Introducing Lincoln James McMahan!!!!

Lincoln was finally born Wednesday, October 29th, at 4:10pm!! We were extremely blessed to have a fairly easy, pain-free labor and delivery...and it went so much faster than everyone expected!! We went in at 6:00, I was induced at about 8:00...had some intense contractions for about an hour, got the epidural at 9:00 and was pain-free the rest of the day!!

Our families came by around 10:00 and we all just sat in the room talking and laughing and taking stupid pictures...just excited for what was to come. I had an amazing nurse named Melissa - she was incredible. She predicted we'd have the baby later on that night because first-time inductions can take a while. However, Melissa came in to check me at noon and I was almost fully dilated! 20 minutes later, I was fully dilated and no one could believe it - not even my doctor! It all happened so fast and before we knew it, we were getting ready to push and eventually hold Lincoln!! So misconception - I thought you pushed for like 20 minutes and there was baby. No. At least not in my case. For the first hour of pushing, I was all excited and in a god mood and Jason was cracking jokes and we were all laughing...I couldn't believe I was laughing through labor. There was one point that Jason said something and the nurses had to stop and I had to stop mid-push and we all just died out laughing. Crazy husband. :)

But then after about an hour I just got absolutely EXHAUSTED. They don't emphasize how in shape you have to be to give birth!!!!

But then at 4:10, Lincoln decided to make his grand entrance!!!!!!!!! He was beautiful and perfect! He scored a ( on his first Apgar and then a perfect 10 on the second one! I was so proud already...ha. :)

I think my favorite moment was when they had him over on the table right after birth and the doc was still working on me, and I looked over and Jason was at the table watching them clean him off. Jason was trying to talk to Lincoln, but he couldn't get any words out because he was crying and just couldn't form words. I saw tears just streaming from his face and then I started crying in the bed just watching him - it truly was beautiful and I know I am just butchering the moment trying to write it down in this blog. But it's a moment I'll always remember. And Lincoln was just screaming!!! But when they got done, they handed him to Jason so he could bring him over to me, and the moment they put him in Jason's arms, Lincoln COMPLETELY stopped crying!!! It was so precious! And then he continued to just be calm and quiet while Jason brought him to me for the first time...gosh all of that was such an amazing little experience!!!!!!

We stayed in the hospital for the next two days, seeing visitors, learning how to be parents and take care of this little guy, and just recovering. That's when I finally started to feel some pain. :) Hey - I'm not complaining!!! :)

Our experience overall was AMAZING. The hospital was phenomenal and God just really blessed the whole deal. It was EVIDENT e had lots of prayers surrounding us!!!!!

Below are some pictures...

Keep checking back because I have a bit I want to write about his first night home and about how AMAZING it has been to watch my husband with Lincoln - I don't think there's a more precious father out there - seriously. I just don't have time to write about those things right now, but I wanted to get all this stuff I have to say started!!!!