One Week Old!

Lincoln is one week old today. I can't believe it! This little guy has just melted mommy and daddy's hearts. We can't wait until the day we bring him home. Most likely that will be about 3 weeks, give or take. Here is a little recap of what has happened this past week:

Saturday Aug. 13: My contractions were super painful (for some days) but thought I should call labor and delivery and see what they thought. I had also just lost my mucus plug so they thought I needed to come in. I drove myself since we thought it would be a quick check. I got there at 7:30 pm and stayed for a couple hours. My contractions were about 3-5 min. apart. My cervix was still closed. They did another FFN test to see if I would go into preterm labor. I was given IV to see if hydrating me more would help. Then I was given a few shots to try and stop/slow contractions. This ended up helping so I was able to go home about 9:30pm. They said to call back if contractions got closer or pain started again. The nurse called me and said the FFN test was positive (3 days ago it was negative!!) Told me to be on bed and pelvic rest until my next appointment on Wed. Well an hour after I got home the pain was back. I toughed it through the night, not sleeping at all.

Sunday Aug. 14: I called the nurse at 7:50am and she said I needed to come in. AJ drove me this time, but dropped me off because he needed to finish some concrete work he was doing!(We laugh about this now!) I got checked and was dilated to 4+!! Holy cow I couldn't believe it. I was admitted, talked to my neo-natologist about all the complications of a preemie, given a steroid to help develop baby's lungs, given more shots to try and stop these contractions. The plan was to try and stop them and hopefully keep this baby in me till 36 weeks but would be on bed rest in the hospital until he arrived. It was kind of a long day dealing with contractions. My mom and AJ were there with me. I started having some really bad ones about 4pm which sent baby's heart rate down to 60 for about 2 min. then stabilized. This happened a few times. I was checked at about 8:30 pm and was at 6cm. I was given oxygen to help baby and me. Had epidural, broke water and was told was going to have this baby! 11pm started pushing but then stopped because just wasn't quite ready. My dad was in Florida for work, but my mom, AJ and his parents were there. My mom and his parents waited in the waiting room!

Monday Aug. 15: 1:40am started pushing with nurse and at 1:55am brought Dr. and everyone in. 2:16am Lincoln James Manfull arrived into this world with a nice loud scream:) 4lbs 6oz, 17 in. long. I couldn't hold him since he needed to get checked right away. I touched his leg then he was in the room for 15 min. getting looked over. Then AJ went with Dr. to the NICU with Lincoln.

How he is doing now: Great! He has lots of beautiful blonde hair! Last week had a breathing tube to give him a rest from working so hard, then had CPAP, then was breathing all on his own! Friday Aug. 18 started Bili lights and blanket for jaundice but as of today (Aug. 22) off that for now! AJ and I love to hold him during his feedings which is every 3 hours. So we usually hold him for 2-3 hours a couple times a day. I spend the night about every other night and am here all day. AJ comes after work and was here all weekend.
Saturday Aug. 20 we had a family baby shower and got some great things. Last night Danielle came over and helped us in Lincoln's room (we didn't really have anything ready because we weren't expecting Lincoln to come 9 weeks early!) I am not not as stressed as things are falling into place.

In order to come home: They said he needs to have 3 things mastered which are breathing on own (doing good!), holding his own body temperature (that's been good past 2 days but waiting a little bit to be in an open crib) and eating all on his own. Right now he has a little tube down his nose for breastmilk that I pump. The hard part can be doing all 3 of these things at once!

AJ made a video of his first 5 days but I am having trouble loading it on here so will keep working on it. Here are some pictures for now :) The little circle taped on his face is what his cool shades for the bili lights were stuck to!