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.