B is for BOB!

Daddy got JJ this onesie from a little shop in downtown Frederick. He looked adorable in it.

Our first conversation!

This morning JJ had A LOT to say. I wish Jonathan was here so we could have gotten it on camera :( JJ was sitting on my lap just cooing and talking and smiling away. Now, he has been cooing and smiling and "talking" for a hot minute already, but this morning it was all at the same time for about 5 straight minutes with no break. I'm pretty sure he was telling me that he is excited that Daddy has a three day weekend coming up. It's funny, each thing he does gets me so fired up and excited. Yesterday was the first day I think he really discovered his feet. While in his swing he would lift up his legs, look at his feet, bring them up in the air towards his mouth and open his mouth. He didn't get anywhere near his mouth, but when he does, it will be ok because those piggies are always clean since Mommy has them in her mouth throughout the day :)

Does he REALLY need to go in his own room?

I know at some point JJ is going to have to sleep in his own room. I am not looking forward to it at all and am enjoying him being right next to me. I am not sure if it's my separation anxiety or not being able to attend to him within a second, but I just don't want my boy in his own room. Perhaps it is just another sign that he is growing up which is making me hesitant? Sigh. I have been trying to make it a point a few times a week to bring him up into his nursery so he can get familiar with the room and his crib. He LOVES his crib thanks to his Grandmom. My mom pimped him out with the Cadillac of cribs. Here is a picture I took the other day of him hanging out. My guess is he will be in our room until he is 4 to 5 months old unless he grows out of his bassinet earlier.

Future Rock Star!

Baby man had a little photo shoot yesterday. Nothing fancy, but I love taking pictures of him. He has very expressive facial expressions like his Mama. You pretty much know how he is feeling just by looking at his face. Here are some highlights:

It's not just a smile, it's a smile showing those gums!

Every day JJ smiles more and more and it is amazing. It makes me feel like we are doing something right and that is a great feeling. Up until this point the smiles usually come while we talk to him and play with him, but the other night it all changed. JJ woke up for his 4:30 a.m. feeding and he was fussing so I put on the night light and peeked over his bassinet and the fussing immediately stopped and he was ALL gums. I of course laugh and get all giddy and instinctively want to kiss his face off. Sadly I don't have any pictures :(

Two months old!

We celebrated JJ's two month birthday by putting him in an outfit and taking him out of his PJ's. He was ALL smiles.

Pregnancy to birth to 2 months!

NOTE: I typed this up really fast in between feedings, so please excuse typos, grammatical errors and just simply being all over the place. I promise to keep it real short for future entries.

My friend Mandy insisted that I start a photo blog for JJ so I can keep an electronic journal and show to him once he is older. So, here I am, trying to remember my pregnancy up until today. I am just going to keep this short and simple so I can move on to the present.

Pregnancy:

My pregnancy was pretty uneventful. If you take away the testings we had done and the scares, I had a very easy pregnancy. No morning sickness, felt really good and was somewhat happy (Jonathan may have another opinion). I was diagnosed with marginal placenta previa which turned into partial placenta previa. What this meant was my placenta was close to my cervix, making it dangerous to deliver the little guy vaginally. I didn't know it then, but it was a blessing in disguise because my c-section was AMAZING. I cannot believe how easy recovery was and I'm positive that women who have vaginal births experience a lot more pain then I did. Thank you to my wonderful doctors and nurses at FMH! Back to my pregnancy. I loved being pregnant. I loved feeling the baby, watching my belly move and of course the expectant mothers parking spaces at the mall. If I could be guaranteed that every pregnancy could be like this, I'd be the next Michelle Duggar.

(me and my mom at my beautiful baby shower 11 days before my little guy was born)

Birth:

My c-section was planned for March 30, 2010, however, the little guy had plans of his own. Around 12:30 p.m. on March 18, 2010 I got up to use the bathroom. When I stood up I felt a small gush of fluid release from my body. I immediately e-mailed Jonathan and told him to start heading home and then I called my doctor's office. My wonderful nurse Julie whom I have had MANY conversations with stayed on the phone with me until Jonathan got home from work to take me to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital around 1:45 p.m. and was seen right away. The nurse tested and confirmed that indeed my water did break and announced that we would be parents that day. Because I had food in my stomach (a delicious bowl of frosted flakes and strawberry's), I had to wait awhile for the c-section to make sure I had digested my breakfast. After hanging around at the hospital, making phone calls, facebooking and going through every emotion possible, I was taken to the OR at 6:00 p.m. to be prepped. While this was happening, Jonathan was getting dressed in his scrubs and my mom, grandmother and Aunt Libby were zooming through PA, DE and MD to get to the hospital. Jonathan enters room, c-section begins, I have a bit of anxiety feeling like I can't swallow, doctor yells at me to calm down, I calm down and BAM, I hear three, amazing, wonderful, beautiful, healthy, loud cries. Yes, that is right, I hear my beautiful baby crying. I immediately start crying, yelling "my baby, oh my god, my baby". I remember saying that like 20 times. Jonathan is by my side the entire time, THANK GOD! He immediately starts to take pictures and he is showing them to me as I was being put back together again. Finally, which was probably minutes although seemed like forever, they give the baby to Jonathan and I get a good look at him. HE IS PERFECT! The alien that has been inside of my belly is out and I cannot get over how perfect he is. One of the doctor's in the room say to me "Mrs. Fitch, your baby is healthy and looks great, we are now going to bring him to the nursery". I will never forget those words. I don't think there is anything better then hearing your baby is healthy and hearing your baby cry. Ok now I am going to rush through the rest of the day:

1. I get some good drugs to relax while they stitch me up.

2. Next thing I know I am in the recovery room where I ask for my Mommy. Mom comes in and I just remember loving her even more because I finally get it. I haven't even held my son at this point, but I finally knew the love she has for me, because I was feeling it for him.

3. What seemed like FOREVER, they take me to my room and my mom came with us. Within minutes the GREATEST thing happened. They gave me my baby. I looked at him and I cried, I sobbed, I was shocked. I made him? We made him? He was in me? How is he so beautiful? Is he really mine? Was there a mix up? He is too beautiful to be mine. I REALLY was thinking all of this.

4. I remember my family and Jonathan coming in the room and me looking at Jonathan and falling in love with him all over again. I remember thinking that our love made this beautiful baby. OUR LOVE. Jonathan and I made him. Just us. No one else.

5. I believe it was the next day, sometime late afternoon/early evening we finally decided on what we were going to name this beautiful baby of ours. It was either going to be Charles (Charlie) Vincent Fitch or Jonathan Robert Fitch, Jr. We chose Jonathan who is also known as McButters, JJ McButters, Butters, Mr. Whimpers, Whimperton, Cheeks, Mister Cheeks, Wide awake Jake and so many other names. JJ was born on Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 6:40 p.m., weighing in at 6 pounds, 15 ounces, 18 1/4" long.

Holding my baby boy for the first time:

Going back to surgery, our first family photo:

And now there were three...

The first week of his life my mom and Vince stayed with us. I would NOT have gotten through that time without them. I went through so many emotions and I was so scared and overwhelmed, but with their love, support and encouragement, I got through the most amazing and scariest week of my life. The following week Grandma Fitch stayed for a couple of days and Jonathan's mom came the rest of the week. My grandmother (JJ's GG) came during his third week of life and she was amazing too. I really do have the most supportive family ever. They would drop anything to come and help my family. Enter the fourth week -- JUST ME AND THE BABY! I was SO scared people. I mean, I was scared to death that I would do something wrong or something would happen that I did NOT want to be alone with him. Well, being that scared completely went away that Monday morning when I woke up and it was just us. I remember carrying him downstairs and immediately going into Mommy mode and ever since then I have felt so silly and somewhat embarrassed that I was soooooooooo scared to be alone with him. And as silly and embarrassed that I feel, I wouldn't change it for the world because for his first three weeks of life he was surrounded by people that love him. His family. Plus I must say, my mom, my grandmother and Jonathan's mom did so much cleaning and cooking for us it was WONDERFUL. We are very blessed to have all of them. They really made my introduction into motherhood easy!

Ok, I could go on and on about the first two months of his life, but I don't want to bore you with every single detail so here are some highlights:

1. As of JJ's two month follow-up appointment, he weighed in at 11 pounds, 12 ounces and 21 1/2". He is beautiful, happy and healthy. His cheeks get bigger by the day and he is such a ham. HE SMILES!! He gives these big, huge, open-mouth, gummy smiles and every time he does my heart melts. He is cooing too. He will talk to us and tell us about his day and he kicks his legs around and moves his arms. He LOVES the ceiling fan which I have named Franny the fan. It really is his best friend at this point. He loves his play mat. He loves his friends on his play mat - Antoine the elephant, Marlow the monkey, Gerard the Giraffe and Mr. Bird. Once he hit the 2 month mark he is going anywhere from 6-8 hours between bottles during the night, only waking us up once to eat. He is still eating every 2-3 hours during the day which is fine by me. I've been able to feed him only breast milk which I am very proud of and I plan to as long as possible.

Ok, so now that I have documented some of the pregnancy, birth and what he is doing and liking, I will update as much as possible with the latest and greatest photos of Mister Cheeks. Every single day he changes and we change with him.

Ok, ONE more thing. My husband/baby daddy Jonathan is the greatest father EVER. He comes home from work and spends every second he has with the baby until we go to bed and get this....takes the 3/4 a.m. feeding EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT. Jonathan is truly teaching me how to be the best parent that I can be. I love you baby and I love you JJ. My two Jonathans.