October Chemo - Round 1

After her big long 12 week round of chemo over the summer, Abigail started a series of 8 six week rounds, which I'll identify going forward as rounds 1, 2, 3, etc. 

So round 1 started on October 1st and due to a change in Andrew's responsibilities at work (being put in charge of intake for the office) he was less and less able to stay home on Tuesdays to watch the kids. Hence, Abigail and I started having regular companions at chemo! 6 -7 hours at the hospital every week meant I had to start getting creative in how I kept a one year old entertained. 

I tried bringing various toys from home:

But Seth preferred exploration....

And the fun built in toys in the room:

Luckily Cora was pretty much happy to watch shows with Abigail.

And order food!

Visits to the play room also helped pass the time!

And when all else failed, I'd whip out a bottle and try for a nap. 

Sometimes the wrong child fell asleep.

On October 6th, Abigail fell on a pointy toy in the play room and gave herself this lovely eye decoration:

Which meant for chemo on the 8th she got lots of "what happened?!" questions. To me, it just looks like she's wearing makeup! :)

The next day, the 9th, Grandpa and Grandma Smith arrived! I'll do a separate post about that, but that meant that for week 3 of chemo on October 15th, we had one extra visitor! 

Grandpa Smith had already headed back to Utah, but Grandma was able to stay for 3-4 weeks and Abigail wanted to show her what we did at chemo, rather than having her stay home and babysit. So she came! 

Seth was happy to help show her the ropes. 

"Basically, Grandma, we eat and I get into things. Got it?"

And sometimes we rest. 

Abigail was happy that Grandma got to meet all her doctors and nurses! 

And she got to see the play room!

By the end of the day, Cora was melting down (that wasn't uncommon) and was NOT in the mood for one more picture. 

The next week, Grandma babysat Cora and Seth at home so just Abigail and I went to finish off her second total round of chemo, first short round. She knocked it out of the park!