44th President of the USA: Can You Believe It?!

Congratulations to our new President!!!! Now it's no secret that I personally favored Obama from the beginning and have had many conversations/debates with some of you as to my convictions for him as President...so I am excited and ready to see what God has in store for our country. It's also no secret that I live in an area that is pretty much anti-Obama and not afraid to voice that opinion.

This by no means pertains to everyone, but I will say a HUGE pet peeve of mine this morning was to look on facebook and talk to people throughout the morning who have extremely negative attitudes and are posting horrendous comments about how our country is now doomed to hell b/c of Obama's elected state. One lady actually made the comment "I don't know how I can even call him 'President Obama' - it just sounds so Middle Eastern!" Seriously people? At least have a valid argument for the disappointment of the elected President. For instance, those that are complaining about the "road to socialism" could have some validity and I personally don't have a problem w/ people being upset for that reason...personal preference in my opinion. But regardless, he is now our President and it is our duty to pray for his leadership. I appreciate one comment of an avid McCain supporter that stated, "Today I am praying for our new President."

The fact is that record voters turned out to participate in this election, Obama won, and there's no way people can argue with results of the majority of the country. I truly appreciate McCain's speech and think strongly that we should pray for our new President. I'm excited to see what God has in store for our country...

Is This Normal??

Sleeping and feeling rested, that is? Everyone told us we wouldn't get sleep, and I'm SURE that day is coming, but right now we're truly cherishing being able to get about 8, yes, I said EIGHT hours of sleep...crazy. Praise the Lord, cause we definitely need it! Now it's not all at the same time, of course, but we got up twice last night to feed him (Jason's the burper), and then down he went to sleep for the next 4 hours. It's wonderful!

This is making up for the awful 1st night home we had. I haven't written about that night/day yet, but a quick re-cap - Lincoln all the sudden started refusing to eat and he was having no bowl action down there. This started our first night home before bedtime. I didn't think anything about it and thought he was just tired. But then hours would pass and he still wasn't eating and then I just got scared and couldn't sleep. Then he got extremely fussy and we couldn't calm him (cause the poor thing was starving!) and long story short, but it ended up being about 13 hours and he had refused to eat the entire time!!! I went into sheer panic mode, had zero sleep and was was at a loss of what to do. It was Saturday and I tried calling our medical clinic where our doctor was and they rudely told me that the clinic was busy and a nurse would not be able to get back to me till Monday! I just wanted to ball my eyes out and felt so helpless...Jason convinced me just to call up to the hospital and ask for lactation consultants. So I did, and the head RN at the shift answered and offered for us to just come up there (we live about .2 miles away) and she would try and help us...ANSWERED PRAYER!!!!!!! All that nurse was required to do was give us lactation consultant numbers, but she literally took 30 minutes from her shift and patients and worked with us and GAVE us about 5 bottles of glucose formula to make sure he was at least keeping hydrated. What she taught us was how to "trick" Lincoln...I would try to get him to latch on and while I was doing that, Jason had a syringe where he gave a shot of sugar water into Lincoln's mouth...he didn't latch on at the hospital but we were able to feed him the glucose water and he IMMEDIATELY stopped crying (had also been screaming for past 13 hours), and immediately had an EXTREMELY poopy diaper! It was funny cause both of us almost started crying tears of joy at the nasty diaper!

So the amazing nurse (Danielle is her name) sent us home w/ syringes, glucose water, and other stuff to use until Lincoln started latching on again. But we only had to use it once and ever since then, Lincoln has been feeding PERFECTLY. Danielle is our angel. We had such an amazing hospital experience. If any of you live in Siloam and are wondering where to have your child, Siloam hospital is PHENOMENAL.

So since that night, the past two days have been so fun!! Lincoln rarely cries, is awake a great portion of the day making hilarious faces...and bath time is the most fun!!! i posted pictures below of last night's bath. Jason and I had him ALL CLEAN...and then he started crapping everywhere and literally spitting up all over himself!! We just died out laughing and I actually peed my pants a little bit (yeah i guess I need the diapers, too!) cause he just looked so funny doing it all after we had really given him a thorough bath...he's too cute.

Oh yeah - Mr. Bruce Wayne LOVES Lincoln. He has been precious to watch with him...he's Lincoln's little protector, for sure. e sleeps by him and always checks on him. It's so freaking cute. When I get up in the middle of the night to feed him, he comes too. :)

Just Some Pictures...

Look at our little irresistable bundle :)

My Husband

I'm gonna say this and I know I run the risk of sounding unbelievably cheesy, but know that when I write this post, I mean every word in the most literal sense and am not even going to be able to do justice to how I really feel...but let me just start with that my husband is phenomenal.
I have had so many people tell me that "it's the feeling of falling in love all over again when you meet your new little baby for the first time!" I for sure know now how that feels, but I don't think I was prepared to completely fall in love "all over again" w/ Jason. I have always been crazy in love w/ Jason, but never knew I could feel like this about him! I am trying to figure out which has been more beautiful: watching all the newness and little miracles of our new son, or watching Jason be the most amazing father in the world with him. Both have uncovered such intense emotions that I truly never realized existed in my heart.
As I said in the previous post, when Lincoln was born, Jason was so overwhelmed with emotion that he couldn't even put words together to talk to the little guy in the incubator, but just had tears streaming down his face. And then when he brought Lincoln over to me, the first sentence he was able to put together was "What do you think it would take for me to be a stay-at-home dad??"
Before we even left to go the hospital (we were like 20 minutes late) we sat down together in the living room and prayed for the whole process, for Lincoln, and for our house that we were bringing him into...we both took turns praying for these precious things and when we were done, I looked up and my sweet husband had tears just streaming down his face with a big smile.
Since we've had Lincoln, I don't even know how to explain the demeanor of Jason except that this little guy has rocked his world, I think, in a way he never expected. I know Jason has been crazy excited for Lincoln and just in awe of everything, but I'm not sure even he realized how much love and intensity he would have in his heart for this little man of ours - and those of you who know Jason know he is already an extremely passionate man!!
But he's still a coach...ha. We split last night up into shifts. He had the first (10-12), I took over from 12-3, and he finished up from 3-7. Then I was up for the day and he went back to sleep (poor guy slept till noon I think!). Anyway, after his first shift was over and I got up to relieve him, Jason was SO fired up! It was the cutest thing ever! He was talking so fast and excited, telling me all the things they did all the faces he made, how he changed diapers and held and how Lincoln cried and how he soothed him...on and on and on with hand motions and everything. Then he went straight into, "you know I LOVE this...I was thinking I can get by when season starts on like 4 hours of sleep - I used to do it all the time! I can just sleep for 4 hours and then do all of this every night...I can do this!" He was so excited and you could tell just trying to figure out a way where he could spend as much time with Lincoln as possible. I just sat there laughing at him and when he was finished just walked up and kissed him and told him I think he's amazing. That is an understatement.
Anyway, I have enjoyed more than anything sitting back and watching my husband truly be such an amazing father. It is such an indescribable joy that I am so blessed to experience.
I love you baby. :)

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!!!!

Wow. Why Would Lincoln Rather Stay in My Tummy??!!

I had my final doctor's appointment today with Dr. Hill (he's amazing by the way)...before the big day, that is. :) Not much more progress and I can't figure this one out - we have been walking every night - and not just the stroll kind, but the fast-paced, work off dinner type, that you would think would for sure get Lincoln a little farther down there. But no. And then I have been cleaning like a freaking MAD WOMAN (that's an understatement, too!) - scrubbing, bending, lifting...you name it - ALL of it. But still no Lincoln! All I did was LOSE 4 pounds from my previous visit 6 days ago!!!
So I know some of you won't agree with this, but yes - we're inducing Wednesday morning at 6:00a. Keep us in your prayers and check back here for pictures and introductions to Lincoln James McMahan!!! We can't wait to see ya little buddy!!!!

As a side note, but a well deserved shout out - my amazing mother has been at my house all night steam cleaning my carpets and had a friend lend her a $750 machine (NO JOKE) that purifies the air in your house and rids it of any unfavorable smells (you can't be pet lovers like us and not have "smells"). Now if only mom could "steam clean" Bruce cause he smells like a sewer! So the house is immaculate (except for our shower) for any of you who want to drop by and see Lincoln this weekend!!!!!!! Thanks mom - you're the greatest - and again, that's by far an understatement. :)

Within the Week...

At doctor's appointment, with his help and expertise, of course, we made the decision to induce labor next Wednesday, Oct. 29th, if Lincoln hasn't decided to come by then. So for sure within the week, we'll be able to hold Lincoln -scary, but SO exciting!!!! Doctor said everything still looks great and I am progressing (hopefully it still won't be all the way until next week).
This week has been TOUGH. I've been so exhausted and work has just been last on my list of priorities, unfortunately. But then, it's kind of funny to me when I sit down and think about it, that I am working still???? But I'm here...if anyone needs therapy, I'm here :)
Oh yeah - Mr. Bruce Wayne got electrocuted yesterday. He's fine and it wasn't funny at the time, but we laugh about it now. I was trying to take a nap after work and the boys were all in the bed w/ me (they love naps more than I do) and somewhere in the middle of it, Bruce Wayne jumped down and decided to chew through the fa cord that was on. Yeah - so I woke up to a screaming high pitched squeal that wouldn't stop, looked down and he was being electrocuted! But the little resourceful guy ripped the cord out of the wall and ran like hell. Poor guy. I consoled him for about 10 minutes and then he was off waking up the other dogs and playing the rest of night.

And in other news, I was coming home from Wal-mart last night and there was a TINY kitten in the middle of the parking lot, not moving, as cars were dodging it. I was like "Seriously, is anyone going to stop and pick it up??!!" I'm not a huge fan of cats so I didn't really wanna do it, but NO ONE seemed to car about this TINY TINY kitten! So yeah - I picked it up and was planning on just dropping it off in our neighborhood so it's chances of getting hit would at least decrease significantly. But when I woke up this morning, it was on my tire crying. But don't worry - I'm not keeping the darn thing and that's a PROMISE this time. I already tried taking it to the Humane Society but they don't open till 10:00, so I'll do it on my lunch break. But if anyone wants a kitten between now and noon, let me know. :)

Hopefully next time I write, I'll be posting pictures of Lincoln James McMahan.