Happy Birthday Lincoln John Neal

I will share with you the lovely story of Lincoln's delivery.

I go in for my regular 38 week check up on April 4, 2011 and guess what? Just like Makie, my blood pressure is through the roof. 162/92 to be exact. So the cute nurse tells me that she wants to check my blood pressure again and that she wants me to be relaxed and think of happy things. Well the only thing I could think of was, GET THIS KID OUT OF ME!! Once again my blood pressure is taken and it is still just as high. So they tell me to go to the room and that Dr. Ollerton will be in shortly to check on me. By this point Dave is ecstatic thinking that I just might be having Lincoln today!! He was way more anxious than I was. As I wait in the room for the Dr I am starting to feel nervous just like the day they told me that I would be walking over to the hospital to have MaKenna once my appointment was done. Almost like deja vu. But the only difference was this time I had my bags packed and they were with me. Just like I expected Dr. Ollerton walks in and tells me that he is going to call Labor and Delivery to let them know that I will be on my way there in the next few minutes. EEK!
As I get all settled in the hospital in my room I actually start to get nervous. I knew at that moment we will no longer be a family of three but four soon! After getting all settled with the pitocin and the Dr breaking my water it was now just the waiting game. Soon after that the nurse comes and and asks me when I want my epidural and I say when the contracts are getting bad. Few minutes later she comes back and tells me that the Dr wants me to get it ASAP so my blood pressure will stay down. When the nurse calls the anesthesiologist he is on his lunch break and wont be able to do it for an hour or so. By this time (12:30 pm) when the anesthesiologist actually makes it in to my room, my contractions are starting to get pretty bad and I am so happy that he is there to help with the pain.
My cute parents were there for a for a few hours just chilling with me, Dave and MaKenna. It was nice to have them there and keep us company. Right around 5pm my parents decide to leave and they take MaKenna with them. I believe by this time I was only dilated to a 6 so we figured it would be a while before I would have to start pushing. Dave decides to go get something to eat and while Dave is gone I all of a sudden get this HUGE amount of pain in my lower area and have the feeling that I need to start pushing. It is then that I realize first, my epidural has worn off and second that I may be dilated a lot more than ten minutes ago. Soon after Dave walks in and I can hardly handle the pain and I tell him to grab the nurse because I may start pushing on my own and don't think Dave is qualified to be the Dr at the moment. As the nurse checks me she tells us that I am ready to start pushing and she grabs Dr. Ollerton. Amazing that in less than
ten minutes I am pushing this little guy out. It was pretty intense because babies heart rate would drop as my contraction would come. Did I mention my contractions were less than a minute apart? So the Dr was starting to get anxious and told me I would have to push him out in the next few pushes or they would have to use the vacuum. I was having a hard time breathing so they had to put oxygen on me and I think that only made it worse. Within ten minutes of me pushing Lincoln John Neal was born on April 4th! 6 lbs 15 oz and 19 inches long. His lungs were having a hard time soon after he was born so they had to take him to start working on his lungs, so I only got to see him for a couple minutes. I was nervous but Dave would send me pictures of him and told me he was fine and they were gonna bathe him. I sat in my room alone for 30 minutes before they brought him to me. I was so happy to see my handsome boy. I just love him and he fits right in with our family.
We love you Lincoln!!