Lincoln's Birth Story

Lincoln Taylor Deason was born at 10:11pm on August 3^rd, 2019. He weighed in at 8 pounds 10 ounces and 21 inches long. He scored a 9 on his APGAR test both times and is perfect in every way. We are in awe at how beautiful and perfect he is. God sent us the most amazing baby and we could not be more ecstatic to be his parents.

So, the story of how he came into this world….

We were scheduled to be induced on August 2^nd at 9pm. That was about 39 weeks for us. Well, after my anxiety peaked and I was finally calm enough to go, they called and said they had too many patients and not enough staff and that we would have to wait. They called at 9pm and said they would call when they had space. They called at about 2am and I was much too exhausted to go in. So, we went in at 8am on Saturday morning.

We had the nicest nurses on Labor and Delivery at Swedes. There was a new nurse and she was the sweetest. We also had 2 other nurses one who helped me push when the time came. They tried to hook me up to an IV in my left arm and that hurt. It was really bruised, but they got one in my right arm (even though I had a bleeder and basically bled out according to Brennen hahaha). So, they were going to give me Cytotec to soften my cervix, but instead (since I was already having contractions apparently) I was started on Pitocin around 10am. Everything after that is a blur, but I vaguely remember the following:

-The family stopped by and I remember Michael trying out the rocking chair.

-There was a marathon of Sherlock Holmes on and after that it was National Lampoon’s Vacation movies.

-I got an epidural at 2pm and I remember the newer nurse was holding my hands. I thought the epidural would be much worse, but it wasn’t. It felt like a bee sting and then everything else I did not feel. I remember I thought Brennen was going to hold my hands, but the new nurse kind of took over. It was nice either way. Apparently, I don’t like being touched when I am in pain anyways.

-I played a round of speed with Brennen.

-I got my water broken by my doctor around 4:30 or 5pm. I then dialated from 3 cm to 10 cm in about 2 hours.

-I don’t remember anyone visiting after that, but apparently my family did come visit again.

-My doctor put an internal monitor inside me and told me it was Lincoln’s first toy.

-I started pushing around 7pm. The night nurse was a great nurse who helped me through the process. We played tug-of-war to help me engage the right muscles.

-My doctor came in around 9pm with a resident, but we don’t remember her name. She was pretty nice and encouraging. I was losing a lot of blood (I apparently lost the same amount you would lose during a c-section). My doctor could not really figure out where I was bleeding from so that sort of sucked. I was past the point of exhaustion and a c-section was being considered. It would have been an emergency c-section. I remember my doctor and everyone getting in the gown things and putting the shoe coverings on. It was freaking me out and then my doctor said the critical care team needed to come in. I was for sure that it was for Lincoln, but apparently Lincoln was happy as a clam inside me, but he was super stuck. The critical care team was in there for me.

-Brennen watched the whole thing. He said our baby had hair at one point and that made me super happy. He is quite the haired beauty.

-So, yeah Lincoln was stuck and I was exhausted. So, my doctor did an episiotomy, put his hand in there (other people pushed on my stomach) and out he came. It was weird. They put him on my chest and he was like purple. I kept saying “what’s going on?” and then apparently, I said I needed to puke. So, they took him to the warmer.

-I remember watching my doctor bragging to his resident about how amazing his stitches were as he stitched me up. That was a bit weird too.

-I don’t remember our first family photos. But, I do remember looking at Brennen after he was born and he was beaming with pride. That was neat. 😊 When I was screaming in the final push, I remember only making eye contact with him and he said in those moments he really would rather be the one pushing out the baby rather than me. I also remember asking Brennen if he was okay and Brennen said he thought Lincoln suited him. I agreed and I think I said something about his hair making him look like a Lincoln.

So, afterwards we were in the labor and delivery area for 2 hours. Lincoln was born at 10:11pm. I remember having to get up to try to pee for the first time and I had to ride on this weird thing because I was so dizzy. I think it was named something with a Suzy. I remember telling our nurse that I thought I had peed, and she said I hadn’t and when I stood up there was just a ton of blood. Normal stuff right there. Then, they wheeled us up to post-partum at 12:30am and let’s just say we were not impressed with the evening nurses. I had to pee finally at like 4am and I pushed the button for someone to come help me, but nobody ever came. We also were never shown how to even feed our baby and that made for a painful night. It was tough. By morning time, we got visitors and showed off our baby to grandparents and aunt and uncle. The epidural finally started to wear off enough for me to move my toes. I felt like I had phantom numbness for some time after they ripped that tape off my back and took the epidural out the night before. (I also had a catheter in and that felt wacky too, but luckily, I was numb).

I got my first meal finally. (The night nurse gave me a sack lunch, but I didn’t even touch it. I was so exhausted.) I had hospital cafeteria food. It wasn’t bad except the salad I ordered was apparently a side salad. But I got chocolate pudding that was delicious.

We went home Monday evening from our room that the AC was not working. That was another thing. Lincoln had 24-hour tests done that night before, but there was miscommunication because at 3pm a nurse came in and said, “are you guys planning on going home today?” and we were like “yes, we have been waiting all day.” And then she got things moving. I don’t know where the miscommunication occurred, because the nurse who had asked us in the morning was still there and knew we wanted to go home. So, yeah, that was a bit ridiculous. But, we finally broke free and went home to a nice dinner of roast and corn on the cob.

Overall, our experience in the hospital went well. He had a bit of bump on his head from where he was stuck, and is better now. He was really stuck good in there. I had a big enough pelvis for him to escape, but he wouldn’t turn his head to come out the proper way (and every time I pushed he would slide back into me). My pelvis was a bit too narrow. 

I cannot put into words how much this little boy means to us. Being parents is a blast. Somedays are more tiring than others, but most the time we are happy and just grateful to be healthy and alive. We didn’t expect all those circumstances to occur, but we are glad we have such amazing doctors and nurses who helped us bring little Lincoln into this world. We will love him forever and ever and give him the life he deserves.