Sweet Surprise

Tonight my husband came home a few hours earlier from work than I thought he would be with these beauties:

Not much can beat a surprise like this. He's has had to work late a few nights and I have kinda been a baby about it and going a little crazy by myself with 2 kids all day. Brian knows what I need just when I need it. Thanks for the sweet surprise, babe! Love you.

Happy Valentine's!

I love these boys more than words can say.

We had a fun day starting out with Daddy taking over in the morning for Mom and hanging out with Wes until Thad woke up. Dad made German pancakes for breakfast and headed out for a long day at work.

 Thad had fun at our play group V-Day party at the church and loved decorating his box and cookies and eating WAY too many treats!

Grandma Cindy sent the boys a little love note with golden dollars...Thad loved them and is saving them to buy some cars at the store. :)

Love is good.

Happy Birthday, Thad!

Great Grandmas

When I say Great Grandmas, I don't mean our moms' moms, but Great as in Wonderful, Incredible, Amazing, Remarkable, Spectacular, Marvelous and any other synonym you can think of for Grandmas.

The past 2.5 weeks have flown by with our new addition, and they have been a very pleasant couple of weeks thanks to these two ladies:

I don't know how people transition through major life events without the support of family. It makes all the difference, and I am so grateful to be a part of two very supportive families. Going through these major changes definitely helps me take a step back and remember what is important in life, and family always seems to make it to the top. I love living back here, on the east coast, Brian and I have grown so much as a couple and we have met so many incredible people. I don't plan on leaving soon, and I am perfectly content with that, but events like this tug at my heart strings and make me hope that our kids can be close to their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins someday so they know our family and so our family can know them watch them grow.

In the mean time we will have wonderful visits to and from family to fill up our tanks and keep us going until the next time we see them.

My mom headed back first to help me through recovery and figuring my baby out. :) She was amazing and kept my house in tip top shape and I didn't lift a single finger. She used to call me her "gopher," because I would run around and "go for" whatever she needed...she taught me well and I put that lesson into action with her! She was amazing and any little request I had, she was on it!

Thad also loved having Grandma Cindy around and took advantage of her every moment he could. 

He loved this book my mom brought for Wes called, The Night You Were Born. It was so sweet and talked about how special each baby is, and he had her read it to him a few times in a row. 

The ship story (Nephi going to the Promised Land) is now his favorite in the Book of Mormon because she read it to him during FHE the night before she left. He hasn't let up and I'm so okay with that. 

 We were able to make it out a couple times while she was here. Grandma Cindy LOVES Stew Leonard's, so we couldn't pass it up. It also felt so good to get up and go only 5 days after having a baby. The things our bodies can do! 

Thad was okay once we passed the cow and Wes loved his first time at the "Cow Store!"

We were all so sad to see her go, so for her farewell meal we took her to our favorite Norwalk restaurant, Jordan's, to gobble up a Kitsa Pella Salad. 

It did not disappoint!

Thank you, Mom, for coming to help our family that lives thousands of miles away. Thank you for over-paying for your ticket, dealing with lay-overs, flying into Hartford and sitting in traffic just to be here right on the day I wanted you to. Thank you for folding each piece of laundry and putting up with my demands about how it was washed, dried, folded and put away. Thank you for putting my soothing pads in the fridge and grimacing with me each time Wes would latch on. It made all the difference and I love you for it!

Saying goodbye to my mom was hard, but not quite as hard as the next goodbye because I knew another Great Grandma was on her way the very next morning! I was feeling so good physically by the time Teresa came, but she helped me keep my sanity. She walked in our door early Wednesday morning and didn't step one foot out until Monday evening for dinner and some birthday shopping with our soon-to-be 3-year old.

She indulged this boy on any request he had, whether it was a new game on her iPhone, making shapes with his cars or scaring each other with the T-rex, his wish was her command. 

And you know what? They BOTH loved every second of it!

By indulging Thad's need to play and be entertained, it indulged me to do what I needed or wanted to, and that is the #1 thing I needed this last week. With all this change, I needed to feel like me. I didn't want to feel frantic or overwhelmed and Teresa being there to play with Thad or take Wes at any given moment, helped me avoid feeling that way. With each passing day I knew it was getting closer to being mommy of 2 on my own and having her there helped me transition mentally so much better.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't do much of anything while she was here either! At times I felt like I needed to be doing more, but I let her cook, clean up after she cooked, mop my floors and catch me (I mean Brian) up on ironing. I try to be a good hostess most of the time, but all my propriety went out the window...I hope you don't mind, Teresa. :) 

Teresa, thank you for leaving your busy life at home and enjoying your time with your grandsons. Thank you for letting me sleep whenever I wanted to. Thank you for making up games and stories for Thad and teaching him how to take turns when playing Memory. Thank you for staying with one or both of our boys whenever I had the urge to go to the store or play a game of volleyball. Thank you for not caring that you only put your shoes on twice the whole time you were here. It made all the difference and I love you for it!

My Boys Lately

 This boy keeps growing!

He's up to 9 lbs...he gained a whole pound last week!

 And this boy still loves being a big brother!

(Even if he did get in trouble right after this picture for sliding out from under Wes before I was able to put the camera down)

 Dad was showing Thad how strong Wes' neck was...

 And Thad had to get in on the action and showed Wes and Mom how strong his neck was...how impressive, Thad!

 We found the sportiest outfit we could for the Super Bowl (pretty darn cute if I don't say so myself),

And enjoyed the night as a family watching the Giants win. :)

There is nothing better than seeing these 3 faces every day. 

Life really is good!

Happy Due Date, Mr. Wes

We sure are glad we didn't have to wait until today to meet our sweet Wes. These past 11 days have been wonderful and I can hardly imagine life without him in it!

I have two wonderful friends who came and captured some precious images of our brand new baby boy. We will cherish these pictures forever. They will always remind us of the sweet joy we felt when Wes joined this family.

 Jamie, I couldn't think of a better gift than these sweet images.

Thank you so much for sharing your talent with our family.

Heather came the next day and captured some more precious images of our new addition:

 This boy LOVES his pacifier and it had to be in his mouth right before most of the shots. 

 This big brother is just as in love with his baby brother as he looks!

How wonderful life is now that he's in the world!

What a Week!

Our sweet Wesley was born a week ago today, and I can hardly believe that much time has passed! Even when you're 38 weeks pregnant, it feels like having the baby will never be here, and then all of the sudden this perfect, precious human is all yours to care for every moment of every day. God sure knows what he's doing. My heart is so full of love for my family and it is such a wonderful part of life right here, right now.

Labor started last Saturday with a full day of being uncomfortable and minor, faint contractions starting in the late evening while watching TV together. I didn't say much to Brian because I wasn't sure if what I was feeling were contractions because I didn't experience much labor with Thad. I didn't want to get Brian nervous or excited if it was nothing. I slept great through night, woke up at 7am to get ready for church, and the contractions started right away. They were still pretty minor and didn't keep me from getting Thad and I ready for church while Brian was at meetings, so even though they were pretty consistent, we headed out to church. We timed them while at church and a few would be 5 minutes apart, then 4 minutes, 7 minutes, etc, but still not too strong. I was still so unsure about if I was really in labor, so we stuck around for the full 3 hours of church. The last half hour they got a bit stronger and consistently 5 minutes apart and that continued until we got home.

I called the doctor around 1pm and she said to head in right away because it sounded like the baby was on his way. I finished packing my bag, ate some lunch (I made extra sure to do this as to not recreate my insane hunger during Thad's labor), dropped Thad off at the Bagwell's and checked into the hospital at 2pm. I could tell the nurse was skeptical of me being in labor because of the smile on my face and lack of reaction to my contractions. I guess I was a little skeptical too, but I hadn't felt anything like this the entire pregnancy and I didn't think it was going to subside any time soon. Dr. Delprete came in and checked me and to everyone's surprise I was dialated to 5cm!! The nurse and doctor told me I was the smiliest 5cm they had ever seen, and hurried to get me an IV and 1 liter of fluid in me to make sure I could get an epidural before things progressed too much. I had my epidural soon enough and a few minutes after receiving it my water broke and contractions picked up. By 4pm I was at 7cm and a little while later I started to feel a lot more of the contractions than I expected. The nurse could tell I was in a lot of pain, had the doctor check and I was still at 7cm, so the anesthesiologist was brought back in to take that pain away!

Not my best picture, but this is me after getting the second dose of anesthesia and relaxing for about an hour before the pain started to come back pretty strong. At a little before 6pm I was checked again and sure enough, I was at 10cm and ready to get that baby out! Like I said, I felt a lot more than expected and that brought tears to my eyes, but also gave me more motivation to focus and deliver my baby boy. By 6:06pm we were ready to start pushing and after pushing through 3 contractions...

 Wesley Wilson Monsen was born at 6:15pm

January 22, 2012

8 lbs 8 oz

21.25 inches

He was whisked away pretty quickly because he was having a little trouble breathing. The doctor got a few bulbs full of mucus out of his throat, but it wasn't enough and they brought in the on-call pediatrician to put a little tube down his throat and clear out all the mucus so he could get some air in those lungs and show off his sweet little cry. There were a few nervous minutes, but they passed quickly and all was well with our sweet, brand new baby boy.

 Mommy getting her hands on that sweet baby for the first time.

The tears of joy were flowing and I could feel my heart grow several sizes that night.

After an hour in the delivery room we head to the Postpartum wing and Wes was taken to the nursery to be bathed, checked over, and warmed in the lights. He was gone almost 2 hours and this mommy and daddy were getting anxious to cuddle that baby boy some more!

 Finally! He returns!

 Proud daddy of another handsome boy!

We couldn't get enough of this sweet boy and were so excited for Thad to meet him the next day.

Big Brother

 Thad was a little hesitant at first, but overcame it quickly and was excited to hold his baby brother for the first time.

The Monsen Boys

Couldn't ask for anything or anyone better then these two handsome boys.

And then there were 4!

Wes didn't get many visitors with so much distance between family, but it was actually quite nice to spend the few days in the hospital together as a family with no interruptions. 

Of course the Farrs made it up to see our new addition...they are practically family!

Bringing Home Baby

January 24, 2012

Before we knew it, it was time to take this precious gem home.

With Thad, I could have stayed an extra day or two in the hospital, but this time I was definitely ready to leave and be together as a whole family in our own home.

We spent the first night at home with the 4 of us and loved seeing Wes in his new surroundings.

He loves this swing with the mobile.

 So crazy how observant they can be at just a few days old!

 Grandma Cindy was able to fly in the evening after we came home, Wednesday, and it was so wonderful to have help from the get go to keep this cute kid entertained, keep up on house duties and so Dad could finish the week out at work.

Thad loves playing Play-Doh with Grandma Cindy and seeing all the fun sculptures she creates for him!

 Having my mom here before giving this boy his first bath was a must.

They are just so fragile and I get nervous I won't do it fast enough or handle him correctly.

She gave me some good pointers, but I have yet to bathe the boy myself. I'll HAVE to do it once she leaves, so I guess I'll keep taking advantage of her while I can!

 Newborn bliss.

Love that hair!

  Thad is smitten with his little brother and takes any opportunity he can to share with Wes.

He always asks, "Can I see him?" followed by, "Hi, cute little baby!" and a cheesy grin.

There is a reason Thad came first and it's because he is going to fulfill his role of being a leader and big brother of our whole family. I can't imagine anyone better for Wes to be looking up to over the years.

 Grandma Cindy enjoying her 14th grandchild!

Cuddling these tiny babies never gets old.

 Wes already has such a great demeanor about him. A couple times each day he will stay awake for an hour or two just checking things out and batting his beautiful eyes.

 I love it when Thad asks to hold him and can't turn him down when he does.

I am so excited to see these two boys grow up together.

I know it's going to get crazy at times, but it's going to be an amazing thing to witness.

This week has been incredible. Our lives have changed forever in the best way it possibly could. Having a family is a special, sacred thing and adding Wes to our family has reminded us of that blessing. Our hearts are full and it is hard to express in words the joy we feel as our family has grown. What a wonderful life!