Day 6 Part 2

First of all, I am as exhausted as Porter looks in this picture.  After being up for most of the last 36 hours, I feel about like Porter did this afternoon after he finally got to sleep.  He definitely made up for the trouble he had getting an afternoon nap.  He went to sleep as we were leaving the parking lot of the medical center and slept until 6:45pm.  I got him out of his carrier and took him to his room to change his diaper, and he fell asleep.

Then he woke up and did his little stretches.  We love watching him stretch while he is waking up.  He looks like he has really gotten some good sleep the way he stretches.

Then I got him ready to eat some cereal, and he ate a couple of bites and fell asleep again.  (Yes, I realize my aim is bad--we're both still learning how a spoon works.)

Finally he woke up enough to eat, get a bath, have his bedtime bottle, and go right back to sleep.  And I am on my way to bed too.

Day 6

Porter slept all night!! (Like this is a new trick...) He and Nicole were asleep when I got home this morning at 6:30, so I didn't know who was more worn out, but when Nicole got up she said he didn't get up at all. We had a big day planned, so it was a good thing he was well rested. If we had only known how the day would go we might have tried to put him back to bed after breakfast. We got ready and went to the mall over in Mobile so that I could use the baby Gap card we got as a baby gift. We got Porter a couple of onesies and a really cute pair of shorts. We walked through a couple of other places, and went to eat at Chik-fil-a. Porter decided he was ready for lunch too, but I had not brought his bottle in the mall. I had to high-tail-it back to the car and get it, and I could hear him before I could get back to Chik-fil-a. I ran to the bathroom to warm the bottle under the hot water, and I learned that it is not a very effective way to warm a bottle. A lady at the table next to us told us to go to Starbucks and ask for a cup of really hot water. She is a genius! That works great--the water was hot enough Nicole burned her finger, and Porter got his bottle faster. The lesson was two-fold---the Starbucks water trick, and that Porter will notdrink a cold bottle. After he ate, he was ready for more. He really enjoyed the mall. He was a very loud talker.

After the mall we went up to the hospital, but for once it wasn't for work. The medical students put on a "skit night" every year that is kinda like a comedy night where anybody can submit videos they have put together or put on a little skit. They also hand out funny awards. It's a lot of fun. The female surgery residents are putting together a music video with our own words to the new Britney Spears song "Circus." Today we met to do some of the filming. We've been doing a little here and there for the last couple of weeks, but we needed a time where more of us could get together to do some of the big scenes. It's going to be really cute. I think we will put it on You Tube after we release it at skit night. Porter did not like it very much at all. It meant that we interrupted his afternoon nap, and we paid for it dearly. He was not in a good mood. He finally got some good sleep on the way home, and he is still asleep as I type.

Tonight Nicole and I were planning on going out to eat, but after this afternoon, we have decided we will just order in.

Here are a few pictures from today. I might get more to post later this evening.

Day 5

Today I am working a 24 hour shift at USA Medical Center, so Aunt Nicole is babysitting, and Nannie and PawPaw Harden have tucked in the dogs for the night. Nannie dropped him off at daycare this morning and headed back home for the weekend. This week went by fast for us. Nicole picked him up from daycare and played with him this evening until the nightly routine of cereal, bath, bottle, and bed.

I miss him so much when I work 24 hr shifts. On a regular day I may only get to spend an hour with him--I leave in the morning before he gets up, and I get home between 6:30 and 7:00 pm. That's just in time to play for a few minutes, give him a bath, give him his bedtime bottle, and put him to bed. At least he won't ever remember me being gone so much. When I'm done with residency I don't plan on working this hard. I sure am thankful that we have so many people who can help us. Though I'm not sure that they want to "help" as much as they just want to see Porter. ;)

Day 4

I just couldn't help it. He was in such a good mood when I got home today, I had to post all these pictures. Our evening routine is already so busy I don't even know what comes on TV anymore, but you can add taking pictures, loading and retouching the pictures, and blogging to my night. He got a good nap late this afternoon and was good to go for a couple of hours.

Day 3

We had a pretty good day today. I worked all day, Porter went to daycare, and Nannie and PawPaw Harden and my Nannie all worked on the sunroom and the backyard. Porter was already eating cereal when I got home this evening. He is doing good with it. He thinks we are slow feeders--every time there is a hesitation between bites he politely tells us to speed up.

He's trying out his vocal cords more too. His talking is getting louder and longer. He looks very serious when he is talking--like he is really saying something important. His favorite time to get on his soap box is right after he gets out of the bathtub. He had an almost squeal tonight when we were getting all his rolls powdered up. Next to that, his favorite is being on the changing table. Maybe it has something to do with being naked??? He is the Prince (some understand what that means more than others.....)

He is also enjoying watching the waterfall soother in his bed. If he is not quite asleep when I put him down he will just lay there and watch it. Tonight I when I left his room he was still watching it and then went right off to sleep. Hopefully he will sleep good! Last night he got up at 3:00am. He got out of his routine last week, but is slowly getting back to normal. I know Nannie is ready for him to sleep good too, since she has been getting up with him at night when she is here. She is spoiling both of us.

Day 2 Part 2

"P" is for Porter and Pacifier. This nap was sponsored by a pacifier. He is not a pacifier baby, but late yesterday afternoon he was fussing and wanting to get a nap and couldn't get to sleep. After wrestling with him for about 30 minutes I stuck a pacifier in his mouth and I thought he was going to suck the rubber off of it. He went to sleep and got him a good little nap before his bath.

Day 2--Happy Mardi Gras!

Today was a slow day at work because it's a holiday here--Mardi Gras  (very strange local thing I haven't quite gotten a handle on).  I got home early enough that we went to Barnes and Noble to get a couple of books.  Porter got Dr Seuss's ABCs.  Daddy and Aunt Monkey will also be happy to know that Porter got his fingernails cut.  

Day 1

The Daddy person will be out of town for the next 4 weeks on business, so we will be keeping him updated on everything via the blog. This morning we left the house around 4:30 so Jared could be at the airport in time to leave on a 6:00 flight. We left Porter with Nana rocking him back to sleep after a bottle. He has not been feeling well the last couple of days, so we had planned to take him to the doctor in the afternoon when I could get away from work. He started feeling better throughout the morning though, so we just cancelled the appointment. Porter hung out with Nannie and Aunt Monkey (yes, that is a real person) while Mama, Brooke, and I hit the Malbis mall--hard. We did some serious damage in a couple of hours. We had a blast. This evening Porter had a little cereal, got a bath, and had a bottle before bed. He didn't think he was quite ready to go to bed at 8:00, but a little rocking convinced him he was sleepy after all. I know it's a bad habit to start--I did try putting him to bed without rocking, but he was a little fussy, so I had to go get him.

We're eating a little cereal.

It appears to be fun.

Little fat boy.

Sunday afternoon nap with daddy.

Finally putting the swing to good use....

But, it's not actually swinging. Just reclining... In front of the TV. You can't see what he is staring at, but rest assured it is Noggin--Channel 266 (got that one memorized). Nannie stayed with us part of last week and she pulled the swing over to where Porter could sit in it and watch TV. Don't tell him that they make TVs bigger than that one. He thinks it's a big screen.

Before now the swing was just sitting empty (and still) in front of the fireplace. I thought all babies loved to swing??? You should be able to not buy anything before babies arrive, and take them to Babies-R-Us to shop once they get here to test drive all this stuff. We could have saved Nana a lot of money on a swing if we had done that.

Happy Baby

"That Nannie is so funny...."
"She is talking crazy."

"Mama, don't bother us right now, we're busy laughing."

Update

I got an email from Andrea yesterday. She is the patient I talked about in an earlier post. She and the baby are doing well. The baby will still be in the NICU for a little while because she was premature. I'll have to ask her how much longer she will be in the NICU. Andrea looks great! Keep praying that she will continue to improve.

The little tv

First of all--if TV makes kids dumber, we may be in big trouble, because Porter loves to watch TV. At 3 months old he can sit and watch it for as long as you let him. He really looks like he knows exactly what is going on, and laughs at it. The clue that he doesn't really know what is happening is that he laughs at the title and credits, and otherwise inappropriate times.

Nana and Papa bought him a "little TV" (portable DVD player) like Caroline and Catherine have at their house. It's great--you can put an age appropriate DVD in the little TV and watch whatever you want on the big TV.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Jared has obviously been paying attention. I would always rather have a rose made out of sugar than the real thing. And the best sugar-roses come on Pollman's cakes. I think this might be the best Valentine's Day I've ever had.

First try at the Bumbo seat

Porter tried out his bumbo seat for the first time last night. He was only interested in it for a few minutes at the time, but he did good!

Compromise

As I found out from my poll, most of you are curious about the things I see here at USA Medical Center. A few wusses don't want to see the pictures, and lucky for you few, I've found a way to post pictures from work that you would have to click on to see.
So, if you want to see what a 12 gauge shotgun will do to a human leg, click here, here, here and here. He says he was squirrel hunting and somehow just accidentally bumped his gun and it went off. He went to the operating room right after he arrived because he had an arterial injury that we repaired with a saphenous vein graft. The orthopedic team came in after we were done to put on the ex-fix (external fixator---metal bars that keep the leg from moving.... like a cast....). However, due to the angle the leg was fixed at, the graft got kinked and clotted off. Even after that he still had ok blood flow to the leg, but he ended up needing to have an AKA (Above Knee Amputation).
Lots of people think, "Oh, things like that don't really ever happen," or "I'm very safe and careful, so it won't happen to me," but I am telling you---it happens every day no matter how safe, careful, and attentive you are. This also pertains to motorcycles (Jared and PawPaw Harden), which is why Porter will never have one. ;)

Special Request

I have been taking care of a young lady in the hospital for the last couple weeks that has been very sick. She was pregnant and had been losing a lot of weight and was not able to keep anything down. She had been seeing her doctor, but nothing had been done to address her problems. She ended up in the hospital when she was about 30 weeks pregnant and had an appendectomy. After her appendectomy she still wasn't getting much better, so she had to have 2 more surgeries to finally fix her problems. During one of the surgeries she also had a C-Section. Her little girl, named McKenize, was transferred over to the NICU at Children and Women's Hospital and is doing well, but has not gotten to see her Mama yet because she was still in the hospital. We were able to let her go home today. She has come a long way, but still has some healing to do, and will have to have another surgery in a few months. She has lost a lot of weight and really wants to gain it back, and is dealing with a lot of overwhelming issues related to her medical condition and being separated from her new baby. She said if it hadn't been for her pregnancy she might not have gone to the doctor. She and her baby are both miracles.... Isn't it interesting that God uses little babies to get His mission accomplished? I asked her if I could post her story on my blog and request prayer for her and her little girl. Please remember my patient and friend in your prayers--that God would restore her health, take care of McKenzie, and ease her mind.

New Porter!

  Playing with blocks....

                   Talking to Daddy.

Then.....

Now!!!!

This is only a test

I think I have found out how to post pictures without actually posting the pictures.  For example, I think if you click here, it should take you to a picture of Porter.  Let me know if it doesn't work.  

Wave yo' hands in the ai-re...

Is that comfortable???

A "Vicki" Post

We are very fortunate to have a photographer in Andalusia that has taken pictures for our family since I was a little girl.  To call her professional would be an understatement.   Waiting for the pictures from a session at her studio is like waiting on Christmas.  So far we've done a maternity session when I was 8 months pregnant, and Porter's newborn session.  Vicki was nice enough to email me some of them for my blog.  I also have a link to her website under Favorite Web Places.  Visit her website for lots more, but be careful--you'll have a hard time pulling yourself away.   I hope I'll have many more "Vicki" posts.  Enjoy!