It was fun to look at all of the cute stuff, even though we made no decisions that day. After we went to IKEA and got some buckets for our shelving we are putting into the baby's closet (instead of a dresser). They were a bargain for $1.49. After all the shopping we went to The Hanson's house to hang out, see pictures of their new vacation house in Naples and show them pictures of the nursery.

Sunday we watched the very disapointing Vikings game. Peterson should have been benched for fumbling so much and Farve, why didn't you run with the ball to put us back into fieldgoal range with you have 15yds open in front of you instead of throwing an interception!?!?!? We should have won that game, but as Brian always says "We are the Vikings, this is what we do".

Monday I went to Babies"R"Us in Maple Grove and ordered a changing table we found online. I guess we saw it in the store, but didn't take a second look since it was a natural finish and we need cherry. Online I saw it comes in cherry, so we could order it and get it shippied to the store. Hopefully it matches our crib close enough (it is always so hard to tell the real colors online).

Last night I finished knitting my first baby blanket. I had some pink and purple yarn already, as well as some cool furry pink/purple/peach yarn to use as trim, so I started it long before we knew what we were having. Now that we are having a boy, it was a good practice blanket and will be a nice gift for my old boss who is expecting a girl the week before me. Now I am starting a seafoam green and sky blue blanket with blue/green/yellow furry trim for our little one. I am excited to see it progress into something our little guy will use!

Well, I am off to feed my hungry and ever growing belly! Next week we have another appointment and I get to start having my belly measured. I wonder how much it has grown! LOL!

Nursery

Today we decided to put the crib together and organize the nursery now that the painting is all done. The crib is BEAUTIFUL! My mom got it at Target on clearance (it was supposed to be gone months ago, but got lost in the back). It was $250 crib she paid $30 for. It is cherry wood with sleigh sides & turns into the toddler bed/day bed/full bed head & footboard. I love it! We put our $10 garage sale nursery bedding and decor in there and it is really starting to look like a nursery!
The closet is started to get some clothes and baby stuff in it. We have some diapers, outfits, a snowsuit, blankets, a nursing pillow, etc... and of course it was all on clearance. It will be nice to have a baby to go with all the stuff!

It's a BOY!!!

We had our big ultrasound today, and as you can tell from the title of this... it's a boy! He is measuring perfect and already being very stubborn! He wouldn't stop holding his feet so the ultrasound tech could count his fingers and toes. She finally got his fingers but not the toes. He is laying on his side (butt back, head/tummy forward) which I guess is typically with my uterus shape, but harder to see stuff so she had to keep poking him to make him roll over. He would do it for about 30 seconds before he would roll right back, LOL!

Everything looks good though. My uterus is stretching better than they expected, so hopefully no issues there! My blood pressure (which has been boarderline everytime) was really high this time, so they took it again at the end of my appt. and it was perfect, so it must just be the stress of the Dr's! They took some bloodwork so they can have a baseline (yay... my favorite part. No wonder my bloodpressure is high!) and I am supposed to start taking baby aspirin to help keep me from getting preeclampsia. Other than that I have to try and take it easy on my back and all is good!

Now we have to come up with a name for our little one. We were set on a girl's name, but cannot agree on a boy's (atleast a middle one). Hopefully now that we are sure it's a boy and have seen him we can be a little more decisive. Now we get to paint the baby's room this weekend and hopefully start registering for baby stuff. Let the fun begin! :-)

A little bit of everything week...

Last Friday we got to go see "New Moon". It was a good movie, but we both still liked "Twilight" better (although to be fair, I like that book better too...). It was nice to get to spend a day out relaxing. We also had lots of fun this past Sat. at my parents house for our second Thanksgiving. The food was good, it was nice to see family, and we stayed late to play some games with my parents (Wii resort sports).

This past week we got all of our Christmas cards out, the tree up and most of our presents bought/wrapped. I am excited to be done and even more excited for Christmas to come! It is weird to think this is our last holiday without kids! I am sure next Christmas will be a blast!

On Monday we both had the day off and got to hang around the house for Brian's b-day. He ended up putting a cable/internet hook-up in the kitchen so we can finally start moving the office out of the nursery.

Yesterday we got to go to another appt. We heard the heartbeat again (this time 150 bpm) and got to make our appt for the big ultrasound!!! We will find out if we're having a boy or a girl on Jan 8th. I am sad it isn't in time for Christmas, but excited we finally have a timeline!


Today we are going to Brian's parents to celebrate his and his dad's b-days. Brian had to go into work for a few hours, so we are there right now before we head to Eagan. I am going to spend the morning at the mall while he builds some giant servers... LOL.

End of First Trimester!

Yay!!! As of monday I will officially be 14 weeks and in the second trimester! 1/3 of the way done! As of this week I all officially don't fit into my regular pants anymore, LOL! They work ok while standing, but while sitting (which I do at my work, on the floor with the kids, a LOT) they are not so comfortable. I am excited to be starting to get the cute little belly though, so I guess buying new pants are just going to be part of that.

I am also very excited for Thanksgiving next week! We get to spend Thursday with the Hanson's and a lot of extended family. Brian's aunt, uncle, cousins and grandma are flying in from Georgia, and his aunt, uncle and cousins are coming over from Bloomington as well. I think that will make 17 of us at his parents house... so it will be packed! Then on Saturday we are having dinner at my parents, which will be a little smaller. My brother Matt will be out of town, and my dad's parents will be at my step-aunt's in Missouri. That just leaves my parents, mom's parents and brother, so 7 of us. I am mostly excited to only be working 3 days out of the next 11!
It will be a nice break to relax and hangout with family.

We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and count your blessings! We know that we have a lot to be thankful for this year!

Heartbeats!

On Monday we got to go in for our second appointment. It was a crazy day, we showd up as our midwife was going to the hospital to check on a patient starting labor. The nurse said she should be back shortly, she wasn't delivering anytime soon so it wasn't a big deal. 5 minutes later the nurse came back to tell us the baby was coming now, and said the midwife wouldn't be able to make it to the appointment. Since the hospital/clinic is 20 minutes from our house, and my midwife was going to be out the rest of the week, they squeezed us in with another midwife between appointments.

Even with all this craziness, we got all of our questions answered and got to hear the little heartbeat! It was 170 bpm (normal at this stage is 120-180). The old wives tale is that if it's high it's a girl, so I am hoping that is true for us! :-) It was so cool to hear it going so fast and really feel like something is in there (because other than the boobs hurting and having to pee all the time you really don't feel pregnant yet!). Our next appointment is the 1st week in December, and then the one after that we should find out the sex of the baby!!! (It should be the week between Christmas & New Years, so it will be a good holiday surprise!) Hopefully all stays well!

Cereal & Heartbeats

I am now 10 weeks, almost 11. I am glad to be nearing the end of the first trimester, even though I haven't had it all that bad. I just cannot wait to get some of my energy back and not hate cereal anymore! LOL (it is the only food that I have absolutely not wanted to eat, and I've always loved it! I am slowly being able to eat it for dinner, but still can't hande it for breakfast.)

On Monday we get to go in for our second appointment. We should be able to hear the heartbeat at this one (put a noise to what we saw at the last one). As much as I hate going to the Dr. I have so been looking forward to each of these appointments just to be reassured everything is going as expected. Nothing feels "normal" in a first pregnancy so you worry about everything, and I am a worrier by nature!

We are just praying our little one's heart is growing strong so we can hear it in a few days!

Another week down...

This week I have not been feeling all that well because of a cold, so when I went to get my flu shot I asked them to check me out. The Dr. told me I have a sinus infection (which I had oct-may last year and the strongest meds wouldn't get rid of) and put me on amoxicillin. Hopefully this helps, because I am getting miserable (but I have my doubts).

Someone at my work announced this week she is expecting and due three days before me, so it will be a baby race! I'm glad I am not the only one who is going to get HUGE! :-)

It has been a crazy, busy week and I am glad it is finally over! Now for a weekend of rest and relaxation!

One Fish, Two Fish, A Little New Fish!

We are expecting our first child! I am 8 weeks along, so only 32 more to go until we get too see our child. The little one is due May 24th 2010. We are excited to have a spring baby!

We got the joy to tell our parents on a very appropriate day, Grandparents Day (Sept. 13th). We gave them cards with little magnets that said "World's Greatest Grandparents". This is the first grandchild on bothsides and the first great-grandchild on my dad's side, so this child will be extra loved! Our brothers were also very excited to hear the news that they were going to be uncles.

We had a little scare right after we found out, so we got to have an ultrasound about a week ago and see the baby. It was great to see the heartbeat (132 bpm!) and make sure everything was fine!

Hopefully that will put some of the worrying behind us (although I know the rest of our lives will be filled with it!). We are thanking God for our little miracle and praying he keeps our little family safe!