Your first photo shoot

I am sure you will probably hate me for some of these photos!  You were just such an adorable little man.  I wanted to make sure to get some fun photos of you while you were still in that sleep all the time state.  These pictures were taken when you were just about three weeks old.  I love the little lion and owl pictures of you.  Surprisingly, you were not bothered by all the little costume changes.  These amazing photos were done by photographer Kristin Mowery of Sweet Splendor Photography.  She is the same photographer that did mommy's belly photo's when I was pregnant with you.

Your first day at faire!

At only 3 weeks old you made your first appearance at the Maryland Renaissance Festival.  Renn Fest is so important to your father and I as that is where we first meet and got married.  Everyone was so excited to meet you at fair.  For your first day at fair your godmother Amy took you to have a cast mold of your butt made.  The mold will later be turned into a ceramic casting to hang on the wall to forever embarrass you when you bring your friends and girlfriends by. 

You were getting a little squirmy so they had to play you some music to calm you.

In the end the cast turned out wonderful and we can't wait to get the final product.

Special thanks to your godmother for taping the whole thing and for purchasing your cast.

The day you were born.

I experienced my first contractions with you Friday, August 3rd around 3:00 AM.  I was just over 40 weeks pregnant then. We already had a visit scheduled that day with the midwife.  When I went in for my check up I was 1 cm dilated and contractions were fairly steady.  Everything looked great so home we went to wait for the contractions to increase.  By 9:00 PM that night my contractions were fairly strong and frequent.  We made our way to the birthing center to check progress.  I was only 2 cm.  They let me set in a hot bathtub for a bit, gave me something to try and help me sleep and sent me home.

Saturday your godparents Rob and Amy came over.  They were with us all day as I labored with you.  My conctractions were all over the place.  They would go from being steady every 5 minutes down to every 12.  I was exhausted having not slept well in days.  Amy had suggested that I needed Glucose to regenerate my uterus which was tired from working so hard.  She stated she had never birthed human babies but had birthed many a fury baby as she is a veterinarian.  We sent your father and godfather to Maggi Moo's to get me a cake batter milkshake.  Within a few sips we were back in business with strong regular contractions!  We finally called the midwife around 9:00 PM and they said to come in for a check up.

When we got to the birth center they checked me and I was shockingly at 8 cm!  That explained a few things.  They immediately got the birthing pool set up for me to relax and labor in.  Your father and I had studied and taken classes to prepare us for your big day.  We chose to go with a natural UN-medicated childbirth with a Midwife.  We were so lucky to get the midwife I wanted, he just happened to be on call that day. I really wanted to have you in the pool as a water birth.

Mommy laboring waiting for the pool to be blown up.

Laboring through a contraction in the pool.

I finally felt the urge to push I guess around 3:00 am.  I so wanted to have you in the birthing pool.  You had other intentions though.  The midwife was concerned about your positioning, you never turned to have your back facing out.  You were head down (thank god), but your back was arched to my right side.  Because of this I was unable to deliver in the pool and instead ended up in the bed.  I pushed for about 2 hours with you.  What an amazing feeling as you came down the birth canal to make your appearance.  Your father could see your head as you started to emerge.  All he kept saying is that you had hair!  I would push and could feel you move up the birth canal and as soon as I stopped pushing you would slide back down.  Frustrating but amazing none the less.

Finally at 5:44 in the morning you came into our world and immediately into my arms.  When you came out your father said "Survey says...IT'S A BOY"!  At that moment it was as if the world stood still and all that existed was your father and I am this amazing creation screaming at the top of his lungs on my chest.  All the hours of labor and the brief moments of pain melted away.  Your father was a crying mess!  I was too tired and probably dehydrated to cry.  They let you cuddle with me for a while and then your father cut the umbilical cord.  As you were such a big boy I needed a few stitches.  I handed you off to your father who held you to his bear chest and he inspected his new son while the midwifes attended to me.  

It was rather funny.  As we did not know if you were a boy or a girl, the midwife brought in two little hand knit hats, a pink one and a blue one.  When you came out they tried to put the little blue hat on your head but it was too small for your big head!  They had to go get a bigger hat that would fit you.  After I had a few minutes to recover your grandmother came in to see me and you.  She was so excited to see that both of us were well.  You then got to meet your pop pop and godparents.  

You were born at 5:44 am on Sunday, August 5th of 2012.  You weighed 9lbs 8.5oz and were 22 inches long.  You were a very big baby.  The only issue you had was a lot of fluid still in your lungs.  The midwives had to pump your stomach to get some of the fluids out that you had coughed up and swallowed.  In general though all you wanted to do was sleep.  We tried to get you to nurse but you were just too tired to do so.

Just after you were born. (Hat #1)

(Hat# 2)

Daddy giving you a kiss

Giving the thumbs up on an amazing little boy!

Grandma holding you.

Your grandmother was so thrilled to hold you.

Your proud grandparents!

One VERY proud pop pop!

We're Pregnant!

We found out we were pregnant with you Thanksgiving day 2011.  Such a joy to know that we would be bringing our first child into the world in a matter of months.  I wanted to yell it from the roof top that we were pregnant but it was still too early to announce it to all.  We decided to wait till Christmas and make it a surprise announcement to the family.  I had to think of a creative way of telling your grandparents, aunt and uncle about you.  I decided to get everyone a shirt for Christmas that announced their new titles.  Everyone had to open them all at once of course.  Grandma got "Grandma to be".  Pop pop got "The best dads become great grandfathers".  Uncle T.J. got "Worlds coolest uncle".  Your Aunt Renae got "Worlds coolest Aunt".

Everyone was so excited to find out about you, especially your grandmother.  Since you are the first grandchild she was tickled pink!  She proudly wore her shirt to the family Christmas party that night and bragged to everyone that she was FINALLY going to be a grandmother.  I was happy to finally be able to talk about you with everyone.  It was killing me keeping you a secret.

My pregnancy with you was wonderful!  I never had any sickness and in general felt great.  We decided not to find out if you were a girl or a boy.  I wanted to have that extra incentive the day you were born to push!  I knew all along though that you were a boy.  I just felt it in my heart.  I wanted "Mommas Boy".

While pregnant with you your father loved playing music for you.  He played everything from heavy metal to the soundtrack from Legends.  You seemed to like the music, it calmed you most of the time.  My gift to you was the gift of dance.  As a professional belly dancer I danced several times while pregnant with you.  The swaying movements usually rocked you to sleep when you were active.  Boy were you active!  All day long you would roll around and sit on my ribs.  You liked to stick your butt out.  I said when you were born all I would want to see is this big butt of yours that sat on my ribs all the time.

Daddy playing you music.  Blackbeard close by watching over both of us.

Mommy Belly Dancing with you March 25, 2012. 

I so loved being pregnant with you that we decided to have professional pictures done of my belly.  I was about 7 months pregnant when these were done.  You can see already your father and I loved you very much.  Everyone said I glowed when I was pregnant with you.  I think these amazing pictures show that.

 

This is the last picture taken of my belly before you were born.  July 27th, 2012.

As much as I loved being pregnant, by month 8 I was ready for you to be here.  I was so big with you I could not sleep.  At that point while I loved being pregnant I was ready for birth and to meet you!  I had gained 41 lbs by the time you were born.  Looking back now, I should have known you were going to be a big boy.