And He Made It - Jonathan Porter!

Jonathan Porter 1 day old Jared, Hilary and James (18 months)

Well...to state the obvious this post is a long time coming.  I put the initial pictures together several months ago but figuring out how make things work with two kids completely preoccupied my time.  Looking on the bright side, better late than never right?  And better something than nothing, which I've had to learn since having kids.  My bar for my projects has come down oh so slightly =)  So, here he is, now 11 months old my giggling ray of sunshine.  I can't imagine life without him.  None of us can.  He and Little Man are best buddies and he smiles more than any baby I've ever met.  But more on that later.  These are his first few days of life...

So after I'd been overdue for a week, my doctor was afraid the baby would get too big and I reluctantly scheduled an induction for the next morning, June 4th.  I was emotional anyway (it comes with the territory), and was disappointed to be marching into the hospital to give birth if my baby wasn't done cooking.  However, it turned out to be a very positive experience.  The senior resident who had been assigned to me didn't believe in starving anyone so here I am, eating my little heart out during the early stages of Pitocin.  Food and I have always been buddies so that was a great start.  Labor was only six hours (as opposed to 24 with Little Man James) and I had the epidural 45 minutes before Jonathan was born.  I like to think I could have done it naturally but let's be honest, I was VERY happy to see that blessed anesthesiologist.

He was beautiful and so perfect!  I got to hold him right away.  He was not small - 8 lbs 14 ozs - I hate to think of what would have happened had it been two weeks later.  How do people always look so perfect right after giving birth?  I like to think I keep it real.  Everything went really well and the recovery was much quicker and smoother the second time.

 

At first he looked a lot like James, but very quickly began do develop his own look. 

He was born at 6:00pm on the dot.  My wonderful Mom flew in but the baby was here before she landed!  Sweet J went home and brought them back the next morning.

I was a little nervous of how James would react to him, but it was awesome - he loved his baby immediately and I knew they'd be best buddies. 

We tried the whole 'look-what-the-baby-brought-you' tactic, but for now it turns out that Jonathan himself was enough for James.  We were glad.

James loved his time with angelic Grandma.  They spent hours reading books, doing stickers, and taking walks.

A few days later we went downtown to the art festival.  Like I said, this recovery was a LOT faster.

This sweet boy has an angelic face as you can see.

A few days later J's fantastic parents arrived. They were so sweet with James and he loved his time with them too.

He was introduced to CARS --

 Grandma and Grandpa took Farmer James down to the farm store and bought him his dream tractor.

You can't tell from the picture but he LOVES his tractor.

It's a good thing we live in Iowa where there are tractors a plenty to be seen from the road.

Here James is watching a New Testament video with Grandpa and folding his arms because he is just that reverent.

Our sweet angelic Jonathan.

So beautiful.

He liked practicing karate in his sleep - the Asian pull is strong in this one...

Off the bat he was smiley,

sweet faced,

playful,

pleasant,

peaceful and snuggly.  We couldn't ask for a better baby.

James willingly modeled tummy time.

Daddy carried on our sleeping tradition

James continued to be a great helper-

inspecting the stairs,

washing the cars,

modeling church attire,

helping unload the dishwasher - see those dishes in the sink?  Yes, they all used to be in the dishwasher.

 

 So there you have it, 11 months later, our first few months with our new baby.  If we're really lucky, I'll document his 1st birthday with current pictures.