Porter was due November 10th, however, the night of September 24th, I began having contractions. They woke me in the middle of the night and it felt eerily familiar to Zerin's labor--low back/pelvis pain, low stomach cramping and my body was shaking with the intensity of it. When I realized what was going on I woke up Jon and asked him for a blessing. He also gave me a large glass of water with a bunch of calcium (muscle relaxant). He ended up giving me one more blessing and about 2 hours after they started the contractions stopped. At only 33 weeks and 2 days, I wasn't about to move. I spent the next 3 1/2 weeks on bed rest.
The weekend before this happened I was feeling great and had lots of energy. I cleaned the house and was more active than I should've been. (I have to be careful my entire pregnancy). When Monday came I knew I should relax and take it easy. At about 10:30 that morning Jon's sister, Elise, called and asked if her and her soon-to-be fiance could drive up from SLC and stay the night with us. (They live in Boston and were in SLC for business). Of course, we were excited to see them and loved the idea! I had several errands to run that day and with company coming I ended up over-doing it again.
Jon had planned to leave right after work that night to go elk hunting, but thankfully because Elise and Chris were coming he decided to stay home. This was a big sacrifice for him because he only had a couple days left to fill his elk tag. We all know how much Jon LOVES hunting :)
When I was in pre-term labor that night I realized what a great blessing it was that everything worked out the way it did and that Jon was there next to me. I felt very strongly that if he wasn't home Porter would've been born. I needed his calm touch and his Priesthood blessings to ease my mind and my body. It was a frightening experience.
My Mom came the next day and cared for the children through the weekend. She kept telling me it would be best for her to take Lydia and Zerin home with her for a few weeks. I was completely against the idea until I finally humbled myself and listened to the Spirit. I knew it was best for Porter for me to stay in bed and I knew that wouldn't be possible with the two younger children around. I felt peace in my decision to let them go. My heart ached every time I heard sweet little Zerin's voice on the phone. Thank goodness he LOVES his Grandma.
Two and a half weeks later Jon met my parents in La Grande and brought Lydia and Zerin home. As soon as Zerin came in the house he ran to me and let me hold him for as long as I could. He is such a little cuddler/lover!
Since we were planning on having Porter at home and Coleen was going to be driving from Council to assist us, mentally I had a few requests. First, I wanted Porter to be born during the day so Coleen didn't have to drive at night. Second, I wanted it to be a happy sunny day (we'd had a lot of dreary days prior to this). Third, I wanted my other three children to have somewhere to go where they would feel comfortable.
It all worked out perfectly! At about 7am Thursday (Jon's day off) October 25th I started timing my contractions. Not long after that I got up to go make breakfast for the children and Jon because I didn't know how much time we had and I wanted to children to be ready to leave when I was ready for them to leave. That happened to be a no school day so Jon called Lisa and asked if the children could come over. She was more than happy to have them and they were more than happy to go play with friends. I called Coleen around 9am and told her I wasn't able to talk through contractions. She immediately headed this way and made it around 10:30-11:00am. Labor progressed well and pretty easily until around noon when I decided it was time to push. That was definitely the hardest part. Porter was born at 12:52pm on a beautiful sunny day!
(A little additional information... Porter was born in a pool of blood. I thought it was water rushing out of me until Coleen looked at me very seriously and said, "Tell your body to stop bleeding." I knew in that moment that I could command my body to stop bleeding. Jon laid his hands on my head and through the power of the Priesthood gave me a blessing. Within moments I stopped bleeding. One thing that was confirmed to me with Porter's pregnancy and birth is that the Priesthood is real. God's power is on the earth and He allows us to use it righteously. What an amazing gift!
We were so grateful to have Coleen with us; she is another gift from God!)
