Friday, November 22, 2013

Introducing...





I know everyone knows already that we had Jackson, but this is his official Birth Announcement that I whipped up in photoshop! I took a class last year and I have been looking for something to practice my skills on! Since we are so close to the Holidays and I will soon be sending out christmas cards, I decided that in lieu of sending out another card announcement I would just post the digital image for all of our friends and family to enjoy! We are so happy to have such a sweet spirit in our home and sure do love our little guy!!

Thursday, November 21, 2013

He's Here!!!!!

 Jackson Avery Monteleone was born on Friday, September 27th, 2013!! He weighed 7lbs. 5oz. and was 20inches long!! He was born with the thickest, longest hair I have ever seen for a newbie and we have enjoyed every minute of him!!  He will be 8 weeks old tomorrow...wow, the time sure has flown by! I am so excited to share some of these gorgeous pics from his newborn session! We are so in love with our sweet baby boy!!!











 Thank you Kelsey for the beautiful pics!! Check her out here!







Sunday, September 22, 2013

39 weeks...almost!

Well....this is THE week...eeeeek!!! The week we finally get to meet our sweet baby boy!! Even though I'm pretty miserable at the moment, I am so grateful that I have been able to carry this baby to full-term! I have a scheduled C-Section for this coming Friday, Sept. 27th...hopefully I can make it:) I mean, I still have a hair & nail appt. so I better..LOL This time around it was really important to me to do everything that I didn't get the opportunity to do the first time around due to JJ's very early and unexpected arrival! Kelsey Dewitt of Kelsey Dewitt Photography took a few prenatal pics for me and I couldn't be more pleased with how they turned out.  I really didn't want to take pics 9 months pregnant, but with all of our summer travel and things, that's just how it had to be:) Thanks so much Kelsey, can't wait for you to take pics of our sweet baby!! My heart is full and I could not be happier to have 2 beautiful boys!

*For those of you interested in JJ's birth story I will post below!






JJ's Story
It was a tuesday afternoon that I went in for my regular check-up at almost 30 weeks! Today was the first visit that I would be meeting the other doctors in the practice in the event my "regular" doctor was unavailable to deliver me.  I remember it like it were yesterday, the dr. came in and asked me if I had been "running around today?" Um.. no was my response, as her proceeded to tell me that my blood pressure was a little high.  He advised me to go home and "take it easy" and then scheduled me to come back in on Thursday of the same week to meet with my regular dr.  So...I went home, rented some movies, had some Ice cream and just enjoyed some R&R...at this point not worried! Thursday rolls around and I went in for my follow-up with my regular dr. and again he says that my blood pressure was a "little high." He told me to go ahead and stop working and just go home and rest and come back the next day!!! Well, at this point I still wasn't worried because no on was really saying anything but I was a bit confused! I did as I was instructed, even though I felt fine at this point and felt a bit silly about the whole thing! More movies, more Ice cream!! The next day I came back for another appt. but this time Joey cam with me.  We actually had to go to the uptown location which was right next to the Hospital where I planned to deliver.  They checked my BP, and urine and this time I could tell my usually calm as a cucumber dr. was a little nervous! He came in and said that they wanted to go ahead and ADMIT me for a 24 hour observation!! WHAT?! I still wasn't really freaking out at this point, but rather just felt like this was all a bit strange! This was at around noon on Friday so I thought for sure we would be going home the next day by then..right?! Needless to say, I didn't have anything with me as I was expecting to just have a regular dr. visit. I asked if we could go home and get our things and they said no that I needed to go over and get checked in to the hospital immediately!! Ok, feeling confused Joey and I made our way next door and got checked in to a room for our 24 hour observation, so we thought! We called family and friends to let them know what was happening while reassuring them that everything was fine! About 12 hours into my observation I started feeling like CRAP!!! I was swelling very quickly and retaining a lot of water. My BP was climbing and I was dumping a ton of protein out of my urine/kidneys.  All of which are signs of severe preeclampsia, which I soon discovered I had developed.  The treatment for this condition is bedrest for as long as possible.  The only "cure" for preeclampsia is delivery but obviously a 30 week old baby is not ideal so they tried to hold it off for as long as possible.  Unfortunately for me my symptoms progressed very rapidly and delivery quickly became the only viable option! In less than 24 hours I had been checked into the hospital, expecting to be on bedrest for the next 10 weeks, to now realizing that I would soon be having a BABY!!! It was, to say the least, a very surreal experience! I felt like I was just through the motions and didn't really have time to process what was happening.  Looking back that was probably a good thing, because had I known the severity of the situation I probably would have freaked out!! It was now Saturday afternoon,  I had begun receiving steroid treatments to help my baby's lungs for his premature arrival! The Dr. came in that evening and spoke to us about having an emergency C-section. As it turns out my platelet count was dropping and I would later find out that I also had developed HELP syndrome.  He felt that it would be too risky to try and induce me. We were then advised to take a tour of the NICU that night so that we could see what a 30 week baby looks like to "prepare" ourselves! This was one of the worst nights of my life. I remember feeling so helpless and frustrated that my body was failing me and my baby and that there was NOTHING I could do about it. My C-section was set for the next morning and I remember feeling that I did not want the morning to come.  The morning did come and at 7:45 a whole team of nurses came in and began prepping me and threw some scrubbs over to Joey! I was very quickly wheeled into the operating room where I was given anesthesia and readied for surgery! Joey was able to be there with me and by 8:45 (1 hour later) we had become the parents of a very tiny and beautiful baby boy!!! Joseph Aaron Monteleone Jr. weighed in at 2lbs. 14oz and 15 3/4 inches long.  The team immediately whisked him away to make sure everything was ok and take him to the NICU.  Joey managed to snap a very few pics...I was unable to even see him at this time.  I was taken to recovery where I was given magnesium to try and bring my crazy high BP down!! This was by far the WORST part of the whole experience!!! I felt paralyzed, confused, like my skin was on fire, etc.. It was about 36 hours later when I finally started to stabilize and was able to go and see my son for the first time!! Well...long story, short..JJ had to be in the hospital for 2 months.  We were finally able to take him home on July 4th, 2008 and his weight at that time was 6.1lbs.  It was quite the roller coaster of emotions those 2 months.  I will never forget the day we brought him home and Independence day will forever hold a special and personal meaning for me! He is now 5 years old and everyday I have felt so blessed to have a healthy, happy little boy!!
My heart is full as I write this and think of how blessed we have been.  It has taken me 5 years to be able to revisit this experience and write out the details without balling my eyes out.  I am so grateful and elated to shortly be welcoming our 2nd son into our family!!

Thursday, July 18, 2013

5..better late than never!

My Dearest JJ,
I cannot believe you are 5!!!! It seems like just yesterday that you made your sudden and unexpected entrance into this world and our family!! Because of your early arrival we really don't have any "newborn" pics so the earliest professional pics start at about 4 months.  Many of you may know that I developed severe preeclampsia at about 29.5 weeks and as a result had to have an emergency C-section at 30 weeks! JJ was born on May 4th, 2008 at about 8:45 on that Sunday morning! He was a whopping 2 lbs. 14 oz and 15 3/4 inches long.  Needless to say it was a very scary and overwhelming time, but after a 2 month stay in the amazing NICU here in Charlotte, NC, we were FINALLY able to bring our sweet baby home on July 4th!! That was one of the best days of my life and it still brings tears to my eyes to think about the feelings I had when I got to bring my baby home!! Flash forward...... I am now exactly 29.5 weeks pregnant with baby boy Monteleone #2 and so far everything is going great!!! I currently have no signs of preeclampsia, but I continue to be considered high risk! I am overwhelmed with feeling of gratitude that I have made it this far. Even though I am getting pretty big and uncomfortable I am so grateful for each week that passes and that I am able to stay pregnant with no complications! We are so excited to be adding another sweet baby boy to our little family! I never had the chance to document my pregnancy last time by way of pics, so next week I have a special session scheduled..yay:) I just wanted to post a few of my favorite pics of my big boy over the last 5 years!!


4.5 months


1

2

 3

 4

5


We Love you JJ!! Happy Happy Birthday!!!!!

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

It's a.......

BOY!!!!!

We are so excited to be adding another beautiful boy to the fam!! :)

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Take me out to the ballgame!!


JJ started T-ball this past week and he is having a ball! (no pun intended!) It is so cute to see him suited up in his very official uniform! This past saturday they had a kick off parade and I had to take advantage of the opportunity for a little photo shoot! It's hard to believe that just as we are about to have another baby we are also entering into this new phase of life revolving around sports, and other all-boy extra curricular activities! Where did the time go? Last I checked JJ was only 2 and getting into everything! (sniff sniff). Now he is in a sports league and about to start Kindergarten! Ahh! Anyway, JJ was definitely in pose mode and really hammed it up the whole time I was taking pics! Joey is one proud Dad and it is so cute to see them share an interest together!! Goodness knows I'm certainly not the athletic one in the family:) 
The weather was absolutely beautiful this weekend.  I think it's finally warming up and here to stay....hallelujah!! Hope everyone had a great weekend and a 
Happy Monday!!!!!








Friday, April 26, 2013

Back to BLOGGING!!!!

Hello out there!!!! I am so embarrassed at how long it has been since I have blogged!! So much has happened this past year that I felt I didn't want to go another day without documenting all of our family happenings!! Now that I am not working nearly as much as I was, I have more time/desire to devote to our family blog! So here it is the new and improved Monteleone Family blog!! We would love to hear your comments and read your blogs as well so please be sure and leave your blog address in the comments so I know you visited:) 
As I mentioned, a lot has happened this past year.  I think it's been more like 2 years since I've blogged but I'm just going to hit the highlights for times sake! I spent all of 2011 and 2012 extremely busy/ blessed with my business!! I had a wedding/event almost every weekend which allowed me to live my passion of doing Hair + Makeup for a bunch of lovely ladies while at the same time being a SAH Mom to JJ! I absolutely love what I do and feel blessed to have a skill that I love! During that same time, Joey was dilligently researching/applying to business schools.  Long story short, among the schools he was accepted to was The Tuck school of Business at Dartmouth! This was great and all but it was in Hanover, New Hampshire!!!!!! uh, what? Where?? I don't think so! Yeah, that was pretty much my response and needless to say was not very easy to get along with in regard to this topic...Sorry Honey!! Another Long story short, we ended up coming here to New Hampshire and it has truly been one of the BEST EXPERIENCES OF MY LIFE!!!!!! We have been so blessed since day one of this journey, we have come closer as a family and I have met some of the most amazing people that I will always consider dear friends! With that said, I am posting some pictures from a baby shower, held in my honor along with 2 other preggers friends! Yes, that's right did I mention we are expecting BABY #2 OCTOBER 1ST!!!!!!!!!!!! We couldn't be happier and I feel great...now! I felt especially crappy the first 12 weeks so I am playing major catch up now:) 
A HUGE thank you to my sweet friends for a beautiful shower and for making me feel sooooooo special and loved!! Love you ladies!!
xoxo 

BTW- I am currently taking a photoshop class where I am learning a ton about editing photos, etc.. So I promise my posts will get better:)























Wednesday, September 14, 2011

New Website

Hi Friends!!

My new business Blog/Website is LIVE!! Please head on over to ColourbyCandace and check it out!!  Would love to hear your feedback!!  Thanks

xoxo,
Candace

Monday, July 4, 2011

Independence Day










I will forever have a special place in my Heart for the 4th of July!!! 3 years ago today we brought home our sweet baby boy from his 2 month long stay at the hospital!! JJ was born 10 weeks premature so we had to wait a while for him to grow and develop! He has grown and developed into such an amazing boy these last 3 years!! They have gone by so fast and I am so grateful that we were blessed with a happy, healthy little boy!! I wanted to post a pic of the day we brought him home and compare it to today!! What a huge difference!!! I love you JJ, Happy 4th of July!!!!
Posted by Picasa