Thursday, July 17, 2008

The love...

of my life. Maizey is the love of my life. She is the sweetest little thing and I want to eat her. Literally. I'm so overcome by her that the only way I can think to fill it is to eat her. Mama Dahmer.

Today was a really good day. In fact, the last few days have been really good. Last night she slept for 9 and a half hours!!! Then she got up for an hour and then slept for another 2 and a half! I think that part of the reason she is doing so well is that she is off of steroids (for now). They tell you that the side effects are fussiness, increased appetite, and upset tummy--3 GREAT reasons for a baby to scream, scream, scream. As I reported in my last blog post, Monday was really intense, Maizey was so fussy and I felt terrible for her. Monday was also her last day of steroids, then magically on Tuesday and since she has been a good little baby. For about the 3 weeks before that it was really hard to take Maizey anywhere because she'd get so upset (just ask my mom and sister who have both been shopping with me on separate occasions). It was so intense last Saturday that I didn't even buy anything at Anthropologie when I was shopping to buy and that NEVER happens! I've also realized that the less I ask of Maizey, the better her life is. It's always been important to me to get her out and about. For my life to continue on as normally as possible. But, what I'm finding is that Maizey is much happier if we can just be mellow and stay home as much as possible. And, what's good for Maizey (what keeps her calm) is good for me. She is still so little and I realize that I was asking too much of her to take her shopping for multiple hours at a time, or to drive all over the planet with her in her carseat (which she HATES). I just wanted her to be exposed to a lot of different people and places. I wanted her to be well rounded, and now I know that she'll be much better rounded if she can take good naps and spend time playing at home. As she gets older we'll start working on the out and about stuff again. I'm hoping that she'll be able to stay off steroids for a little while, but if her heman (I'm just going to call it that for short now) continues to really grow, then she'll probably have to go back on. Sucky. Anyway, that brings me to my next point.

Maizey had her final laser treatment today. The doc was disappointed to see how much the heman had grown in the last 4 weeks (and it has definitely gotten bigger). Initially the steroids did slow the growth, but then it just got right back going like nothing ever happened. This means that Maizey is going to need surgery. Just the idea of Maizey in a little, baby hospital gown makes me want to throw up. Even if the heman stopped growing tomorrow, it's big enough now that once it involutes (or shrivels away--which it will do eventually), it will still leave a mass of stretched skin that will need to be removed. But, we can just do surgery now and remove the heman before it even stops growing, then we don't have to wait for involution and watch the tumor take over her beautiful face. We won't proceed with surgery until she is at least 6 months old. Once babies hit that mark, they handle anesthesia as well as adults. Before that, it's much riskier. I asked the doc how risky is anesthesia--like what are the stats for babies once they are 6 months? She said about 1 in 10,000 people die (in other words .001%) and I thought I was going to puke right there. That seemed sososososoooooo high to me! I can't let my baby go "under" with odds like those, but then I realized that the population is skewed since people who have surgery are often sick already. I do realize that the odds of .001% are really really teeny, but not when you are talking about your little bambi, the love of your life. Anyway, we'll meet with the surgeon who will be doing the procedure at Seattle Children's next month. The prognosis of these surgeries is really good, they leave little scars that get smaller as the babies grow up. We'll keep you all in the loop with any new info about that as we get it.

Now onto the BIG, HUGE, GARGANTUAN news...

Maizey's cousin Harper was born last night. We went and visited the new family today at St. Joe's in Tacoma. Harper is such a cute, little peanut. It's hard to believe that she weighs almost 2 lbs more than Maizey did at her smallest. I already can't remember Maizey ever being that small!?? Cousin Beth had the dream labor (it was karma since she had the barfiest pregnancy on record) and even did it natural. I'm so jealous and feel, at least, slightly fulfilled by her experience since I sort of got robbed (not that I'm complaining). I already can't wait to see Maize and Harper playing together at the cabin next summer...I can just picture it now...Bethie and I with cocktails in one hand and our daughters in the other. Makin' Grandma G proud...

Maizey enjoying one of her new, quiet days at home. Showing off her new, crazy, mad "grasping objects" skills--and her squishy, adorable, nude body!

Mama Bethie and Baby Harper

This is as close as we could get to a good side-by-side of the tots. Harper was being an exemplary, little baby and Maizey was being her usual spit-fire self.I like this one because you can see Harper rooting. It's the cutest little reflex. I remember when Maize did it...

2 comments:

Georgia said...

Maizey is such a little chub!! i love it!! Im so sorry she has to have surgery...she wil be fine..take it from someone who knows!!

Jessica Zevely said...

I promise to post some pictures this week. I don't want to take pictures of my house when it's not done! We still have a couple of pictures to hang, I will soon though!