What's In A Name?

I never posted after my pregnancy and the birth of our beautiful Leo, so even though he's turning 4 in less than 2 months, I don't care. He's still my baby and better late than never right? Overall, my pregnancy with Leo was just as wonderful as with the other two. However, I was over the age of 30 and my body hurt! I was very sore and uncomfortable much more this last time around. Then, when I was about 37 1/2 weeks I started having contractions every 4-5 min. I didn't think they were getting worse and I wanted to stay home, but cautious Daddy and Baba agreed that I needed to go to the hospital. I had those contractions for a couple hours and then all of a sudden... NOTHING. They just stopped. Completely. I was bummed since I was ready to meet my newest little man, but glad since he was just a tad too early for him yet. The next 2 1/2 weeks were very normal and I went in for my induction at 6am March 29, 2012.

Three hours later at 9:44 am sweet baby Leo was born. He was a whopping 8lb 6.5oz and 20 inches long! He was by far the biggest of them all, which is weird because after that he was always such a peanut, on the low end of the growth charts for weight. Immediately after he was born, the doctor handed him to me. It was the first time I had every held my baby so soon after birth. The nurses had not yet cleaned him off so he was a bit slick and being so heavy I was very nervous at first, but looking into his sweet eyes for the first time was so incredibly beautiful. Our hospital stay was wonderful and after our short stay we were ready to come home.

Leo fit perfectly into our family. He was mesmerized by his brothers and they adored him as well. William, being the oldest was a very proud big brother and wanted to hold him all the time. When someone would ask me how the baby was, "joy" was the word that came to mind. Life was hectic and crazy, we were completely outnumbered by kids, and I would question my sanity on a regular basis, but when I looked at that sweet face, it was pure JOY!


As the title suggests... what's in a name? Where did we come up with the name Leo? Some would guess it came from one of my favorite actors, Leonardo DiCaprio or as a derivative of my grandfather's name Leon. Well none of those would be correct. You see, naming your third boy was more challenging than we thought. Especially since AJ and I have very different likes in names. I didn't like his picks and he didn't like mine. We used the family names we wanted and now we were stuck. I really liked Levi and AJ really liked a name that is escaping me right now. (I'll come back and update this when I remember.) One day William and Caleb were watching The Little Einsteins and there is a character named Leo, the main character. William said "we should name the baby Leo!" AJ and I looked at each other and it was the first time neither of us vetoed a name. We both liked it! Amazing! So, Parker was a name we had really liked but not for the first name, so it all came together after that, Leo Parker Porfirio.

Leo has been my sweet cuddle bug from day one. When the other boys preferred daddy or were too busy, Leo was my "mama's boy." He'll probably hate that term when he's older and things may change, but I hope not. It's nice having a mama's boy. I don't have a girl to want to be like me, but I have a boy who is snuggly, empathetic, compassionate, and loves being my little buddy.

And the neatest thing of all is that they all share the 29th as their birth day!