Free Never Too Late by Amber Portwood, Beth Roeser Page A

Pregnant
, if you look close, you can see a phone next to my head the whole time I was going through it. That was actually my brother! He had all of his buddies on the base gathered around while I was in labor. I’ll never forget him yelling, “What’s going on? Why is she screaming?” He was freaking out! But when Leah finally arrived and the whole room started cheering, he and his buddies were all going crazy and screaming and cheering right along with them. It was the funniest, sweetest thing. Not to mention, as far as ways to be welcomed into the world go, that’s patriotic as hell.
    There were a lot of people in the delivery room when I had Leah, which I honestly didn’t think was weird at all. I was having my first baby! I wanted my family to be there. I didn’t mind a bunch of people in the room. I needed all the support I could get.
    Even so, they all faded into the background once I had her in my arms. She came out crying, of course, and they cleaned her off and handed her to me so I could cradle her on my chest. I’ll never forget that moment. As soon as she was in my arms, she literally stopped crying, opened her eyes, and looked straight up at me.
    That was when I just melted. I had never felt love like that in my life. Having that little girl look up at me like that, and knowing she was my baby, was the most amazing moment of my life. I remember just being so overwhelmed in that moment, just blown away by that beautiful connection and how huge my love for her was. When I finally looked up at my dad, he was watching the whole thing. I looked up at him almost in a daze, like, “She stopped crying and looked at me!” I will never, ever forget it.
    After we brought her home, things were so good. It was just a happy time. I mean, not that it was ever a perfect situation. It was our first baby, and we were young, so we were dealing with all the stress that came with the circumstances. We were also living together for the first time, suddenly having to deal with each other around the clock.
    I was taking care of Leah by myself while her father worked, and that was tough sometimes. But he would always come home and tell me he was proud of me, and it made me feel so good.
    When he came back from work, he loved to sneak into the house to watch me taking care of Leah. I had this thing I used to do when she first started sitting up by herself. I’d sit her on the bed and turn some music up, and I’d dance around her and make funny faces. I’d sing and act crazy and talk to her, and I’d pick her up and dance with her all around the room. Her little face would be smiling and laughing. He would hide and watch so he could see those moments, and then he’d walk in with a huge smile on his face and hug me and give me a big kiss.
    He used to joke around with me and Leah, too. One time she was sleeping in her crib and I was downstairs with the monitor on, and for some reason he came home early and snuck inside. I heard noises through the monitor, like somebody was walking up there, so I went upstairs. I saw Booboo just sitting on the floor, being all calm. I was like, “Oh my god, how did you get out of the crib?” I started freaking out, thinking she fell out of the crib, but I couldn’t figure out how. And she was just chillin’ on the floor, not crying or anything, looking up at me and probably wondering what my deal was. When I went to pick her up, her dad popped out of his hiding place and cracked up.
    When we were all together in the house, there was a lot of music and laughter and love. I’d sit cross-legged on the bed with Leah on my lap facing me, and I’d sing a little song I wrote for her:
    “I like to poopy on Mommy, poopy on Daddy, cry cry cry all the time time time... I sleep and drink my milks!”
    Trust me, you have to hear it to get the full effect. I would do it in the funniest voice I possibly could, and it would put the biggest smile on her face. All three of us would just crack up.
    He