Baby Slezak's Blog

What a good boy

Pania Slezak — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 09:53:59 +0000

Lots of people are jealous at me. Paul is such a good kid that he sleeps 9-10 hours through the night. Yes, I do admit that we are so lucky. He is also not a very needy child, except when he wants attention. He will make noises to get our attention. But once we look at him, he smiles big. Oh such a joyful face!
We are glad to have him and feel very blessed.

July Update

Brian Slezak — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 17:53:55 +0000

So one might be wondering what’s happened since we brought our new boy home, since we haven’t posted here much. (We will try to do better, and use this as our baby journal.) Well, everything has been pretty normal for bringing a new baby home. Paul has turned out to be a great kid, and we get a lot of compliments on how calm and serene he acts in public. He has grown quite fast, and we’re kind of hoping he’s going to slow down a bit for the next few months. He is just over 3 months old and already in 6 month clothes sizes. Fun pictures below.

A few weeks ago when his eyesight cleared up he started connecting with faces. He quickly found that communication, even basic guttural or squealing types (his favorite), is just pure fun. He talks to everything that has eyes, which includes his Tigger (of Winnie the Pooh) crib bedding. Last night in particular he was up a little late and I decided it was time for bed; I grabbed him and headed up to his room. By the time I got to his room, he was smiling and in a full conversation with me. I could not resist, because he more often talks to mom than me, so I sat down in the rocking chair and chatted him up. He had more to say than he ever has before, and we talked and laughed for many minutes until he got hiccups. It was one of those short moments that you never want to let go.

Starts cooing

Pania Slezak — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:03:19 +0000

Paul loves to talk. Whoever talks to him (stranger or not), he will coo. I think he takes every opportunity to do so. So if you get to see him, talk to him. He’ll love you

Finally Home

Brian Slezak — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:48:40 +0000

On Wednesday, April 7, Pania and I went into the hospital to have her induced into labor. After much ado, Paul Michael Slezak was born on April 8 at 3:57 pm. We left the hospital around 5:45 pm on April 11, Easter Sunday, after five days and four nights in the hospital. That was utterly exhausting. Pania and I had both of our parents on hand to send us home. We packed everything up, put Paul in his car seat, climbed in our car, and tried to relax for the drive home. Pania and I looked at each other and smiled as we pulled away into a light rain; the wipers running. I turned on the radio, and as if God were watching over us to give us comfort, the radio was playing Finally Home, by Mercy Me. It hit me before I left the hospital parking lot, and I immediately began crying a bit, mixed with laughter. Pania asked me what was wrong and I simply said, “the song,” and turned the music up as we left the parking lot and turned right onto Nall Avenue. I didn’t say much, but just listened to the song and thought about everything we’d been through, and who joined us as we came out the other side. We drove home, cleaned up, and sat down to the wonderful Easter dinner that my parents had prepared.

I am so thankful for all the kind thoughts and prayers everyone sent to us; they helped me emmensely. Having a child is a trip, and I’ve loved it. In the first week we’ve been loving on Paul and experiencing all his ‘firsts’ with him. Even when you understand that these moments are precious, and you do your best to savor them as they happen, they speed by too quickly.

Happy Easter!

Brian Slezak — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 15:10:06 +0000

Paul Slezak will participate in his first Easter holiday today. He is doing well, and we are staying until 4pm today so he can have his bilirueben checked again to make sure it is holding steady or dropping, and not raising back up quickly. His reading is currently at 11, well within reasonable range. If all goes well we may be able to take him home for an Easter dinner, but we’ll see.

Mom is still doing very well and gaining more energy by the day. Dad is utterly exhausted after 3 days of sleep depervation and caring for Mom and Paul.

Still Stretching

Brian Slezak — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 00:59:36 +0000

The latest this evening is that Paul’s biliruben score has come down slightly, but is back below the 75th percentile which makes things much less concerning. Everyone in the family noticed that Paul’s skin was losing the yellow tint as well. We’ve had to keep supplementing his food with formula to keep his bowels moving, but he is doing great feeding outside of formula too. Everything is moving the direction it needs to go home tomorrow, but everyone here works on an hour by hour basis. We may find out a little more here in a bit if they can reach the doctor to update him/her. If we hear something I’ll post it on Twitter or Facebook.

(I’ve added the twitter updates to the lower right side of this blog. [You may need to scroll down.] These are updated instanneously, so you can keep track of things here as well.)

Thanks to everyone for watching us and caring for us from afar. Both Pania and I appreciate it!

Home Stretch

Brian Slezak — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:27:59 +0000

Well, today we are still well and still in the hospital. This morning Paul’s biliruben count was 14, which is completely managable but in the high average range. They are cautious because the count rasied quickly over last night and early this morning, so they want to keep him another night to make sure it peaks out here and doesn’t get any higher. He’ll get the lamp treatment, and we may end up supplementing his food intake to make sure he’s getting enough.

In short, biliruben (red blood cells) are broken down in two major ways. 1. Being in light 2. Eating and drinking plenty and excreating it naturaly. We’ll make sure he gets both and he should be good to go. In the meantime we have to try and sleep as much as possible. Pania’s blood pressure was 150s/100s this morning, but then 126/86 immediately after laying on her side and napping two hours later. It has done that for two days now, so we’ll see how that goes and if the doc will release her today or not. Either way we’ll stay here another night so she can continue feeding Paul, and we can stay close to him. He is a unbelievable joy in our lives, even when he is mad at us.

Bonding with Paul

Brian Slezak — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:40:00 +0000

We’ve been spending time with him and caring for him. I finally got a couple pictures with his hat off to show off his full head of black hair.

Paul is Here!

Brian Slezak — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:18:50 +0000

I was a little slow putting up this post because I’ve been updating twitter regularly, but:

Paul was born on April 8, 2009 at 3:57 pm. He weighed 7 lbs 11 oz (3.4 kilograms) and was 20.5 inches (52.07 cm). Keep watching the Picasa album below for picture updates, and Twitter for status updates.

I also want to thank everyone for their prayers and congratulations. The support from e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter has been overwhelming, and I’m grateful for knowing we are supported from afar. Thank you so much.

It Begins

Brian Slezak — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:42:48 +0000

This evening we went into the hospital to begin Pania’s labor inducement. We checked in around 4:45 pm, went through the paperwork, standard tests, and ate dinner. (Not a bad dinner for hospital food.) We are now waiting until 8 pm, when they will administer Cervidil. That induces some women into labor, so it could begin as early as tonight sometime, depending on how far along Pania already is. There are some indications that she has begun early labor already.

It should be a long night.