The lastest on Willie man...


We had to cancel little Willie’s first birthday party this past Saturday. Friday was a hectic day for the Alexander family! My Uncle Joe went into the hospital because his appendix burst. He is still trying to recover from that. Then my sweet 6 week old nephew went into the ER w/ RSV, double ear infection, and bronchitis. UHH. To top off that day, Willie had his neurologist apt. The plan is to have an EEG next week, and an MRI sometime after that. (he has to be asleep for that one) That doctor also mentioned it may not be febrile seizures due to what we had told him. But all the research we have done leads us to believe it is febrile seizures. At the office, I asked him to look at what is a double pink eye. YUCK. We left Walter Reed , came home and Willie ended up having a seizure. It’s a race against time when it comes to those damn fevers! We had no sleep, he was so sick, green boogies from his nose and eyes! So needless to say the party was off! Then we took him to the doctors Saturday at 12 and they told us he has ANOTHER EAR infection, but this time it’s a double whammy! My poor baby. So they sent us home w/ tons of meds. Jackie Rose and I are just now getting over double pink eye ourselves. Most doctors don’t give meds for that anymore, since its viral and will go away on its own. Thank goodness for eye connections in the family, we got our meds anyhow. Willie has some too, but w/ all the meds and torture we are doing to him now, I figure that could wait. We have an apt on Wed. for a re check of the ear , and hopefully a referral with the ENT doctors. He has had 4 ear infection in 4 months. (can we catch a break or what?) Thursday we go back to Walter Reed for the EEG. So say some prayers that day! For now, Willie is all drugged up on Motrin , Tylenol, and Augmenten. Poor guy. Thank you all for your support and prayers. It’s been so hard for us to watch our baby boy go through so much! Your love and support has defiantly helped us stay strong for our little man!
RC

Good Morning Birthday Boy!!!!!!

Right before mommy woke me up.
What,, its my birthday?

Keep singing, I love it.

Yes, I am a ham.

Birthday bath time with sissy.

Can I take a bath in peace Mommy?

Yes, I am going to drink this dirty water.

Happy Birthday Willie!

The day is finally here. My son is now 1. Your big day just snuck up on me. I have been enjoying every moment , watching you grow. It has been so wonderful watching roll over the first time, seeing your first tears, hearing your first laugh, seeing your first tooth, watching your hug your sister, seeing you smile when your daddy walks in the room. It has been so wonderful being your mom. I am so blessed to have you in my life. You are so amazing. You have grown into such a little gentleman. You are all boy. You love to rough house, you love grabbing hair, throwingthings, you are all over the place. Your personality its great. It helps me and daddy to stay young, to cherish every second with you and Jackie Rose. We love you so much baby! Happy first birthday. We cant wait to see what this next year will bring for all of us! You are our favorite little man. You mean the world to us!

Thanks for my cupcakes Mamie.

Yes, I am proud to be Irish!

I love my sissy.

Man this is good stuff!

My sweet little boy, he is a doll baby.

Yes, I can eat cake!

Here Mommy, have some!

I love my toys!

Hey, where did Mamie and Pop Pop go?

I love my grandparents!

The day before my big day.. I love play places!

Here to being 1!

What a difference a week makes!

A week ago today my life completely changed. They way I think, the way i act, the way I look at my family and friends. A week ago today my dear sweet boy laid helpless on our floor. We looked at his sweet body laying their lip and not breathing. So many thoughts ran through my mind. I didn't understand what was going on, just 10 minutes before you were fine. I couldn't believe my son was lifeless right in front of my eyes. I was begging God to bring us help for you. My heart breaks now as I write these worlds. We were so afraid we were going to loose you. In that moment nothing else mattered to us, we wanted our son back, healthy and happy. It seemed like an eternity before the ambulance got to our house. What a day that was. We were never so afraid in our lives. The thought of loosing our son, its unimaginable. Thank the Lord, that he had his hand over you that day. Even when you had another seizure w/ in those first 24 hours, God was watching over you. I don't know how anyone can get through any of life's trials w/ out having faith, without having God in your life. Thank you dear Lord for giving Will and I wonderful loving children. We will never take a moment with them for granted. We will enjoy every tear every laugh, every special moment that is to come. Our life is FULL. Our children complete our family. Our eyes are reopened. Life for us will never be the same. We will enjoy the blessings you give us, the friends you have come into our lives, the family we have. Life is good.... Willie is so wonderful, he hasn't had a fever in 3 days! AMEN

The Power of Prayer really does work!

Willie looking out at the snow fall today.

Pumpkin trying to get her lovin' from her little man!

Wear his always happy shirt, trying to stay positive!

My sweet boy , so sick, so hot, so sad!

Mommys baby boy.

The week before he got sick in a hat someone from Wills work made.

Let me start by thanking all of you who sent their well wishes and prayers for Willie! It is a wonderful feeling to know that the Gazes are surrounded by such loving and caring family and friends. We are truly blessed! Willie hasn’t had another seizure since early Sunday morning. Praise the Lord! He has however suffered from extremely high fevers. He has spiked 104’ a few times a day since Saturday. I am happy to say TODAY, he has had a normal temp. Poor guy has little red bumps all over his body from the high fevers. But I can see my little man feeling better by the minute. He isn’t 100% yet, but he is on the road there! We have an peds. Neorealist apt at Walter Reed Feb 22. So if you have time that day , a few prayers would be great! I hate that the date is so far away, I am going to continue to call to see if there are any cancellations. The military is always running a month behind on everything it seems. Will and I have been running on fumes, but no complaints on that. Getting to hold our son and love him, and sit back and thank God for him has been wonderful. Willie has become a big cuddlier the past few days, guess you know he isn’t feeling well when he wants some love. He normally doesn’t want to be held and wants to do his own thing. I have enclosed a few pictures. One is of Willie in a cute hat someone at Wills work made. (that was Thursday before he got sick) The other picture is of Willie sleeping in my lap the other night. He literally crawled to me, got in my lap and fell asleep in just 2 minutes. My poor baby. And the last picture is of little man today. I put his always happy shirt on , trying to keep us positive. You will notice he needs a haircut, but he is still a cutie pie with all that red hair .

Thank you all again! Please continue to pray for Willie. We will forever need to be on top of the slightest fever until age 6. I know that with time, I won’t be so anxious, but as for now Will and I both are like new parents all over again. Jumping at every little thing. Jackie Rose has been great. You can tell she has been having a hard time having most of the attention on Willie, but she loves her brother. She gives him bear hugs and says, OHHHH Sweetie Pie. Its darling!

Prayers Please!

This is an update of our weekend...

Hello family and friends,

This weekend has been the most trying and scariest time in Will’s and my life. We woke Saturday morning to a cranky baby Willie. We thought, here we go with more teeth. I took him down stairs to play so Will and Jackie could sleep in. I noticed that Willie kept jumping, like someone was jumping behind him to scare him. I just thought he was getting spooked by something. I made breakfast, Willie was fine. Cranky but no fever, just crying a lot. Then I asked Will to watch him so I could put some cloths away, and about 10 minutes later Will comes running up to say I need to look at Willie. He was limp and barley breathing. I told Will to Call 911. Will was watching him and said he was not choking on anything. He just thought he was falling asleep in his arms, but realized when he couldn’t arouse him that something was wrong. In between the time of calling 911 and giving our address, Willie turned blue and stopped breathing. Gosh, it’s hard for me to re tell this story, it’s all so real still. What felt like an eternity must have been a good 5 to 10 minutes . The entire time will was on the phone telling me what to do to Willie, lying on his back lifeless, not moving, non responsive. I kept saying where are they, Dear God please help Willie. We couldn’t lose him! That thought, still in my head. 2 ambulances arrived at the same time, once they stepped foot on the second level of my house, Will went from lifeless to rolling himself over on all fours. Head looking straight at the ground. I was amazed, but still new there was something wrong. I called for him, touched him, and he didn’t an knowledge anything. They said his breathing at the point was fair, his color was white, much better than blue. The EMT guy said it is probably a Febrile seizure. This can happen in a child from 6 month to 5 years. He would be fine w/ no fever and within a minute or less spike to 104’ fever. The ambulance took Will and Willie to the hospital , While I got Jackie dressed and we headed by car. Thank goodness for having family so close, they were there within minutes of me and took great care of Jackie. When I saw Willie, he was alert and looking around and wanted his Mommy. I never was so happy to hear that cry in my life. At one point Will and I thought our sweet young loving boy was dying, to him looking at us thinking get me out of this place. Oh I wish it would have been that simple. The pediatrician thought it took was Febrile seizure. They ran a cat scan, so sad, and took fluid from his spin, man that was so hard to watch. Both came clear, same with his blood work. They checked his ears and said he was ok. We went home, with Motrin and Tylenol and hopes that this wouldn’t happen again. They said it was highly unlikely it would happen again. Will and I walked in the house and stepped on the second floor, looking at the floor our son had laid lifeless, UHHH tears then and know flow. How thankful and grateful I am to God for watching over him. But we still had a night ahead of us. Mom and dad brought Jackie home, we ate dinner and put the kids to bed. I laid on the floor in his room for 2 hours. My son is a mover I tell you. I finally moved to my bed were I held the baby monitor to my head for the next 3 hours, in between I would go in and feel him to make sure he wasn’t hot. Finally at 3, I checked again and he was good. By 330 am he cried, I ran to him and he was on fire. I took him downstairs to give him Motrin , he took, but not a second later he had a seizure in my arms. I called for Will, he came running. I laid my son, once again on the same spot of our middle floor. He was crying, Will got wet cloths to we could put Willies head and neck, he would convulse and then cry. It went on for 15 minutes. We felt so helpless. I kept telling my boy he was ok, Mommy was here , rubbing him, trying to love him the best I could. We woke Jackie and loaded the kids in the car after the seizure. Penny met us at the hospital and took Jr. We saw another pediatrician and he checked Willie out. Saying it was a Febrile seizure. He checked his ears out, because we had said we hadn’t found a “ source “of the fever. Willie has wax build up. Which the docts at ft Belvoir removed 3 weeks ago. Needless to say once he removed the wax, he could see the ear infection my son had. I was never so happy to hear, your son has an ear infection. So on top of our 2 medicines we have a 3rd. as far as the fevers go, he is susceptible to the Febrile fevers. The second seizure he had this AM he was 99’ and in 30 seconds he shot up to 104’. His, and no Childs body, can handle that rapid temp. change. So it’s now 5 pm, I haven’t slept since Friday night, and don’t think I will sleep tonight. Every move I hear from his room , I have to check. Every time I close my eyes I see my sweet son on that floor, so I have to go check him and feel him. Please, even if you’re not one to pray, pray for our son. Pray that God continues to watch over him, protects him, and gives him the strength his little 24 pound body needs to deal with these seizures. Pray that we have overcome the worst, that there will be no more seizures. Thank you to those who have prayed and continue to pray. Thank you to my family for helping me with Jackie and allowing Will and I to focus everything we had on Willie. Thank you Ryan, Sarah and luck for your fast prayer, I believe in the power of prayer and man it helped. We love you all. Sorry we haven’t called anyone, but as you can imagine things are so crazy, and its everything I have to write this email. Sorry too to josh and Meredith that we couldn’t make dinner Saturday night, know we were sad about that, but man we couldn’t leave our little man! That’s it for now, we will keep you posted. We will get him in the docts at ft. Belvoir tomorrow and see what they military docts have to say about all of this. It was nice to go to Prince William , they were amazing!
Love from the GazesPs we went to ft. belvior today and got a referral for a peds neurologist . will keep you posted. Willie spiked a 104 fever 2 times last night but no seizures. Thank good ness. Baby steps right. Keep praying. We will always need to be on top of any kind of fever for our little man!

Daddy, Jackie and Willie opening presents.
Jackie and Willie giving each other love.

This tape just wont get off of me.

Say cheese! Now can I have some chocolate.

Can it be, Baby alive?!

Man, how many presents are there?

Yes, Heelies, now if I could just learn how to use them!

Thank you , just want I wanted!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

This is was special for us because it was our first Christmas with Willie! Santa went over board but the kiddos were so happy. Will and I woke before Jackie Rose and Willie, so I finally went and woke Jackie because I couldn't take it anymore! I needed to see the smiles on my babies faces when they saw what Santa left under the tree. Jackie had a blast tearing through all her gifts, a kitchen, pink bike, baby alive doll, lipstick, games, laptops and more. Willie made out when it came to Thomas the Tank engine. He got a starter train set, a few cars, some transformers, tool set, a truck walker thing and much more. I cant believe Willie will be 1 on the 22nd of this month. Lord knows he made out with all his boy toys this year! I guess we can always ask for cloth and savings bonds ,,,,right?! Hope you enjoy the pictures! Its been a great year for us for far!