Lincoln Alan Lee

On Tuesday, January 9th, Karina woke up around 5:30 AM with some pain. She said she was having contractions, but the weird thing about them was that they were every 5 minutes and 5 seconds long. We're not sure if the contractions woke her up but I think that they did because she usually wouldn't wake up at that hour, even to my surf alarms. She hung out for a little while and then woke me up around 6:15 AM saying, "I think I'm having contractions." Since the contractions were so odd in length and interval, we didn't know if we should go to the hospital. Randomly, she also felt some discharge and when she checked what it was, it was diluted blood. We called the nurses after about 10 minutes of waiting and a few hang-ups, Karina finally talked to someone and the nurse said to come in, mainly because of the blood.

I called my dad and he headed over. We got everything packed up, got the kids up and ready for the day, and we were ready exactly when my dad showed up. It was fun driving with Karina going into labor, the rain was strong, and I wouldn't have to worry about work for a couple days. We would have a cozy time in the hospital, having a baby and snuggling up, watching the rain.

When we got to the hospital it was about 8:15 AM and Karina was still smiling with early labor pains, no frowns quite yet. They checked her cervix and she was at a 7 and they said she had ruptured earlier and was leaking amniotic fluid (but the bag was still intact). Last time she was an 8 and she went into heavy pains immediately so this time we tried to make sure they knew we were in a hurry to get the epidural and not repeat the nightmare that happened last time. Luckily Nancy, the same midwife that we had with Clark, was there! So she ultimately got to deliver both Clark and Lincoln. She didn't really remember us. The nurses were all really nice to us, getting excited with us and saying how cute Karina was, how cute the name Lincoln was.

We got into the room where Karina would give birth. The epidural couldn't be done until Karina's blood tests came back, so we got that going and by 9:40 AM she got the epidural. The epidural doctor was really nice and quick. Everything went perfectly with it and from here on out it was all smiles.

At 10:45 AM Nancy came in to check on Karina and right then her water broke. There was meconium in the water when it broke. Because of the meconium, the pediatricians would be in the room during delivery just in case there were complications. By this time Karina was at an 8. We just hung out for a little while, rested, watched a bit of a movie on the iPad, chatted, and took some pictures.

At 12:35 PM Nancy checked on the cervix but the baby's head was already in the birth canal. So at 12:42 she started pushing. He was born at 12:47. It was really quick!

When Lincoln came out, he came out a bit different than the other kids. With the other kids, once the head came out, the rest sorta just flopped out seemingly with no effort. Also the other kids were crying pretty much the instant they came out. Lincoln's head came out and then the midwife helped him get his first shoulder and arm out. He was in that position for a few seconds, which looked really creepy, like a monster was escaping from an underground hole. He also wasn't crying which was the big issue.

After a few seconds, Lincoln was pushed/pulled completely out, but since there was no crying, the midwife cut his cord quickly and handed him over to the 3 pediatricians from the NICU. They had a warming bed where they laid him and started doing all sorts of stuff to him. One of them was rubbing both hands on his sides, one of them was suctioning out liquids from every place she could find (nose and throat), and the other was attaching wires all over the place. The 3 of them were so in sync and busy looking it was pretty incredible to watch the professionalism.

The sensors were showing that Lincoln was not breathing sufficiently to keep his blood-oxygen levels up above their desired threshold. They wanted 85 but he would drop below that and they gave him oxygen over his face. Once he got to around 95 with the aide of the oxygen, they would remove it and wait. He kept dropping below that 85 number so they said they needed to keep working with him in the NICU.

Me and Lincoln headed over to the NICU. They gave him an IV which was giving him glucose for his blood. Then they put him on 2 liters of airflow and 40% oxygen (the normal air you breathe is 21%). Their plan was to pretty much reduce those aides until he was able to breathe fine on his own and keep his blood-oxygen levels up. Over the next few hours they reduced him to 25% and 2 liters, then 21% and 2 liters, then 21% and 1 liter, then they removed all support. In each stage he did really well. The doctor and nurses told me there were a ton of reasons this could have happened, but it seemed like in his case he was just slow to adapt to the new environment. This became more and more clear as more of their tests came back normal. He would cry a little bit but never really what you expect from a hungry newborn. They tested his blood and did an x-ray on his chest. Everything was good so as long as he didn't have a major problem like pneumonia then it was probably just a slow transition.

At 4:00 PM Karina visited Lincoln, she strolled up in a wheelchair. He had just come off all breathing support and they just wanted him to be stable for about an hour before letting him go. So she fed him for the first time, that lasted 30 minutes. Then at 5:00 PM he was released from the NICU and we all headed over to the recovery room.

Lincoln is a little cutie pie. He enjoys crying, eating, sleeping, and most of all, pooping. He's got a ton of brown hair, but the roots seem to be blonde so we think he'll be blonde later. He has beautiful blue eyes (maybe, it's kinda hard to tell the color right now). We love our 4th little angel.

Lincoln and Karina are doing great with breastfeeding. Everything else seems to be normal. Kim is visiting for a week and I'll be getting 3 weeks off of work after that. All is well!

36 weeks

How far along?: 36 weeks

Total weight gain: 21 pounds! 

How big is baby?: The size of romaine lettuce (about 18.5 inches, almost 6 pounds)

Maternity clothes?: yes. And lots of stretchy dresses

Movement: It's at the alien stage

Stretch marks?: I'm fairly certain I have some around my belly button. They're white marks so it's a little hard to tell

Sleep?: I'm falling asleep easier, but still need a nap almost every day

Symptoms?: The heartburn is becoming less, but I'm having back pain.

Food cravings: Orange Juice

What I miss: Not having a rock hard belly. It's so hard to bend even slightly

What I'm looking forward to: Christmas! Duh! So many fun activities and family get-togethers coming up!

32 weeks

How far along?: 32 weeks

Total weight gain: 17 pounds! 

How big is baby?: The size of a squash (about 16.6 inches, about 3.75 pounds)

Maternity clothes?: yes, or just sweatpants

Movement: dare I say too much? It's starting to get to painful stage 

Stretch marks?: maybe around my belly button. I can't tell yet. 

Sleep?: Still always tired, and still having a hard time taking a nap :(

Symptoms?: heartburn almost every night

Food cravings: anything

What I miss: being able to bend over without getting winded

What I'm looking forward to: my parents are coming into town for Thanksgiving! 

27 weeks

How far along?: 27 weeks

Total weight gain: 13 pounds! Only 1 pound more since last month. I'm glad things are slowing down a little...for now

How big is baby?: The size of lettuce (about 14.4 inches, about 1.93 pounds)

Maternity clothes?: yes on tops, but maternity bottoms are still too loose 

Movement: lots of kicking and pushing

Stretch marks?: not yet

Sleep?: I'm usually always tired, whether pregnant or not. But lately I haven't been able to fall asleep for nap time (yes, nap time is for me too). I haven't been feeling too tired because of it though, but it's always hard to get up in the morning.  

Symptoms?: A little heartburn

Food cravings: Just everything

What I miss: Wearing my regular clothes. None of my maternity clothes are cute

What I'm looking forward to: Halloween! We have lots of fun Halloween/Fall activities coming up this month. Now if only the weather would get with the program.

22 weeks

I'm a few weeks late on this post. My goal is to post every time I have a prenatal appointment. I'm 19 weeks along right now, but I'm going to write this post as if it were right after my appointment. 

How far along?: 22 weeks

Total weight gain: 12 pounds! Yikes!

How big is baby?: The size of a spaghetti squash (about 11 inches, about 1 pound)

Maternity clothes?: I've started wearing a few maternity tops

Movement: lots of flutters

Stretch marks?: no

Sleep?: I've been getting some good sleep. I'm trying not to nap as much so I can actually fall asleep at a decent hour. It's like a never ending cycle though. I go to bed late, so I need a nap, and then I'm not tired so I don't go to bed til midnight, and so on and so forth. 

Symptoms?: Heartburn is starting already :(

Food cravings: Nothing specific really 

What I miss: Being thinner. With every pregnancy I get bigger, faster.

What I'm looking forward to: School starts this week! Summer break was harder than I thought it would be. Savannah has a lot of energy and when she gets crazy, the boys follow suit. Things were much more mellow last year while she was in school so I'm hoping that happens again. Sterling is also starting preschool 2 days a week!

16 weeks

I'm a few weeks late on this post. My goal is to post every time I have a prenatal appointment. I'm 19 weeks along right now, but I'm going to write this post as if it were right after my appointment. 

How far along?: 16 weeks 5 days 

Total weight gain: 3 pounds

How big is baby?: The size of an avocado (about 4.5 inches, about 3.5 ounces)

Maternity clothes?: Not yet

Movement: lots of flutters

Stretch marks?: no

Sleep?: I've been insanely tired all the time!

Symptoms?: Heartburn is starting already :(

Food cravings: Orange juice

What I miss: Being able to do anything. I'm so exhausted; I'm completely useless

What I'm looking forward to: We're going to the river next week! I'm so looking forward to a much needed vacation.

Magic number 4

Well, I'm pregnant with baby #4! The kids (well, Savannah and Sterling) are so excited. They both want to have a baby girl, but they know that we don't get to pick. I had my first appointment yesterday and it was a little bit of a nightmare just because the boys were wreaking havoc in the room. And I'm not much of a disciplinarian when I have no pants on...

Other than that, the baby looks good and the heartbeat sounds great! I can still remember Savannah being terrified of the sound of Sterling's heartbeat. She would cry every time we heard it. 

How far along?: 11 weeks 3 days

Total weight gain: -1 pound

How big is baby?: The size of a fig (about 1.6 inches, about .25 ounces)

Maternity clothes?: Not yet

Movement: Absolutely nothing

Stretch marks?: no

Sleep?: I've been insanely tired all the time!

Symptoms?: A tiny bit of nausea

Food cravings: Orange juice

What I miss: Being able to do anything. I'm so exhausted; I'm completely useless

What I'm looking forward to: We are moving into a house next week, July 1. I hate the stress leading up to the move, but I can't wait to be in a bigger place. Right now we have all 3 kids in 1 bedroom and Savannah is really excited to have her own room.