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.

Grandma's visit

Grandma T. was able to come out and help with Porter for a while and that was so nice. Abbie and Leah loved playing with Grandma, showing her all their favorite dances, songs, books, and toys and helping her cook and clean. Grandma loved holding Porter and wouldn't let us put him down for even a minute while she was here. Here are some pictures of her favorite grandkids:

Bedtime stories (they loved hearing Dolly Dishes over and over!)

Making cookies

And pie crust

Grandma made us some apple pie from scratch while she was here, it was heavenly!

Leah spent much of the week in her tutu trying to entertain herself

Daddy had a birthday while Grandma was here also, what a good sport to make his own birthday dinner and arrange his own gifts and cake. I promise to do better next year, hon!

How Grandma spent much of her time, with grandchild number 35!

Thank you so much for coming, Mom, I hope you had fun and that it was worth the time and effort to get here. We appreciate it more than we can even say. We miss you and love you!

Our baby boy is finally here!

Porter Lincoln Butler arrived Thursday Nov. 12th at 1:49 pm. He weighed 7 lbs 15 oz and was 21 inches long. Mom and baby are home from the hospital now and doing well. He is the cutest little baby ever and Abbie and Leah love him to pieces already. Check back later for more pictures!

Still no baby...but the end is near!

For those who stalk my blog and aren't on Facebook, I still haven't had the baby! I'm 2 days overdue now and am getting pretty discouraged that it's not going to happen on it's own like I'd hoped. I've been going on long walks, eating spicy foods, and doing all those things that they say might induce labor and nothing yet. At my OB appt yesterday I was 4 cm dilated so something is happening but I still haven't had regular contractions or anything that tells me it's going to happen tonight. So the plan now is to be induced Friday night so either way by sometime Saturday we should have our new baby boy! Wish us luck and pray that I'll go into labor before Friday anyway!

No baby yet...

Well, it's 3 days before my due date and I'm still pregnant! I didn't think I'd make it this far since it's my 3rd baby and Leah was born by this point in my last pregnancy. I'm still barely hanging in there but I really wish I knew when this little guy was going to make his appearance. It's the not knowing that is killing me! Here I am in all my 9 mos preggo glory, I feel bigger and heavier than I look in this picture. My hands are actually holding up my belly in this one because it hurts to have all the weight pulling on my back.

Pretty much everything is ready. I moved the girls together into the same room and got them a new dresser to hold all their clothes for $20 on Craigslist, what a deal!

Leah loves her new toddler bed and not being in a crib but it is harder to get them to go to sleep at night and as soon as Leah wakes up in the morning, she's up and in my room so mornings are a little earlier around here now.
The nursery is all ready for the new baby

My hospital bag is packed and ready to go

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And the rag blanket that I started last month is all sewn together and I'm just about done clipping all the seams.

I've done the grocery shopping and laundry for the week and cleaned the house from top to bottom again so I feel as ready as I'm ever going to get. I was 3 cm dilated at my last appt on Tuesday and I've been feeling lots of back pain and more uncomfortable Braxton Hicks contractions for a few weeks now. My OB won't induce me until a week after my due date so I still have a while to wait if he doesn't come on his own. And to top it all off, two of my friends who were pregnant and due after me have now had their babies. Would he just come already?!!!!

What does a princess, a smartie-pants doctor, and a magic 8 ball have in common?

They can all be Halloween costumes! Here we are at our ward party the other night:

My beautiful princesses, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella

Doctor smartie-pants

And my belly as a magic 8 ball!

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I actually got voted most creative costume in our ward! I never win anything, especially dress-up contests; I usually try to blend in and not do anything too noticeable but with a belly like this, it's hard not to be noticed. It's also not very often that I'm going to be 9 months pregnant on Halloween so I had to play it up!

Ready to go trick-or-treating

Excited about visiting our neighbors and getting candy!

This was my view most of the night, I couldn't keep up with the girls! They just kept wanting to go to more and more houses and by the end they couldn't carry their pumpkins, they were so heavy!

Checking out their loot

Happy, sticky faces

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The best part of the night!

This brings back many memories of trick-or-treating for hours with my siblings and then trading candy once we got home, making piles of all the different kinds of goodies we got. We would eat all we wanted that night and then hide it in our rooms and slowly savor it over the next month, a little at a time until all that sweet goodness was gone. No wonder I had so many cavities growing up! And that's exactly why I hid 90% of it after the girls went to sleep. Now I just have to discipline myself not to eat that 90%!

Abbie's photo shoot

Here are the rest of Abbie's 5 year old pictures. Is this girl a natural model or what?

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