Our kiddos

Love, Love, Love taking pictures of Ri and Lincoln together, so I just had to post a couple.

My beautiful babies

"Treasu(red)" he is!!

Who needs a nap??

RILEY DOES!

Lasagna is why she gets naked before she eats it :)!

Poor little thing has been sick for the past week. At the begining of the week it was the throw-up flu and now it's a cold. So she's been sleeping a lot more than usual and when I had walked into the kitchen to get her a banana to eat I walked back to give it to her and this is how I found her. So sweet!

She's now in her crib sleeping...

Quick Update

I have about 10 minutes for a quick update while the kiddos sleep and before dinner is finished, so I thought I would take this opportunity to do so. It has only been 12 days since Lincoln was born, but we are already starting to get settled into being parents of two!

I have to say that the Lord answered our prayers and gave us such a GREAT baby. Lincoln is SO good, rarely cries, and seems really mellow when he's awake. He's already only waking up once a night to nurse. He usually goes to sleep around 10:30pm, wakes up at 2:30am to eat, then sleeps until about 7am. (I PRAY this continues until he sleeps the whole night :)!) What a complete 180 from when Riley was a newborn!!

Daddy and his kids after Lincoln's first sponge bath!

He's been to the doctor a couple of times and has gained all of his weight back already! He only lost about 7 ounces in the hospital so it didn't take too long. You know what's depressing about him weighing so much at birth? The fact that he's already growing out of "newborn" diapers. After we finish this pack we're moving up to size 1. I hope I can exchange the other 12 "newborn" packs that I've got :)!!

A "preview" of Lincoln's birth announcement...

I had to take him to the doctor's office the other day because his eyes were really "goopy" and would get crusted shut...kinda gross I know. Anyways, he has eye drops because he has blocked tear ducts. (Riley was on eye drops until she was a few months old because of the same problem--hopefully it won't take that long for his to fully develop.)

I feel like the past week all I've done are take the babies to the doctor. I have literally been there 6 times in the past week for at least one of them! Riley had to go today because she woke up last night throwing up and running a really high temperature (almost 103). Poor little thing was up ALL night, literally. Ty had to get up at 4 for work and be there at 5 and I was up with Lincoln to feed him, so between both of us I don't think we got more than 30 minutes of sleep, combined! Thankfully my mom came over for a little while today so I was able to at least take a shower. Riley wouldn't be put down all day so I couldn't get anything done; these are the days that I am expecially thankful that we live so close to my mom! :)

Riley is doing great with him--constantly kissing and hugging him. She loves helping me change his diaper, but gets very upset when he cries when I change him. She is constantly giving him his "nipper" (aka. pacifier) when it falls out of his mouth. I'm so thankful she's taking so well to him otherwise my life would be much more difficult.

Riley with her hair in a "pony"...

She was helping me do the laundry. When I turned my back for a second and looked back this is where I found her. :)

Pictures

Well, it is 3:15 am and I'm up with the little guy still, so what better to do than upload some pictures!?! :)

Our little family...

For the first three days this is what happened every time Lincoln cried...Riley is a bit sensitive, so every time he cried she followed suit.

LOVE those chubby cheeks!!

He is so peaceful!

Labor and beyond...

Well here is the "story" of when I went into labor...

Ty had class on Wednesday night, so I had stayed up until 11:30 pm to make sure he got home okay and to say "goodnight" well when I tried to go to bed around midnight I couldn't sleep, so I went on the couch and watched TV until I fell asleep around 1:30am. Around 2:30 am I was awoken by my contractions. I was so excited because I knew this was "it". When you've had one baby I found that you kind of just know when it's time. So I started timing my contractions, showered, called the labor and delivery and then woke Ty up around 4:00am. Then I called my mom around 4:30 to have her come over and watch Riley. (She of course was up anyways--probably sewing) My mom got over around 5:30 and Ty and I took off to Borgess Hospital-bags packed and all, hoping this really was it.

We got to the hospital, had a quick exam and was hooked up to the monitors for a while. Then they got me up to walk the halls to help labor progress. After another exam I was dilated to 3 and was admitted!!! YEAH! I was so excited and of course a bit nervous. The past 2 weeks or so I had been having A LOT of pain in my abdomen, I had mentioned it to my OB doc. and he just seemed to think it was because the baby was moving into position. However, the last 2 days or so the pain had become almost unbearable. After getting settled into our birthing room we just waited and waited for labor to continue. My contractions were about 4-5 minutes apart but becoming much harder. Around 1:00 in the afternoon I finally couldn't take the pain anymore and requested an epidural. It wasn't that the contractions were unbearable, but it was the combination of the pain I was having EVERY time Lincoln moved and the contractions. Well, the doctor figured out that the pain was because the baby's head was hitting my pelvis when he moved it was rubbing bone on bone and that (come to find out) his head was so big that it was pushing my pubic symphasis bone apart...yeah VERY painful!

I got the epidural once the anestheologist got to my room and to make a long story short Ty and I both almost passed out. He gets light-headed when watching that stuff and I don't know what my deal was. Then come to find out after I got the epidural she accidentally messed up and put it in the wrong space, so I had to get it done again an hour later!! I was bummed because I wanted the pain to be gone and didn't want to have to get an epidural again because it's a little painful :)! But it was totally worth it in the end...

Once I got the epidural it was smooth sailing until I stated to need to push. Around 2:15 Dr. Saffold broke my water and I had to get a catheter. That really sped things up and at 3:30ish I started to push. I specifically remember the doctor telling me that there was no way I'd push for as long as I did with Riley (45 minutes) so I was excited to hear that. Well, I started to push and I never thought he'd come. An hour later, our sweet boy had arrived. I pushed for almost an hour. The only thing I can really remember was when his head came out the doctor and nurses ALL said "Wow, that's going to be a big baby". Then when he was totally delivered all they kept saying was oh my goodness, what a big boy!! Little did I know...

They put Lincoln on my chest and began cleaning him off, it was the most incredible experience. All of a sudden I felt no pain and I didn't care that I had just pushed for an hour and was in labor for 10. My boy, the baby I'd been praying for, had arrived and with my hubby by my side we held him and kissed him and stared into his "squinty Paulk eyes" in awe of what God had created.

So that's it...there is SO MUCH MORE I could write about but I'll spare you the details (plus I have to give Lincoln a sponge bath and get Riley to bed).

Borgess "Virtual Nursery"

Here is Lincoln's picture that was put on Borgess Hospital's virtual nursery page...

When you get to the page, click on "May 8" then Lincoln Daniel (on the right hand side), then it will take you to his picture.

My sweet boy is HERE!!!

Finally, after much anticipation our sweet baby boy has arrived!! I've got so much to do that I don't have a ton of time to blog, but I wanted to update all my fellow bloggers! I'll write more about labor and everything later on but for now here are his stats:

Lincoln Daniel Paulk
born on May 8th, 2008
@ 4:22 pm
weighed 9 lbs. 6 oz. (no that's not a typo, he really was almost 9 1/2 lbs!!)
21 inches
head circ. was 14.25 inches

We are so thankful to have our healthy baby home and we praise God for His miracle! What a blessing it is to have two healthy children. We are so thankful. Thank you all for your prayers!

Here is one quick picture of Lincoln and big sister, Riley:

New pictures

I haven't posted any new pictures of Riley lately and I've been meaning to...we got a new camera recently so I've been trying to figure it out! Anyways, here are a few random pics of my baby!!

Ri with her shades on (she refuses to take them off in the house...so she wears them for hours sometimes)!!

Riley and mommy before church last Sunday!

"Why is it so dark in here??" (Don't worry we don't actually use that trash can :)!

This is how we "potty train"...naked (NOTE: the potty chair in the background). She's such a "skinny-mini", as I like to call her.

"Happy Due Date" to me...

Well my due date has come, and still has 4 more hours, but I think it's safe to say that I am overdue...again. I thought for sure we'd have our little guy home by now!! Oh well, if he's not here by Thursday we've got another dr. apt. then and hopefully he'll have some good news or he'll have us set a date to be induced. I'm so bummed, huge and exhausted though...

I told Ty that for our next baby (in like 10 years :)) I don't want the doc to tell me my due date because I get so excited and then my babies are always late...so next time I'll have no idea :)!

Anyways, here is a picture of me at 40 weeks exactly. (I just got out of the shower so I look disgusting, plus am getting really fat!) Oh well, it will all be worth it in the end...

One word...HUGE!

PS. Happy Birthday to my "little" bro, Kol! He's 21 today...