Trey's 1 Month Old! (8/28/12)

Trey is already one-month old!!!

At his check-up:

      Weight is 9lb 2oz 

      Height is 21 inches  

He gained 2.5 pounds and grew 1.5 inches in one month!!

He's still a little guy with his weight in the 23rd percentile and his height around the 35th percentile, but he was in lower percentiles at 1 week, so it's great that he's growing!

1 Month Picture

1 Month old in a 12-Month Outfit!

Playdate with Jacob Plack (8/11/12)

The weather was nice and since both the Placks and the Milczareks are now suburbanites, we had a playdate at the Placks' pool!

Ellie and Jacob did very well holding hands while we walked across the apartment complex to the pool and Ellie enjoyed swimming with dad while mom and Trey hung out poolside.

After swimming Ellie and Jacob played together with his toys but we made them keep the door to his bedroom open.  :-)

Hand in Hand together...

we're not throwing anything behind the bed or jumping on the bed!!!  Honest!

Hugging goodbye!

Weekend Fun (8/24/12)

We decided to go spend the day at the Palatine Street Festival where Ellie enjoyed singing along and dancing with the bands and playing kiddie games.  She even won a chip clip for kicking a soccer ball into a net!


After a long day outside in the sun, we spent the evening playing outside with Dakota and that wiped everyone out!
As the kids have fast learned, dad is the best place to sleep! 

The first band was not good...

8.24.12 Family Picture

We're both very tired.  :-)

Meeting the family! (8/22/12)

Lisa met her friend, Catherine Silver, at the Treehouse for a playdate!  It was the first time Lisa had both kids out in public on her own.  It was a bit intimidating trying to watch Ellie run around with many kids running interference while sitting at a table next to Trey.  Luckily Catherine's son, Josh (3), was eager to help Ellie go through all the obstacles.  It was really cute watching the two of them together.

After a morning filled with playing (and Ellie constantly asking "Where's Josh?" on the ride home) we went to Great Aunt Joan's house to play!  Ellie loved playing with Diamond and her ball out in the yard and Trey was able to meet Great Aunt Joan, Great Uncle Mark and awesome cousin Chloe!


We all slept well that night!  :-)

Great-Aunt Joan running down the hill with Ellie

Diamond kept his eye on Ellie, but she was tired!

Trey's Famous!

Trey made the cover of Mead Johnson Nutrition's internal 2013 Budget Instructions!
Out of all the babies that use Enfamil Formula, they chose Trey's picture!  Okay - really it's probably because Wayne works at the company, but still...

Due Date! (8/15/12)

Today was my Due Date for Trey!
But because he was 2.5 weeks early, we spent the day at Santa's Village Azoosment park with Grandma and Grandpa!

Santa's Village has turned into a petting zoo/kiddie ride park - perfect for Ellie!
She started off on the carousel and hated it, but as soon as it was over, she ran back towards it yelling horsey!  (We rode it 2 more times)
She enjoyed every ride she went on!  And by the end of the day she was a pro at going on rides alone without pouting her lip!
Her favorite was definitely the Fire Truck ride - where the Fire Truck took you to a burning house in which we all had to spray our hoses to put the fire out.  All day Ellie kept asking for Truck!  She rode that ride 3 or 4 times!

She also was able to feed animals like goats and llamas in the petting zoo (without being attacked like her daddy and Uncle Chris were when they were little)!  And to top it off she rode Beaker, a live little pony!

Riding the carousel with grandpa - not a huge fan while in motion but as soon as Ellie got off she ran to get back on!

Riding Beaker the pony!

Grandpa and Trey in the picnic area

Mommy and Ellie on the spaceship ride!

Ellie does not follow in her Uncle's fear of costumes

Grandma and Ellie driving the old-time cars

We put out a house fire 3 different times!  Ellie's favorite ride was the fire truck ride!

Enjoying the petting zoo!

Trey's Milestones (August 2012)

Trey has hit a few milestones already!

Belly Button fell off:   8/6/12
First Real Bath:  8/12/12
First Bottle:  8/13/12
Rolled from Tummy to Back:  8/24/12

And of course because mom gets cabin fever after 3 hours, Trey's less than three weeks old and has visited places such as:
Costco
Target (feels like daily!)
Santa's Village
Daycare to pick up Ellie
The Pancake House
Monkey Joe's/Treehouse



Plus, we try to go for walks with Dakota each day!  Some only last a block and other times Dakota lets us walk a decent distance, approximately 2+ miles. 

Daddy and Ellie going down the slide at the Treehouse

Sleeping while I walk Dakota

First Real Bath!

Daddy's nice to sleep on

Nighttime ritual - watching Caillou while pretending to eat dinner

First Few Weeks (August 2012)

Trey is eating like a champ and growing like a weed!  He was 6.8 when he was born and dropped to 6.3 prior to leaving the hospital.  By 1 Week, he was already 6.9!  So he had gained back the lost weight and even added to it!

Ellen's been handling the transition well, she's still going to daycare like normal and she doesn't seem to be regressing with anything, yet.  Except maybe the pacifier, she's very adamant about having it whenever possible!  She does get a little jealous if Wayne or Lisa picks up Trey, but otherwise she seems to tolerate him.  :-)

Trey's stay in the hospital (7/28-7/30)

The excitement began on Friday evening when Lisa felt contractions on her train ride home from work.  Nothing painful, but contractions none-the-less.  Grandma and Grandpa Svejcar were called at 6pm and they dropped everything (including making dinner and I'm pretty sure Grandpa was in the car before Grandma and Lisa hung up) and were at the apartment by 6:35 to take Ellie.  Wayne and Lisa were off to Prentice Women's Hospital!

The contractions were still about 12 minutes apart and not painful, but the traffic to downtown was bad so we left early.  We enjoyed a dinner at Elephant and Castle and watched the Olympic Opening Ceremonies.  We called the Doctor around 9pm and were told to meander over to the hospital.

By 1am and a lot of figure eight laps around triage (how many laps equals a mile?  Funny no one could tell us!), contractions slowed down and we were told to go home. It could be a few more days or Lisa's water could break in a few hours, no one knew...

Saturday morning Lisa felt some more painful contractions but none consistent or closely spaced so she, Wayne and Dakota drove downtown to Lincoln Park so Lisa could attend a friend's wedding shower and Wayne could drop Dakota off at the GPs.  Lisa even drove!  
Within an hour of being at the shower and enjoying the sunshine and hors doeuvres, contractions came on heavy!  They were 5 minutes apart and extremely painful!  Lisa called the doctor at 2pm and was told to come to the hospital. 
At 2:25, Wayne was only at Addison/Elston (coming from Addison/Austin) due to bad traffic so Lisa Plack drove Lisa to the hospital!  It took the girls a half hour to get there from Lincoln Park!  By the time they arrived, contractions were 2 minutes apart!  Triage said Lisa was 9cm and needed to go up to Labor & Delivery. 

The big question - would Wayne make it?!?!

Luckily he walked in right as we were heading out of Triage!  After an additional hour of very painful contractions, and the threat of not being able to get an epidural due to the little guy wanting to come out fast, Dr. Norlin sacrificed her hand for me to hold while the epidural was put in.  After that, everything was gravy!

With the support of Wayne, Lisa pushed for only 18 minutes and Trey was born!  What an amazing experience!!! 

the epidural has kicked in!

Less than 5 minutes old!

Still in Labor & Delivery

Look at the view!

Day 2 - we made it through the first night!

13 hours old

Look at that smile!  These two are going to team up!

I'm not doing anything!  Honest!

We're going home!

Shortly after meeting each other for the first time

Ellie might've tried to hug a little too tight.  :-)

First Family Portrait - Prentice Women's Hospital, Chicago