Porter's Birth Day

So here is the L&D post. It took a few days to get together, but finally it is finished....

One of the last known images of me while I was pregnant. Take a good look...... You may never see me this way again. Not that I don't love Porter to death, but I just need to have a little distance from the pregnancy memories and get a little more sleep.

I guess the "labor" probably started on Tuesday, November 11th. I woke up and felt like I was going to puke. Jared and some of our friends had been sick over the weekend, so I thought I must be coming down with what they had. I had my 38 week prenatal visit that day, so I had to get up and get going. After I was up, I didn't feel as bad, so I just blew it off and didn't mention it at my appointment. My regular doctor was on vacation (fine time for me to go into labor), so I saw Dr Bodie instead. He's a family friend and is super nice and an excellent doctor, so I didn't mind. He "checked" me and said there was no way in hell he would even discuss induction. I wasn't favorable.... It could be a week or 3..... Go home and kick your feet up.... The going home was going to happen, but not the kick my feet up part. I had an agenda for the week. I had taken maternity leave starting the previous Saturday, and was going to use the next week to go into nesting overdrive---clean out the cabinets, and even tackle the dreaded junk drawer(s) in the kitchen.

Back to Tuesday. I spent the rest of the day sleeping on the couch and feeling pretty miserable. I didn't even eat anything (very strange for me). Jared had to wake me up that night to tell me to go to bed. I tossed and turned for several hours, couldn't get comfortable, and still felt queasy. About 11:30pm I finally decided I would medicate myself, so I took tylenol with benadryl and sat on the edge of the tub eating rolaids until I felt like I had taken an adequate dose for my illness.

I woke up around 3:30am and felt a little funny---and I'll just leave it at that. Soon thereafter I came to the conclusion that my "water" had broken (that looks weird seeing it in writing). I promptly went back to bed and told Jared. For the next 30 minutes we layed in bed in the dark not sleeping. Then we got up and did the dishes and then we went back to bed again. Around 6:00 am I called my mom and told her not to get dressed for work, but for baby birthing. Then I called Dr Owens at home and woke her up from her vacation. Then I got a shower while Jared packed our stuff (interesting) and we headed to the hospital. Dr Bodie saw me in the screening room and confirmed what we already knew, and we were on our way to a room for and epidural and pitocin. By the end of the day (5:05pm) I looked like this.....

This was right before I completely unwrapped him to survey everything.
Daddy getting acquainted with his new full time job......


You know how everybody has that aunt that smells like moth balls??? Well, this is Porter's "Aunt Moth Ball."

Can't leave out Nana....

Ready for the first ride home.....

First bath.