Alice

This very long post is devoted to our little Alice Mae. On May 18, our little Alice turned ONE!!!  I can't believe how fast this past year has gone! Alice is such a spunky little girl, always moving and wiggling and exploring things. She does not really like to be held and is VERY independent. She won't even let us feed her food from a spoon anymore! She has to feed herself, so we just have to cut or mash up her food so that she can get all messy and do it herself! She will bat away our hands if we even attempt to feed her from a spoon. She is always happy and smiling (except when she needs something, then she really makes it known to us!). Lately, some of her favorite things and activities are:
~ throwing toys
~ hitting faces
~ crawling like a speed racer across the room
~ playing and giggling with her sister
~ reading books
~ kicking walls
~ going for walks outside
~ exploring grass
~ singing songs (Nerdy side note to my music friends:  She totally can sing the S-M (m3) interval! Its amazing! This really is the first interval that babies and children can sing in tune! )
~ saying "Hi" to everyone she sees and also to her favorite toys and objects
~ playing rhythm instruments or playing with anything that makes sounds
~waking up 2-3 times per night to have quality bonding time with mommy (*Yawn)
~ splashing in the bath
~ snuggling with her little bunny blankie and sharing it with others

Alice brings so much joy and excitement to our little family. She's always keeping us on our toes, that's for sure! You can just tell she is just so happy to be alive here on earth and lives life with passion.

So some updates on Alice's health...I took her for her 1 year checkup a couple weeks ago. It sure was different going to a different pediatrician. We sure missed Dr. Nielson. I will definitely not go back to this pediatrician we saw for Alice's checkup. He was very impersonal and dismissive. Anyways, Alice is still tiny, but growing steadily, around 7% for weight (16.9 lbs). She looks like a 6-9 month old, and still wears these sizes of clothing, but does things like a 1 year old. Its really cute to watch!

As far as her neuroblastoma goes, we are still monitoring. (If you were not aware of her health situation read posts here and here). The last many tests have been clear (except for elevated dopamine levels still in her urine, but I guess that's not too worrisome.) We scheduled another round of MRI and lab tests for the end of June. She isn't showing any symptoms or anything, but we just want to be sure everything is still clear. The oncologists we are working with think that the cancer has most likely resolved itself (which is somewhat common in babies under 1). It is really miraculous that a little baby body can fight away cancer without any outside medicine or help! (FYI this type of childhood cancer gets a LOT harder to fight once the children are older, like 2years +).

I am confessing right now that I am a horrible journal keeper...these blog posts are kind of like my journal so that I can preserve memories and happenings in our family. I figured this post would be a good place to remember Alice's birth story...So, for those who are interested, here's the birth story. For those who are not interested, skip down to the bottom for pictures! :)

So about a week before Alice came, I was 37 weeks and some days along and the doctor was getting a little worried because I was consistently measuring small for dates.  We got my fluid checked the next day via ultrasound just to be sure everything was ok.  Apparently my fluid level was "borderline", meaning there was enough fluid in there for baby, but if it got any lower, it might be risky.  The ultrasound specialist sent me straight-way to talk to the doctor.  He wanted me to go to the hospital to get an amniocentesis to check if the baby's lungs were developed enough to deliver early. If they were, he wanted to induce. I didn't really understand why he would want to induce me just for 'borderline fluid'.  In the ultrasound, the baby looked healthy and like she was thriving in there.  Anyways, the next day I went to the hospital for the amnio.  Before they did anything, they did an ultrasound to double check the fluid level. The hospital ultrasound people were a lot more thorough and experienced.  According to that ultrasound, the fluid level was good...above borderline. The specialist doctor at the hospital said there was no reason to do an amnio or to induce unless I wanted them to.  I said no way! I wanted this baby to come when she was ready! So the doctor sent me home and told me to enjoy the rest of my pregnancy...which only happened to be exactly one week longer!


The next Wednesday morning at about 4:30am I got up to use the little girl's room.  I started having contractions and woke up Ben to tell him we needed to go to the hospital!  The contractions were close together and pretty intense. Since Merrilee came so fast, the doctors kept telling us as soon as you feel contractions get to the hospital, don't wait. So we rushed around to get everything together and tell my sister we were leaving so she could take care of Merrilee, and we were off! We got to the hospital at about 5am.  I was dilated to a 4 (just a day and a half before I was at a 1).  The contractions were going strong and then I got the epidural.  This seemed to slow things down for a couple hours...like my contractions essentially stopped...until they broke my water! They broke my water at around 10am and Alice was born at 10:38am! Within that half hour after they broke my water, I started having REALLY intense contractions. They were so intense I could still feel them (with pain) even with the epidural. Ben called in the nurse for me and she checked things out. She said, "Oh wow! There's the head!" She called the doctor to come in (he was about to leave the hospital because he thought it would still be a couple hours). Once they got everything set up for the delivery,  I only had to push once and there she was! (if fact, in the middle of that first push, the doctor said "Ok, you can stop pushing!" haha) :) Alice was coming whether I helped her along or not! 

  A perfect little girl, Alice Mae Brewer, 5lbs 15oz 18in long. The nurse put her on me right away. I did not have this experience with Merrilee, they cleaned up Merrilee before I held her. It was so amazing to be able to see and hold tiny little Alice right away. As soon as we saw her, both Ben and I said "She is so TINY!" She was smaller than Merrilee was by a pound. It was such a miraculous and special moment to see our little Alice for the first time. We knew she was part of our family and she came to our family exactly at the right time. After they got her all cleaned up and weighed and me all taken care of, everyone left the room so that Ben and I could have some alone time with our new little angel. This was so nice. We didn't have this experience with Merrilee either. I tried to breastfeed Alice for the first time and she latched on right away! After a while of family bonding time, we called for the nurses to take Alice and Ben for Alice's bath and to take me down to the mother's recovery room. Recovery was a BREEZE with Alice. I was up and around so quick after giving birth. It was very enjoyable after remembering what it was like after giving birth to Merrilee (I was sick as a dog with a sinus infection and just lied in the hospital bed like a sack of potatoes the whole time I was in the hospital with her!)   

Ok, Here's some pictures of our last year with Alice. We love you Alice! ;)

A couple weeks old. We had to buy some premie outfits for her because she was so tiny!

One month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months 

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

1 YEAR!

 Below are just some cute recent pics of our little peanut...

 More update posts to come...