PORTER JED CRAVEN IS HERE

!!WELCOME PORTER JED CRAVEN!! Our little guy is finally here.. 10 days early and now I could never imagine my life without him! He has already brought so much joy and happiness into our lives and we couldn't be happier. Porter was born on Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 at 3:56AM. He weighed only 4lbs13oz and was 16 1/2 inches long. I am so excited to tell the birthing story because it is kinda funny (I can say that now that the labor is over..). It is going to be pretty long, so bear with me! HERE IT GOES... :)

I had been feeling contractions pretty much all day long but didn't really think anything of it because they were so far apart. I even decided that I would go to work that night. I left for work at about 10:30PM and then at about 12:15AM, my contractions started getting closer and closer together..about 10 minutes apart. At about that same time I lost my mucus plug but I still wasn't in a lot of pain. My contractions quickly got closer and closer together and I decided that I should go home just in case.

By the time I got home it was about 1:00AM. I took a warm bath to see if that would help ease the pain..it didn't. They started getting worse and worse. I called the hospital to see if I should go in but they told me that the first baby usually comes very slow and that if my contractions weren't less than 3 minutes apart they would probably send me home. I was in so much pain but decided to wait just a little longer. I climbed into bed for about 5 minutes when I told Paul that WE WERE GOING TO THE HOSPITAL because Porter was on his way out. The contractions hurt so bad that I felt like the only way I could tolerate them was to hunch over and dry heave. We hurried and grabbed Porters diaper bag and a couple of things for us and we were off. Luckily the hospital was only about 10 minutes away. For some reason the worst thing for my contractions was sitting, so on the way to the hospital I had Paul stop 4 times while I hopped out of the car to stand up and hunch over to be able to bear my contractions!

FINALLY we made it the hospital. The nurse that was checking us in was soooo slow and didn't believe me that I was in so much pain and told me that they would probably end up sending me home. She checked me to see how far dialated I was and found out that I was already dialated to a 7..and then started believing me that I was in pain. They took me to the birthing room where I already felt the intense urge to push. The baby was on his way and I still had no epidural and the doctor was still not there. I was such a brat and kept asking the nurses if they wanted me to find the anaesthesiologist since they weren't doing a very good job at it! :) They checked me again and I was dialated to a 10.. and still no epidural! The nurses could tell that the baby had black hair before I received my epidural). My contractions hurt so bad that I told the nurses I was not going to sit in the bed and that I had to keep standing. They had to give me the IV standing up. Luckily the anaesthesiologist came, gave me the epidural, the nurses finally forced me in the bed because they knew Porter was on his way out. Luckily I only had to push about 4 times before he was out. He came so fast that the doctor didn't even make it on time to deliver him. (He walked in 2 minutes after he was born and said "what is that baby doing here?"). Porter was born with the cord wrapped around his neck which made his heart rate drop. I am wondering if this is what was happening a couple of weeks ago when his heart rate was dropping. So Porter was born about 1/2 hour after we arrived at the hospital. The doctor told me that with my future pregnancies, I will have to get induced a couple of weeks early to make sure my babies aren't born on the side of the road! :)

Since Porter was so small, he had a couple of complications when he was born. He had a hard time regulating his temperature, had very low glucose levels since he couldn't figure out how to suck and breath and swallow when feeding, and had jaundice. Everything else he tested totally fine with. By the time we left the hospital he was doing so much better. We just have a couple of follow up appoinments with the hospital to try and get his jaundice in control. I am also not able to breast feed him yet because they want everything that he takes in to be measured to make sure that Porter is getting enough fat to gain some weight. The doctor let us know that because he is so tiny we need to make sure that he always wears a hat, booties and is wrapped up in at least 3 blankets. He has the most beautiful skin that I have ever seen. He has a tiny bit of black hair, gorgeous dark blue eyes, long slender feet (definitely from his dad), my eyes and Pauls nose and cute little chin. I couldn't believe all of our wonderful family members and friends that visited us at the hospital. We had so much support. It was incredible.

Paul is the best dad in the world! I always knew that he was going to be a wonderful Dad.. but WOW! He is amazing. He changes diapers and has basically made every bottle for Porter so far. I love just watching him holding Porter or rocking him while he feeds him. He asks me over and over if there is anything that he can help with and is just so awesome. Paul loves Porter so much and Porter is so lucky to have him as his Dad.

We love little Porter so much! It is so incredible for me to think that he was in heaven with Heavenly Father just a short little time ago. I have heard over and over again that there is nothing like the love that a Mother has for her children, and now I truely believe that! I just love him so much and am so excited to watch him grow!! We are just so grateful that he is here and healthy! WE LOVE YOU PORTER!