Porter's 1st Birthday!

The cake,

plus a cake just for Porter.

Delicious!

Time for presents: new clothes for summer and...

a new bike to ride.

Before and After

What a difference a haircut can make!

Ingenious or Pathetic?

What exactly is this?

My strategy for keeping Porter from climbing up the stairs!


Oh, of course it is!


The blockade has progressed over the past couple of weeks.
It started as a couple of stools, but Porter learned to crawl under that within the day. So I turned them 45 degrees and that worked temporarily because he could only crawl under the stool in one direction. So he would enter the stool tunnel on one side only to come out at the other side instead of at the stairs. After another day he figured out how to crawl both ways under the stools and through the stools to get to the stairs. This is when we moved on to the basket/bucket combination, mostly because they were nearby one day. At first he was tipping the basket over so we added some weight to hold it down. A couple of days ago he figured out how to slide that even though there was 24 pounds of weight in the bottom. The kids have since collected all of the weights in the house and added them to the basket. The stool was recently added to keep him from sliding the bucket around.

The ironic thing about this all? He just climbed in the basket and crawled over the weights to get to the stairs while I was typing this post.

Maybe I should stop typing and start lessons on how to go down the stairs!

Honestly, I'm just really scared he's going to fall down the stairs. Paige fell down the stairs in our old house when she was just a little younger than Porter and it was awful!

Bath Time--Chickenpox Edition

I was quite surprised when Porter came down with the chickenpox at the beginning of December. None of my older kids have had the chickenpox because they have all been immunized, but of course at 9 months old Porter wasn't old enough for the vaccine. He was pretty miserable around days three and four of the infection. He had a fever and I'm sure his body was aching. During that time I literally held him day and night because that was what calmed and comforted him. The itching never really seemed horrible. He had his moments when I could tell they were itching and so I'd give him oatmeal baths, like the one he is having in the pictures. Most of them were covered by his diaper and so he couldn't get to them. He did have several on his head and he would try to scratch those which I must say (if I can do so without being insensitive to his discomfort) was about the cutest thing I've seen him do.

So Porter having the chickenpox was disturbing on another level because it has always been in question whether or not I have ever had the disease myself. I pretty much pushed it out of my mind hoping for the best and figured that if I was going to get them it would be right around Christmas. The week before Christmas my throat got really sore and I started wondering if it was the beginning of "it". In the end it turned out to be strep throat and I forgot about the looming pox. The next few days continued to be crazy with a work party, two of us with strep, the "single mother of 5" Sunday, my sister coming into town (which was actually helpful), our basement flooding (yes: new house but the same story), our anniversary, Christmas break, and did I mention that I was sick and didn't feel so hot? The best part of it all, seriously, was that as I was bailing water out of our window well on Monday (our anniversary) I was just so grateful that my sister, Krista, was at our house already and she could keep an eye on the kids and that because I had started a round of antibiotics the day before my throat was not on fire for the first time in 3 days and so I felt good enough to bail water in the freezing cold. I don't think I would have been able to handle it otherwise. Heavenly Father sends us tender mercies even in the midst of our disasters!

Wednesday morning as I went to get into the shower I noticed several red blistered spots on my abdomen and it was then that I realized that it had finally caught up to me, about 30 years too late in my opinion. Sorry to all of the people at the grocery store the day before and the people at the gym that morning! Paige also broke out in a very mild case that afternoon. They never blistered and went away after a couple of days. She had had one dose of vaccine and obviously it helped her. Let's just say that things went rapidly down hill for me over the next couple of days and by Christmas I was no longer eating because the inside of my throat was covered with pox and it hurt!! I'm feeling much better now although the pox marks will take some time to fade. I can now say with confidence that I've had the chickenpox. Boy howdy, did I ever!

The Big Little Man

Porter learned a new trick today. No, not how to unload the dishwasher. He learned to pull himself up to standing in order to unload the dishwasher.


Look how happy he is with himself!

Bath Time

Porter's Blessing

Porter was blessed on May 4, 2009 by his daddy.
This is not the best picture, but the only up-close one we have of him in his blessing outfit.

Grandma and Grandpa Streuling and Aunt Krista flew in for the weekend festivities. Krista had already been up once to meet Porter but it was the first time that Grandma and Grandpa Streuling met Porter.

Porter was not happy about having to pose for pictures and in the end we were quite late for church. Blake arrived before the passing of the Sacrament and was seated in the chapel, but I didn't arrive with Porter until the Sacrament was already being passed so I was waiting in the foyer with him. All of a sudden it seemed like they were ready to start and there was a bit of confusion as to whether or not little Porter was even there. One of our friends from another ward came to participate and left because he thought we weren't there and had changed our plans. I guess that it is how it goes some days. Too bad it had to be today.

Grandma Streuling curled Paige's hair for her today and she loved it. I can't say that I have even ever tried to curl her hair because I just assumed that it wouldn't hold. I was wrong. I guess I will have to try it again sometime.

Porter's blessing day turned out to be even more hectic and memorable for additional reasons. Blake and I had an interview with our Stake President, President Pitcher, before church and Blake was extended the call to be Bishop of a new ward being created the following month. That made for an interesting conversation when we got back home to visiting family and we couldn't and wouldn't say anything about what had happened at our interview!

Reunion

My friend Whitney has been so kind to adopt Paige as her third child these past few weeks. Paige had once again gone to play with Jane, Whitney's daughter, yesterday and even got to go play at McDonalds. She fell asleep in the car on the way home and stayed asleep when Whitney dropped her off and I carried her in the house to bed. Because of this, it was an extra big surprise when she woke up and her baby Porter was home too! I wish I could have recorded her excited reaction on video, but these pictures will have to do. It was the sweetest thing!



Caleb was so excited he wanted to come home early from his friend Andrew's house to see Porter.

What a lucky little guy to be so loved already!

Home

We were hopeful that Porter would be coming home today but not positive as he needed to gain weight and his bili levels needed to start going down--two things that didn't happen yesterday. So we didn't say anything to the kids and I headed to the hospital while Blake headed to some mandatory work meetings. All Sunday evening I kept telling myself to not get my hopes up. I didn't want to be disappointed if he hadn't gained weight, if his bili levels had gone up or even if he hadn't passed his car seat test. I was really worried about the car seat test after the nurse looked at it and seemed to think it wasn't going to work for him--they have to be monitored in their car seat for 2 hours before they can go home in it.

It was all good news when I got to the hospital this morning and we were home before noon!

Here is the little peanut ready to go home.

Here he is loaded up in the van.

Finally home.


We are so happy to have him home.

More Porter Pictures

Porter is doing well and hopefully things will continue that way. He is jaundice so he gets to hang out under his special light in his pod for most of the day. The nurse tells me that bilirubin levels usually peak around day 5 and then start going down. So hopefully over the weekend things will start improving in that area. Actually his levels are barely going up everyday which of course is a great thing.





Porter with his special shades on working on his "tan".

He continues to eat more and more everyday and as that continues to improve he will be weaned off of his IV. He eats every 3 hours and if I am there for his feeding then I get to nurse him for a few minutes and then try and feed him a bottle. Some feedings go better than others because he is always so sleepy--just a part of being born early.

He is so sweet and so tiny and we are looking forward to being able to bring him home. It is hard to be away from him. Coming home without him was not fun. The kids haven't been able to see him because it is cold season and kids are not allowed in the NICU right now. Paige is especially confused since I went to the hospital but didn't come home with her baby. I know it all could be a lot worse and we are grateful that he is doing well and that it is just a matter of time before he can come home with us. Hopefully it won't be terribly long.

Happy Birthday!

Porter James arrived yesterday, March 16th at 4:49 p.m. He was 6 pounds 2 ounces.

After being ruptured for more than a week we decided it was time for him to be born. He is in the NICU but is doing well. They will be watching for infection and once he starts eating well he'll probably be able to come home.