Porter's first week

It's been a crazy week here at the Butler household but I finally found some time to add some more pictures of Porter and tell about his birth. He is such a good baby and sleeps a lot! He is eating pretty good also and already looks different than his first day or two. Isn't he the cutest thing ever?

Getting his footprint made

Fresh out of the chute

Father and Son

Momma's boy

The signs the girls and Daddy made for Porter's first day home

Proud big sisters

Where I spend most of my time now

I love that newborn smell

Porter's favorite sleeping spot (and we found a new use for those adult neck pillows, great to hold their floppy heads up)

Taking a nap with Daddy

Playing on the play mat with Abbie and Leah

They keep him quite entertained with all the rattles, ring toys, and stuffed animals

Ewww, not a kiss from a girl!

Tummy time

Dog Gone Cute!

Jack Nicholson look alike?

Three ladies and a little man

We love our baby brother

Life as we now know it with three kids!

For those who are wondering, here's a brief summary of how the labor and birth all went down. I was 2 days overdue already and had gone on another long walk on Wed. the 11th, pushing both girls in the double stroller (over 70 lbs), determined not to stop until things really hurt. Maybe it made a difference because that night I noticed my mucus plug coming out and a couple hours later I started feeling more regular and painful contractions at 2 am on Thursday the 12th. I waited for a couple hours to make sure they were the real thing since I'd been feeling contractions on and off for a week or two and they hadn't meant anything up to that point. After determining that they were not going away but getting more painful, I woke Jared up about 4:30 am and told him it was time! We packed up a few last minute things and got the girls up and after dropping them off at a friend's house, we drove up to the hospital. We got there about 5:30 am and they checked me and I was to 5 cm dilated (I was at 4 cm two days earlier) and was having pretty painful contractions every 3-5 minutes. At about 7:00 am I got the epidural and that lasted for a few hours before it started wearing off and I started feeling pain again about 10:00 am. I asked for more epidural and they finally gave me something around 11:30 (after checking me again, I was to 7 cm) but it didn't really do anything.

At this point my contractions were slowing down some and the Dr. wanted to break my water to speed things up but I was determined to have a more painfree birth this time so I asked the anethesiologist for something stronger and she finally did give me something better and I started to feel relief about 12:30 pm. They broke my water at this time and checked me soon after and I was already to 9 cm. At this point I could feel pressure and a little pain with each contraction but it was definitely bearable so we just waited for the next hour for the contractions to speed up and for me to get fully dilated. Finally at 1:30 pm I was to 10 cm so I started pushing with each contraction. I could feel enough to know I was having a contraction and when to push but otherwise, wasn't in very much pain and was talking and joking with Jared and the nurses. It was such a different experience than with Abbie and Leah's births where at this point I was in tons of pain and had to push for a lot longer. After about 20 minutes of pushing, Porter Lincoln Butler was born at 1:49 pm weighing in at 7 lbs 15 oz and 21 inches long. He had a bunch of black hair and really long fingernails that I had to clip the next day since he kept scratching himself. He is perfectly healthy and has been a great eater from day one. We are so glad that he is finally here and that we get to have him in our family.