Taylor Grace

A month ago today our lives changed. We added the sweetest and cutest little girl to our crew. I mean seriously, look at that sweet cry face?

If you follow me on Facebook, then you know that sweet Taylor Grace is a blessing and miracle in more than one way. First of all, since I had to stop my treatment for my leukemia in order to have another child, there was risk that the leukemia could progress and become life threatening to me and pose risk to the baby. Thankfully, neither happened. But a risk we didn’t even know about was discovered while I was delivering-- she had what is called a true knot in her umbilical cord. A true knot is exactly what it sounds like-- her cord, which is a baby’s lifeline while they are in the womb, was tied in a knot. If it would have tightened just a smidge, it would have caused serious health issues for her and/or death. But it didn’t, and she was born perfectly healthy. It makes her middle name “Grace” that much more fitting.

And life has been so much more fun (and exhausting :) ever since. Delivery went great and I have been able to bounce back pretty quickly, which is good considering that we’ve been non-stop ever since. Luckily Taylor fits right in this crazy busy family and life of ours. Just three days after she was born she went to her first baseball game of her brothers and has gone to 6 others since then. She's an avid Target shopper, enjoys going out to eat, and has already ventured to Kentucky Down Under, Nashville, and stayed in her first hotel room, all in her first month of life. And to celebrate her 1 month birthday, she went to work with mommy for a little bit and I think she enjoyed it. I’ve mastered diaper changes on my lap while on the go and can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to feed her in the back of my car between all this running, especially when waiting in the school parking lot for her brother to get out of school.

Speaking of big brother-- he is a HUGE help and loves her so much. I try to make time for just him since this is such a big change and so we’ve had a couple of date nights—once to Gatti’s and once to the movies. 

Dad is great with her and has jumped right in. He even does the midnight feeding with her every night which guarantees me a solid straight 4 hours of sleep each night (yay!). 

And my adjustment to restarting treatment for my CML hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be, which a blessing in itself is. As my due date approached, I began to dread the idea of starting my treatment again. Aside from the morning sickness I dealt with during pregnancy (which was pretty bad), I felt really good, better than I had felt in years- better than I had felt since I started my treatment for my leukemia. I wasn’t looking forward to going back to that. The thought of being nauseas and vomiting and extremely fatigued while trying to care for a newborn (especially at 3am) was overwhelming. While my oncologist advised I start my treatment the day after I had Taylor, I decided to wait a month in order to give my body some time to adjust. Well that idea quickly changed as a lymph node that had been swollen in my armpit for a couple of months got a lot bigger and hard. Maybe it was from my leukemia, maybe it wasn’t, but that was all the scare I needed to get over the dread and start my treatment again. And the good news, the side effects haven’t been as bad I had thought.  I’ve had a constant headache, some swelling, fatigue, and a bit of nausea, but it hasn’t been as bad as it was before. I’m hopeful it will stay that way. Next week I go back to my oncologist for testing to check the status of my leukemia. It’s been over 2 months since we checked it last so fingers crossed for positive news!

So that has been my life for the past month. My house is messier than it has ever been, most days breakfast consists of toast and a handful of Cheetos for lunch, last night was the first time I have cooked since having her, my maternity ‘to do’ list seems to get longer instead of shorter, and while all that tends to give this OCD gal some anxiety, it’s a fair trade for spending time doing absolutely nothing but sitting on the couch and holding my sweet girl. I have a 9 year old proof that these moments will pass too quickly so I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.