Caleb's Birth Story

Five weeks in to Caleb's life but I don't want to forget the details of this day so...

June 12 (Tuesday evening) - Daniel and I had made plans to have dinner at Gloria's with my parents. We went to Gloria's the night we found out I was pregnant so it seemed fitting in a "full circle" kind of way. I had been off work all day but just didn't feel good. I had been having a terrible pain in my back. It felt like someone was punching me repeatedly. This pain really only got worse as the day went on but I wanted to head out to quasi-celebrate our last childless night. I couldn't eat much at the restaturant and actually ended up talking with the on-call doc at my OB's office because I couldn't tell if I was having labor pains. I was having contractions but they were realtively minor and infrequent. After dinner, we hung out at our house until around 9:30 when my parents went back to their hotel with the promises that we would call if anything changed overnight.

I knew I probably wasn't going to sleep well or very much that night but I also knew I needed to try. Around 11pm, I finally fell asleep in my recliner with my heating pad on high. Daniel fell asleep on the couch. I slept in 30 minute chunks - first in my chair, our bed, the chair in the nursery, the floor, etc. I even considered taking another hot bath at 2:30 since I was so restless. Finally, at 4am, I just gave up on sleep...

June 13 (Wednesday morning) 

4:00-4:30 - Gather up last minute items for the hospital bags and double check to make sure everything is good at the house, with the cats, etc.

4:30 - It's time to leave for the hospital! I am so so excited to finally meet Baby Porterfield!

5:20 - Arrive at Baylor University Medical Center in downtown Dallas. Check-in was super easy and I recieved all of my hospital bracelets and went to my Labor and Delivery room.

5:30-6:30 - We spent most of this time hanging out in the L&D room. I was told to put on a hospital gown and then was hooked up to several monitors (heart, blood pressure, baby's heartbeat). My IV was inserted pretty painless-ly. Daniel was given a pair of blue scrubs to wear. My parents arrived somewhere around 6:15.

6:45 - The nurses came in and told me that all of the doctors were ready and would I like to go to the OR now? We were originally scheduled for 7:30 so it was pretty awesome that everyone was ready early. That was a serious advantage to being the first one scheduled for the day!

6:50 - Daniel and I said goodbye to my parents and followed the nurses to the OR. I still can't believe they let me just walk from the L&D room to the OR. My parents headed for the waiting room with all of our stuff.

6:55 - Once we got to the Operating Room, my nerves set in. I really wasn't nervous about the whole day until I had to lay on the operating table on my side so that the anesthesiologist could start the epidural. Once I layed down though, my hands got really sweaty and my heartrate sped up. Dr. Nixon (the anesthesiologist) gave me a narcotic that would take the edge of the spinal needle and it made me dizzy. Once the narcotic was in, he inserted the spinal needle and administered the epidural. It was one of the oddest sensations of my life. The room was really cold and then all of a sudden I felt like I was laying under several warm blankets. The doctors and nurses kept pinching me to see if I could feel anything and I could not. They moved me around and put up the curtain and said "It's time to have a baby!"

Daniel was really awesome this whole time and kept encouraging me and telling me that he was proud of me. Once the surgery started, he was on a stool on my left near my head. He ended up watching Dr. Brodsky and Dr. Matthews pop Caleb up out of me! He said to me "Here he comes, here he comes...he's here...he's got red hair!" I started crying at that point which was difficult as I was hooked up to oxygen through my nose and my throat was so so dry. Plus I couldn't move. And just like that...

7:28 am - Caleb Daniel Porterfield made his official entrance into the world. With a weight of 7 pounds, 4 ounces, a length of 20.5 inches and a full head of red hair, he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. They took him from me, cleaned him up and let Daniel see him. Then they brought him over and let me see him for the first time. It was there that the waterworks really began in earnest. I just couldn't believe that something we had waited for for so long was finally here. I am so thankful to the nurses who captured my face the first time I saw him. I will treasure those pictures for the rest of my life.

8:00 - Surgery was completed and we were moved to recovery. We really just spent the new few hours in awe of this tiny little human that we got to call ours. My parents were able to come in and meet him and I'm pretty sure it was love at first sight for them too. I remember becoming really sleepy at that point but also wanting to stay awake just so I could hang out with the little guy. Thankfully, we didn't have to spend too much time in recovery before we were moved up to our room, #715. From that point forward, there were lots of snuggles and my world was forever changed...

Caleb - If you ever read this, I love you more than life itself. You are the most adorable little red-headed baby and I cannot wait to see the person you are and the person you are going to become.

And Two Become Three

With the birth of our newest Team Porterfield member, Caleb Daniel, I decided it was time to resurrect my blog. I hope this blog will help Caleb's grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends near and far to stay connected with the happenings in our lives. I can't promise that I will be a great blogger but I do want to give it a shot espcially through Caleb's first year. Be on the lookout for some upcoming posts in the next few days about Caleb's birth story and our first few weeks at home.

Meal Plan Friday (Just this once)

I saw this on another blog and thought it was an interesting idea. To help keep me accountable to my budget (and my hopefully shrinking waistline!), here's our meal plan for the upcoming week.

1/2/09 - Company Chicken with steamed rice and parmesan broccoli

1/3/09 - Smackaroni and Cheese and fruit

1/4/09 - Silly Greek Chili

1/5/09 - leftovers (since we may have Bible Study and my first day back at work after 2 weeks) (mac and cheese or chili)

1/6/09 - leftovers (since we may have Bible Study) (mac and cheese or chili)

1/7/09 - Mexican Pizza

1/8/09 - Kickin' Chicken and steamed carrots

1/9/09 - OUT (only once per week!)

All of these recipes (except the company chicken) come from a cookbook my mom gave me for Christmas called "Eat, Shrink, and Be Merry" by Janet and Greta Podleski. You can check out the Amazon listing here.

I try to plan out our meal every week so that I can shop efficiently. I think I might make this a regular installment here on the blog: Meal Plan Mondays. I like that!

Happy Eating!

Happy New Year!

2009 is here!

I have several things rattling around in my head but I don't think I'll be able to get them out today. I have lots of goals I've been thinking about as I approach the New Year and one of them is to try to post more on my blog. I would like to post at least once a week so we'll try that for January and then see how it goes from there. I'm not considering this to be my post for this week so I'll probably post again before I go back to work on Monday.

Until then, Happy New Year!

The Mario Kart Love Song

This is GREAT!!

Holidays

Christmas is coming! Christmas is coming!

I love Christmas. It is, hands down,my favorite holiday of the whole year. I even like it better than my birthday which is saying something because I prefer to celebrate birthday week instead of just one day. But anyway...

By my count, it is only 40 days until Christmas. I started making lists for the people who are getting presents and I think I have it finally figured out, all except my mom. She's not hard to buy for I just never know what to get her right off the bat. Any ideas for that internet? I'm also seeking birthday present ideas for my mother in law as her birthday is on New Year's Eve. I would tell you what I have decided but just in case there are people on the list who happen to read the blog, I will refrain. =)

In other news, it's finally gotten cold in Big-D. And I LOVE IT! I am such a cold weather girl. I would prefer jeans and sweaters and coats and scarves and gloves and boots much more than I do tank tops, shorts and flip fxlops. I just love the gorgeous crisp fall days and the crunchy leaves. I'm not sure I could handle snow 6 months out of the year which is why we are still in Texas but I do love the colder temperatures. Now I just have to acclimate myself back to keeping the house around 68 degrees! If I can't do that, then maybe I can keep myself warm with this coat I want for Christmas...




Nothing else too exciting to report here at Team Porterfield. We're just working along ready for Thanksgiving (yes, I do realize this holiday still exists) and Christmas. I think we'll both be ready for a break!

History is Made

Stolen from She Likes Purple because she said it better than I ever could have...

"Alongside our famous individualism, there’s another ingredient in the American saga.

A belief that we are connected as one people. If there’s a child on the south side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child. If there’s a senior citizen somewhere who can’t pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it’s not my grandmother. If there’s an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It’s that fundamental belief — I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper — that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. 'E pluribus unum.' Out of many, one.

Yet even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there’s not a liberal America and a conservative America — there’s the United States of America. There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope? I’m not talking about blind optimism here — the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don’t talk about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. No, I’m talking about something more substantial. It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a mill worker’s son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.

The audacity of hope!"

—Barack Obama, 2004 Democratic National Convention

*************

"I've always believed that America offers opportunities to all who have the industry and will to seize it. Senator Obama believes that, too.

But we both recognize that, though we have come a long way from the old injustices that once stained our nation's reputation and denied some Americans the full blessings of American citizenship, the memory of them still had the power to wound.

A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters.

America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States.

Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and for his country. I applaud him for it, and offer him my sincere sympathy that his beloved grandmother did not live to see this day. Though our faith assures us she is at rest in the presence of her creator and so very proud of the good man she helped raise.

Senator Obama and I have had and argued our differences, and he has prevailed. No doubt many of those differences remain.

These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face.

I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.

Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that.

Tonight, more than any night, I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Senator Obama.

I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president. And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here."

—Senator John McCain, concession speech, November 4, 2008

*************

Let us be one, America.