The Pavelka Family: September 2012

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Indroducing Madelyn Rose!

Madelyn Rose Pavelka

Born September 23rd at 12:53pm

8 lb 1 oz

19.5 inches long

Sleeping Soundly!

Meeting her big sister!

Taylor watching Madelyn's first bath!

Alert and looking around!

Ready to go home!

Taylor greeted Maddy on the front porch!

I know it's not a real smile... but I love it anyway!

Taylor loves holding her little sister!

First morning at home

Madelyn Rose was brought into this world over two weeks early! I woke up at about 4:30am on Sunday morning with contractions. We went to the hospital and by 9:00am my water had broken right before we were checked in! She was born quickly (but painfully, as my epidural didn't work!) at 12:53pm! Even though Sam wasn't on his "off" week of chemo, we were so grateful that it happened on the weekend so that we didn't have to worry about him getting his treatments on the same day. He was able to be there the whole day, and was such a trooper, fighting the fatigue and nausea that usually come on strongly after that first week.

Madelyn is doing great! She scored a 9 on the Apgar scale, and is very healthy! We met with the pediatric urologist at the hospital, who did an ultrasound on her one enlarged kidney and a urinalysis and determined that we will monitor her closely for any changes or signs of infections. We will go see him again in 6 weeks, where he will do another round of tests on her. We are very relieved that we don't have to rush into any kind of surgery.

Taylor is loving having her little sister home! She gets slightly freaked out when she cries, especially when we gave her a bath for the first time. Taylor hid in the closet until we were finished! She has been having some adjustment issues, especially at bedtime. She has a hard time letting Sam or I leave her room, and will scream and cry until she finally falls asleep. Based on our history of sleep with her, I'm not surprised that the area that she regressed was her sleep!

Overall, we are adjusting well as a family of 4! We had a lot of help during the first week, and we are very grateful for that. Sam had to have chemo during this first week home, which would have been really difficult if we didn't have our family here to support us.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

2 Weeks to Go....

Tomorrow, Sam begins his 5th round of chemotherapy. Tomorrow is also 2 weeks away from when I will be induced! We are both very anxious for the next 2 weeks to go by as quickly as possible. We're ready to meet our little Madelyn!!

This past week was Sam's week off. Much of the week was spent preparing for Madelyn's arrival. I had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday, where I found out that I am already 2 cm dilated and 40% effaced. Hopefully Madelyn will stay put until our induction date, because we want Sam feeling healthy for her arrival!

We did do a lot of fun activities with Taylor this week, too, knowing that this was our last week that Sam will feel well where it will be just the three of us. His next off week, we will become a family of 4!

Sam and Taylor went on a little "date" last week. They spent the day at Bounce U Up in Plainfield, then went to Choo-Choo Johnny's for lunch, and spent some time looking at animals at the pet store. Meanwhile, I was busy being pampered at Mario Tricoci with a mani/pedi, thanks to my Aunt Maureen!

On Thursday, the Minooka High School NHS sponsored a fundraiser for us at Casa Maya. We spent Thursday night there with a wonderful, caring group of students and teachers! We are so grateful for all of the hard work that was put into the evening, and appreciate all of those who were involved!

We took Taylor downtown for the first time on Saturday with some of Sam's work friends. It was a blast! Taylor was amazed at the tall buildings, the noises, and everything that there was to see. We took her to the top of the Willis Tower, which she loved! She couldn't get enough of standing by the window looking at all of the tiny sailboats, cars, and people that she could see! We went out for sushi afterward, which was delicious!

Sunday, we spent the day doing fun things as a family, but also getting a few more things done for Madelyn's arrival. Taylor and I spent the morning practicing writing her name in shaving cream. We then made pizzas together, and had our first family movie night, which was "Finding Nemo". This was the first movie that Taylor ever watched, and she did well! She started getting a little antsy near the end, but really loved the movie and kept talking about it as we put her to bed!

Overall, we had a wonderful week together as a family. We can't believe that the next time Sam has a week off, we will be taking care of another baby! He will begin his 6th round of chemo on October 8th, one week after Madelyn is born. I would be lying if I said we weren't a little nervous about that, but we know we will get through it. Having our beautiful daughters home with us will definitely put a smile on our faces, no matter how stressful things might be!