Lincoln has been growing so much already. His days are pretty simple. He just eats, sleeps, burps, and gets diaper changes. But we sure like him! Usually he gets up between 3 and 8 times in a night (some nights are rough) but last night he slept from 11:45 pm -5:15 am (when we finally woke him up to feed him). It was wonderful! It is funny how our expectations of sleep have changed. He also smiles several times a day, but always when he is sleeping. He is such a blessing in our lives!
Above.... cookie monster watches over Lincoln. We took a few of these pictures and they really made us laugh. We got cookie monster by winning 1100 tickets at Trafalga's on a date last fall. Vance won the arcade game Deal or No Deal twice worth 400 tickets each time!
Lincoln was born at 11:13 pm on Friday, October 1, 2010. He weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. It was a really hard but wonderful experience. He has white peach fuzz for hair and definite blue eyes. We are so happy he is here and we have met him!
The birth story:
I woke up at 4 am on Friday with contractions that got stronger and closer together until 8:30 AM. They stopped altogether but started up again at noon and got stronger. I went to a work meeting but left at 3:00 because I was not feeling very good. Vance picked me up (he didn't want me driving that day for good reason) and insisted we go straight to the hospital. I was sure we'd be sent home but we were admitted. Once I was admitted, the contractions again slowed so they gave me some pitocin to induce labor and help it along. Vance was calm and a great coach the entire time. From 9:00 to 10:30 that night I dilated from a 3 to 10 centimeters. I was complaining a bit to the nurse about the pressure and pain and asked her at 10:30 if she could check me. Once she did she said we could start pushing! So at 11:13 pm Lincoln was born and more than worth it!
Our first family picture, above, in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Lincoln was alert for a couple of hours after birth.
My parents and little brother Peter came down to visit us. Above is a picture of my mother, Kristen. We unfortunately didn't get a picture of Lincoln with Peter or my dad.
We are so glad to have him here but we are very tired, too!
Last night I took these pictures in the middle of the night to show what he looks like at day 4. We love him so much.
I guess it was kind of fun/funny for me to get a picture of Vance on his very first day of graduate school. He was a good sport and let me take the picture.
Also, there are pictures added to the previous post of our San Francisco trip and other summer pictures, so scroll down to see.
Here is a view in the morning a couple of weeks ago on a cloudy day. It actually was a bit stormy that day, but gives you an idea. I love how in the morning the sun lights up the apartment and seriously looks golden and makes me think we left a light on from the night before. It is so pretty. There are TONS of trails around here to go walking on as well, along with soccer fields, outdoor basketball courts, etc.
Below is an old video from last summer. I guess we like surprising each other with video mode.
34 week pictures (one month ago)
Above is a video at 34 weeks, about a month ago. You can see a little bit of our apartment as well.
Above are 36 week pictures (about two weeks ago).
At our 36 week doctor's appointment I was 1/2 cm dliated and 50% effaced. Last week at our 37 week appointment I was 1 cm dilated and 75% effaced. We still have a couple of weeks to go, but he's getting ready to come!
32 week picture below. We were at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. We tried throwing around a frisbee, but it was too windy!
Vance and I are now in Indiana. He just started his master's degree in Mechanical Engineering here at Purdue. We really like West Lafayette. It is very green, a bit hilly, and humid. Everyone has been friendly too. Our apartment doubled in square footage so we are loving the extra space! Our patio view is mostly of fields and grasses that are empty and the sun rises on that side as well. We made it safely here three weeks ago with our Penske rental truck towing our car, which was quite an adventure. It was pretty tricky filling up on gas. We had to plan out on how to turn around every time we would stop at a hotel, fill up on gas, etc. Once we got stuck at a hotel (we thought we had enough room to do a U-turn in a parking lot, but we didn't!) but luckily the owners of the car that was in the way were just leaving their hotel room after we had unattached everything from the truck. What a blessing!
Two weeks before we moved we had a family reunion on my mother's side in Preston, Idaho. It was awesome! We had fun swimming, games with second cousins, a talent show, etc. I was able to learn more about my roots as well. It had been a long time since seeing many of those family members, so it was so nice to be together.
Above are some of my mother's cousins, the kitchen crew, on our last morning at the lodge in Preston.
Above is Vance with my mom's cousins Lon and Monte. They were each Idaho state wrestling champions when they were younger. They wrestled in front of us, and it was fun to watch!
We then spent a week in San Francisco. Along the way we stopped in Boulder City, Nevada to stay with our sister and brother in law (Steve and Jen). It was really nice to be with them and catch up! They have the greatest kids! Thanks guys! We then spent the next evening with our other sister and brother in law (Becky and Jeff) in San Jose, California. I had the best pizza of my life that night and then we all played horseshoes in a beautiful park. We were actually in Santa Clara, the town of my birth, so that was really neat to revisit.
In San Francisco we had tons of fun as well. We had to plan when to come into and leave town to avoid traffic. Some of the things we did were a bay cruise (including around Alcatraz and under the Golden Gate bridge), city trolley tour (we were on top of a 2 story trolley and literally froze while we learned about the architecture in town, saw the "Full House" house, drove through Chinatown, Ghiradelli Square, etc.). We also spent some time at Fisherman's Wharf, went to the Jelly Belly Factory, ate at the Cheesecake Factory, went to the Botanical Gardens and a Fragrance garden (pineapple, coconut, lemon, chocolate, smelling plants), and more. The highlight of the trip was probably seeing Wicked. We loved every minute of it and were pretty tired by the end of the days we were there. It was a great trip.
Above- we are at the Golden Gate bridge. It was a really cold day.
We also went to Muir Woods. It was so beautiful there and quiet.
Vance got this picture in Muir woods. The redwood trees were so tall, we had never seen anything like it. We went hiking for a few miles and just really enjoyed it.
We also saw Wicked!!!! It was one of the most fun nights on the trip. Earlier that evening, we went and ate at the Cheesecake Factory, which was delicious.
Here is a fun picture of Vance. We waited in line forever for the Jelly Belly Factory tour. But they gave us these hats right before it was our turn for the tour.
We took a city bus tour on top of a two story trolley. We got to see so much of San Francisco on this tour and loved it. It was freezing, so when we stopped at the Golden Gate bridge to get out, we bought hot chocolate to warm our bellies for the trip back! We were surprised how cool it was in San Francisco, but in some ways it was the first time I felt cool all summer!!!
Now Vance has started school and is doing really well including being ahead in all of his classes. I am really proud of him. I have started a couple of weeks ago working at a 5th and 6th grade middle school in the area doing speech and language therapy. We sure miss our friends and family in Utah, but are loving it here as well.
We went to Milwaukee last weekend for the funeral of my grandfather, Walter Heinz Karl Kindt. We are really happy that he is now reunited with my grandma Rosie, who died last December. My grandpa Walter grew up in Germany, served in WWII, and then served a 5 year LDS mission in East Germany. He came to Wisconsin, married my grandma, and they had 7 kids. I remember as a little girl him telling me stories and I would just nod my head because I didn't always understand his strong German accent :) He always had chocolate to share in his desk drawers and loooved us grandkids so much. Sure will miss him.
Below is a picture of my dad, far right, and all of his siblings last weekend.
Here is Vance and I last weekend in Milwaukee.
Above is a picture of him in Germany with my grandma when he served as Mission President in the 1970's.
Above is a picture of him in Salt Lake City in April at a mission reunion.
He is in the front row in the grey suit with the missionaries that served there. Amazing turnout.
We saw our OBGYN yesterday for our 36 week appointment and baby boy is doing great. Everything is looking normal. We have most of his room set up and are so excited to meet him. I am feeling uncomfortable but really grateful for how well things have gone in this pregnancy.
Vance and I saw the local parade for Independence day weekend. It was just about two hours long, with many impressive floats. We were by a group of pretty outgoing people, which made it fun as well. We had a picnic during the day with my sister and her husband and boy, and watched the fireworks that night after playing some games with good friends in our ward, with quite the grand finale at the end.
Here are some fun pictures of Vance and I. We seem to take pictures in the same part of our apartment lately. We've been having a good summer so far and enjoying the warm weather (but of course keeping the AC on most of the time when we're inside!!!!!!) The warm weather has allowed us to be more active outside, including playing tennis, lots of hiking, weekly soccer, etc.
Two days ago we sold one of our cars. We actually sold it, and saw the new owners drive away with it 14 hours after posting it on-line. The new owners and we thought that we got a pretty good deal, which made us all happy. So it has been two days of being a one car family and we haven't had any problems! It involves a little more planning since we are both working, but isn't too hard to coordinate.
Here is the 28 week pictures we took last week! Vance is really growing! Just kidding. We thought he needed some more pictures here on the blog. I have less than 12 weeks to go and starting to feel uncomfortable at times. We are planning on spending a week in San Fransisco in 3 weeks and having a big vacation before the baby comes. If you have any recommendations on what to do there, let us know. Then, Vance and I are moving to Indiana as soon as we get back and are super excited but will miss everything and everyone!
