Here's to Lincoln!

**This is long**
Here's the story of Lincoln....

This was a long, puking pregnancy that I truly began to think was never going to end. I was spoiled with Gabriel and delivered at 37 weeks, and then Garrett came along and waited one more week till 38 weeks. Well, our little Lincoln decided to torture his momma for an additional week. He came one day shy of 39 weeks. I really, really hope that's not going to be a pattern, but it seems it is. I got BIG with Lincoln. The doctor kept saying that I wasn't measuring big, but I couldn't eat, or bend, or do much of anything. The Friday before I had him I squeezed, nothing fit anymore so I looked ridiculous, into a dress and went to a wedding reception. While at the reception I was asked to interpret Stake Conference two days later. I obviously agreed to do it, and then realized later, that now I couldn't will him to be born till after Conference. BUMMER!

Sunday morning came; I put on my maternity tent and waddled down the isle to the front of the Stake Center to interpret. Stephen was excited about the front row seating he got.... till he realized that the front row with two boys and no Mom to help was a little scary. So, Nanny took Gabriel to sit with them. YES, divide and conquer is the only way to go with multiple boys and church. Conference went well; I started swelling up so fingerspelling was difficult, and sitting was still uncomfortable despite the soft chair. I wasn't familiar with all the songs so they were difficult to make visually "musical" or look like a song. I didn't have time to read the songs over before and figure out what the flowery phrases meant, I know I could have done those better. I was roasting! Right at the end I had the worst pain ever in my stomach, looking back now I realize it was a contraction. After conference, I looked down at my feet and was grossed out by how puffy they were with all the skin squishing between the straps on my shoes. EW! We went to dinner at my Mom's house, I felt SOOOO awful that I didn't eat much. That wasn't really anything new, because I'd felt so awful for the last week or two. I ended the night wishing I could crawl in a quiet, dark, cozy hole and be left alone.

We finally got the kids in bed; no easy task when they are working together...."teamwork" if you will. ;-D I moaned and groaned and complained the rest of the evening till we went to bed. Stephen was good about not responding "wrong" to my complaining; he seemed genuinely sympathetic. I crawled into bed exhausted and ready for a good nights sleep. However, good sleep didn't come...I tossed and turned and squirmed for several hours trying to get comfortable, nothing worked. So, naturally I decided the only thing left was a pity party of one. Around 2:00 a.m. I thought, “ouch that hurt, now not only can I not sleep my stomach is going to start hurting too. Are you kidding me??” I rolled over and tried to get comfy, no use. 2:30 a.m. OUCH that hurt! Now I start thinking, "hmm, I wonder if maybe it's a contraction?" Nah, I've become an elephant and will have a 23 month gestation. 3:00 a.m. OUCH, dang that hurts like crazy! ....OUCH.....OUCH.....OUCH....OUCH. Maybe I should time some of these OUCHES....5 minutes apart. I woke Stephen up so he could pack the bag while I took my traditional labor shower. You see we have yet to manage a packed bag before labor starts, and I'm weird and have to take a shower and shave my legs before I get to the hospital. That nice warm water felt good, but sure made the contractions get closer together too. By the time I got out they were 2 minutes apart and HURT something fierce. I was doubting it was real labor because they were so different than Garrett's (Gabriel's don't count because it didn't follow a normal process) but if it wasn't real labor something was seriously wrong.

We called my mom at about 4:00 a.m. and headed to the hospital.

Stephen tried to pick the roads that would be a smoother ride, but in Tucson there are NO roads that are well maintained so it was still a LOOOONG ride. About half way there I realized my face was wet, oh nice now I'm crying like a baby. Yeah, these were such painful contractions that there was no stopping the tears. I cried while we did the admitting paperwork, and while they checked to make sure it was real, and while I waited for the IV to drain so I could get an epidural, it wouldn't stop, despite my efforts to make it stop. I was only 4 cm when we got there. I was a little surprised at that because these hurt worse than Garrett and I was a 6 with him. The nurse that was at the monitors left the room quickly; when she came back she said I was getting my epidural early because my blood pressure was spiking, and the baby's heart rate was rising. I had just finished a contraction that lasted 5 minutes straight and wouldn't let up. This labor was awful and hurt so much worse than with the other boys. The anesthesiologist came in to work her magic, except the magic missed a spot. At the same time she expressed concern about my irregular heart rhythm. I’ve been to cardiologists and they just blow me off, maybe it’s finally bad enough that they will do something. A little later another anesthesiologist came and got “the spot”. I was progressed at a good rate once I couldn’t feel everything.

Just before 8:30 a.m. Lincoln was ready to make his appearance. There was a doctor on call I’d never heard of, from a practice I hadn’t heard of, and I was not real happy about it, but he was the one on call. I learned later that my doctor’s practice teamed up with another practice for being “on call”. He was a nice guy, but a man of FEW WORDS. All he said to me was, “Hi I’m Dr. Tessone”. Then, “push”. Lincoln was born at 8:33 a.m. As he came out and we got our first look at him Stephen and I both said, “Whoa he looks so different!” He was all pink instead of tan, and his head just had goldish fuzz, not a full head of black hair. Hmmm, that really threw a kink in trying to come up with a name for him, what do you name a kid that looks like that?

He had a nurse with a funny sense of humor; when she found out this was our third boy with no name at the time of birth she filled his paper out as “Baby Boy Maskey III” He was 8 pounds 3 ounces and 20 inches long, that was a half pound bigger than Gabriel and a full pound bigger than Garrett. See, I wasn’t imagining things….he WAS bigger, I wasn’t making things up. Every time Stephen took a picture with the flash he’d start screaming so, we took pictures with no flash and didn’t get very many that turned out that well. I guess all you need is a couple good ones though.

As soon as my legs had some feeling in them I was moved to a little tiny post partum room. Lincoln had lots of family and some friends come to visit and welcome him to the world. What a lucky boy to be loved by so many.

(All the cousins were in timeout for this picture.)

That night I was so tired we didn’t even worry about figuring out a name. I had a horrible allergy attack going on and apparently so did Lincoln; Stephen said we both snored all night.

I chose to stay in the hospital for two days; this was only possible because my mom was willing to take Gabriel and Garrett for the two days. That extra day to just rest and spend time with Lincoln has made all the difference for me. After Garrett, I was crazy as a loon, and had depression set in that took FOREVER to get rid of. I haven’t felt that craziness this time around. Don’t ask Stephen about it because he thinks I’m crazy all the time. The second day, while we were trying to come up with a name, Stephen got a call from a friend who had access to a bobcat for the day. So, of course, Stephen came home to grade the backyard. The boy’s big pile of dirt was leveled and now rain should not cause problems for us anymore. Gabriel was hard to name and with Garrett after we had our list and I just knew that Garrett was the winner. I hoped that Lincoln would be that easy but he’s been the hardest and taken the longest to name so far.

I went through the whole name book and made a list of possibilities. I liked Stetson because he was born during Rodeo Week, but that sounded funny with his middle name, Stephen. Bobcats are loud and Stephen couldn’t hear when I would call about names, so we just texted. The birth certificate lady only worked till 12:00 noon….we were in a time crunch. Stephen said to pick 2 or 3 that I liked and text them to him. I always fight for Atticus then added Bryson and Lincoln. He liked Lincoln better. I liked it too but then started second guessing, was it weird, would he get made fun of at school, would it look alright on a resume, did it fit, did he look like a Lincoln, what does a Lincoln look like, was giving a kid a dead president’s last name strange….etc. So, I called Gabriel and asked which name he like better, Bryson or Lincoln. He said, “No, he’s baby Atticus.” I explained that was just a name that I used while he was in my tummy, but now we need to pick a name for him. His little voice came back so sad and ripped my heart out, “I like Atticus, let’s name him Atticus.” “Please mom I want to name him Atticus.” So, I asked him to put Nanny on the phone before he made me feel any worse. He wasn’t any help, especially because Stephen will NEVER let me use Atticus. I kinda liked Bryson better but Stephen was letting me use his name for the middle, which he DID NOT want to do, so I went with the first name that he liked better. I called the birth certificate lady in at 11:55 a.m. We caught her in the nick of time. I filled out the paperwork; while she was gone I was still nervous that we’d picked a bad name. All is well with it now, it fits him well and I like it just fine.

We came home the evening of the second day.

It was just the three of us that night because my mom let the boys stay at her house for the second night. Lincoln was awake all night. He’s not one of those babies that you can feed and put right back in bed. Once he woke up it was 2 hours before he’d sleep again. It was a looooong night. My mom dropped the boys off the next morning on her way to go to story time and watch my nieces for a few hours. We were off and running. The boys loved their new brother all day long….very vigorously I might add. They are such rough little boys; I wouldn’t leave Lincoln alone in the room with them.

Welcome to our family, we love you Lincoln!