C&C Family

Monday, April 8, 2013

Hit the road Baby

Wednesday:
WE WENT ON VACATION. With a three month old. I cant believe it. It was actually very fun. We flew to San Diego for a few days of fun with Chase's family. Lincoln did amazing on the flight. He just slept and ate and slept. Security was a pain because they make you fold up the stroller so you have to take everything out and pile it on the belt and you have to take the baby out of the car seat and carry him through security in your arms. So that was less fun. But we made it. We got to San Diego and settled in so that we could be ready for Sea World the next day.

Thursday:
We went to Sea World. We saw the Shamu show and that made me miss my sister, Jenelle, because she LOVES Shamu and her favorite movie as a kid (and maybe still) was Free Willy. We got to ride a roller coaster and that was fun. Lincoln did well in the stroller all day and they have really awesome private mothers rooms there so that was perfect. We saw a dolphin show and we saw BABY Shamu, only one month old. That was really neat.

That night we went to Tommy's which is a place my family has been eating at for 50 years. Papa used to go to the original shack. Chase said he would go again so that is an accomplishment! Lincoln was there but could only partake of the smell. Next time baby.

Friday:
We went to the San Diego Zoo. That was awesome. I have been there a bunch before as a kid with Nonna and Papa but it was fun to take Chase and Link. We loved seeing the panda even though we missed the baby panda. The elephants are awesome there too. They have like 20.

Saturday:
We visited Old Town San Diego which i had been to before with my parents. We saw a really cool Mormon Battalion Museum and they had lots of little shops. We at lunch at a Mexican place that i'm pretty sure i had eaten at before when i was little. It was nice to have a day where we weren't rushing to see everything before closing time.

After that we stopped by the beach really fast because Chase had told me he had never touched the ocean before. I guess the story goes that when he went to the beach when he was younger he didn't want to touch the water and on his mission, of course, its not allowed. It was Lincoln's first time too so we put our toes in.

Sunday:
Sunday we came home. It felt like a lot longer of a trip than it seems now that i wrote it all out. Everything takes longer with a baby and Chase's brother Colt has 3 so it was a lot bigger of a deal than i'm making it seem now. We Flew home and had time to celebrate Lincoln's first St Patrick's Day.

Baby's First Valentines Day

Valentine's day isn't usually anything special but this year I had two valentines. Chase got me some beautiful flowers that came in the mail and an amazing ring with Lincolns birth stone. He had school (of course) that night like he has had for a lot of event lately (Side note: He had to go to school and work when we were in the hospital with Lincoln. That is dedication.) So Lincoln and I went to my parents and had the traditional heart shaped meatloaf so that we didn't have to be alone all night. During the day we did some valentine crafting and took some cute pictures. It was probably the best valentine's day in a while because usually Chase has work/ school and I am home alone!

Lincoln James Potter: Baby blessing.

Lincoln was blessed the first Sunday of January. It was quite the event. The bishop joked that there were so many people in the circle that they might have to take it to the parking lot. We didn't mean to have everyone and their dog up there but Lincoln just has a lot of people who love him a lot. The bishop had Chase bring Lincoln back up to the stand afterwards and he held him up so everyone could see him. He mentioned how Chase gave a beautiful blessing and Lincoln is so lucky to have so many worthy priesthood holders in his life and I agree. He said that he needed Chase to let everyone see the baby because he was just too beautiful to not show off. I still get stopped weekly with people telling me that it was the most beautiful baby blessing they had ever heard. Good Job Chase! Afterward we had a dinner at Chases parents house cause our small place could never hold all our guests. It was really great to have everyone together which hasn't happened since our wedding. Most of Chases family and Most of my family were able to be there. It's nice to have an excuse to get everyone together like that. Here are some iPhone pictures from that day.

Christmas 2012

Lincolns first Christmas was fun. We did all the normal things of visiting all the family and everyone got to see Lincoln. We unfortunately didn't get to go to Springville this year because there was a huge snow storm. It was okay though cause we had seen everyone on the 16th at Braden and Jessas wedding and we knew we would see them all again at Lincolns baby blessing. Here are a couple pictures from Christmas. I didn't know it was possible to spoil a newborn because, what do you buy a newborn? but it happened.

the top right is lincoln with the twins. he has really caught up in size since then.

Lincoln with his great grandpa Isom

Lincoln James Potter: Birth Story

He was ten days early and perfectly healthy. I had contractions like an hour apart for two nights before he was born but they would stop during the day. I was still working at the dental office and babysitting Desi though. Then at 1:00 am Thursday morning I started having them 10 minutes apart. And by 5:30 am, when I got to Alta View hospital, they were three minutes apart. My mom finally made me go to the hospital, thankfully. I wanted to wait as long as possible and I think I did. I was having back labor so it hurt pretty bad. When I got to the hospital I was 100% effaced and dilated 4+. So they got me the epidural at like 6:30 am. I don't know why people hype that up and say it hurts so bad, it was no big deal. Except they told me to hold real still or they could paralyze me and of course that's when a contraction happens. Anyways so my doctor, who i Love, Dr Larsen, came at 7:50 am and checked me and I was dilated 5+ and be broke my water. Then at 10:00 am I was dilated 10 so it was time to push and I did that for two hours. It didn't hurt with the epidural, I just felt pressure. And then my doctor came back at noon and checked and said it was almost time and that he would be back in a few minutes after he did some paper work and he came back at 12:10 pm and he was born at 12:18 pm.

during labor i was sleeping while everyone was waiting...

So chase cut the cord and they put him on my chest for a minute. And then they took him over to the special respiratory person to clean his lungs out and everything. So he was over there getting that taken care of and my doctor had to give me a couple stitches and took out my epidural and catheter. I didn't even realize that happened though cause I was just trying to look at the baby. Then they gave me my BABY.

That was the greatest moment of my life. I thought I knew how happy I could be. I thought I knew unconditional love. I thought I knew how much I already loved Lincoln. I was so wrong. It was more than I could ever have imagined.

Then I nursed him and that was interesting. It is crazy to think back on that moment now that Lincoln is so good at nursing. After a while of that the nurse gave him a bath and Chase helped with that while I ate some food. It was the best food I have ever had. Well, I'm sure it was actually was terrible but boy was I hungry.

They moved us to what would be our room for the next two days. I really wanted to go home on Friday but I had a fever the last few minutes of delivery so they needed to watch us a little closer because in my case that could mean one of two things, either one or both of us could have an infection or it was a side effect of the epidural. Thankfully it was just the side effect and no one needed any extra medicine. I didn't sleep in the hospital because I just wanted to hold him the whole time. I don't even know why they gave us a baby bed. He never used it except for transporting to and from the nursery so they could check on him. I wouldn't sleep when they had him either cause I didn't want him to be away from me. We finally got to go home on Saturday around noon and I was so glad to get some peace and quiet.

Tuesday we were ready to start back up babysitting Desi so I only missed two days of that. It was good to be able to start a normal routine. I just wanted to cuddle Lincoln all day that I would actually end up just cuddling Lincoln all day. So I am glad I was forced to do a little more than that. Everyday since has been a dream. I cant imagine my life with out him. We love him so much.

Photos by Marlena Gustafson. THANKS SO MUCH MGUS.