Alexia Chayne 3 Weeks Old!!!!

In the pictures: top picture, Alexia in her "When God created me He was just showing off" onesie.

Middle picture: Alexia sleeping in her cute polka dot dress

Bottom picture: Alexia with Aunt Brittany

Alexia has been amazing so far. She makes eye contact, loves making faces at herself in a mirror, reacts to mommy, daddy, Blake and Mama Corinne. She also loves staring at the light fixtures and cuddling with her family. She and Blake are amazing together. Blake loves to help us with everything. He helps her bathe, brushes her hair, kisses her when she is crying, he even tries to help with diaper duty, but we don't think he is up for that yet.

Alexia is such an easy baby and definitely has her own unique personality already. Although she does do many things just like her big brother did, she also has quite a few things that are all her own.

We love getting to spend time with her and can't wait to see what she has in store for us for the rest of our lives! :)

The Verdict is In!

We received the results from Blake's latest bone marrow biopsy and we have wonderful news! There are absolutely NO cancerous cells left in Blake's Bone marrow!!!! Praise God!!!! We wish that this meant that Blake was now good to go and could live a normal life from here on out, but unfortunately treatment of Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia is not so simple.

The clean bone marrow means that we are done with the Induction portion of chemotherapy and are now moving on to the Consolidation phase. Consolidation makes sure that the cancer does not come back, now that it is gone. Blake is still considered high risk, but he will be on the lowest dosage of the high risk therapy. He is considered a rapid early responder, which is very good!

Blake's treatment will last a total of 3 years, at the end of the 3 year period, as long as everything goes well he will remain cancer free for the rest of his life. Once the 3 years of chemotherapy are over Blake will have to go to monthly appointments for 1 year to make sure the cancer does not return. The second year after treatment, Blake will go to 1 appointment every 3 months. The third year he will go to 1 appointment every 6 months. Every year after that Blake will have one appointment just to make sure he is still cancer free.

We are still not sure what the long term side effects of the chemo treatments that Blake will receive over the next 3 years, but whatever they are, I'm sure they are much better than the alternative.

We are so thankful to God and to all of our friends and family! We hope that each and every one of our friends and family realize how much we appreciate everything, the cards, the gifts for Blake, the prayers, the letters of encouragement, the people who have brought frozen and hot meals for our family. It means so much to us.

God Bless,

The Parracks

Home Sweet Home!

We are happy to say that we finally got to come home with Blake today! His fever has been gone for about 3 days now, but he still has a bit of a cough and some congestion. He is doing pretty well. He had a chemo treatment today before they released us. Our next appointment is on Wednesday at 8:30 am. Blake will undergo another bone marrow biopsy and another round of chemo. I believe that Wednesday will be day 29 of the induction period.

Blake seems to be having some problems walking and running. Hopefully this is from lying in bed for a week and it is not a permanent issue. He is playing with his toys and roughhousing with daddy and having a great time doing it!

We really appreciate all the love and support we have gotten from all of our family and friends. All of the calls, cards and well wishes help. To those of you who were able to visit us in the hospital it was so comforting to know so many people care and want to see Blake do well. He really loves all of the things that he receives and enjoys the company. We enjoy the company as well! It really does mean a lot to us.

Tonight will also be Alexia's first night at home! She will be one week old tomorrow! We are very happy to sleep in our own bed! Blake was excited to sleep in his bed with no tubes attached to him as well!

Thanks again for all of the help and support. Please continue to keep Blake in your prayers.

God Bless,

The Parracks

More Visitors

Alexia had fun hanging out with Aunt Val, Uncle Tommy and her cousin Taylor. Taylor was amazingly good with Alexia. We hope that they will continue to be close throughout their lives. We really enjoyed the visit!

Alexia's First Day

Alexia had many visitors! She was visited on Friday, January 16th by Papa Tom, Mama Jodi and Aunt Ryleigh.

Visitors on Saturday, January 17th include Uncle Tommy, Aunt Val and Taylor. Kari, one of Desiree's close friends from Lincoln. Mama and Papa (Mommy's parents) and Papa Tom.

Our New Addition

We are so happy with the newest addition to our family. She is such an amazing little girl! We thank God for all of the blessings he has given to us. Blake is back in the hospital as well, but seems to be getting better from the low grade fever for which they admitted him.

Alexia Chayne is a wonderful baby and we can't wait for her to meet her older brother Blake.

Alexia Chayne Has Arrived

We are proud to announce that Alexia Chayne arrived today January 16th at 2:48 pm. She weighed in at 9 pounds 12 ounces and measures a whopping 21 3/4 inches long! She is absolutely sensational! She has tons of dark hair and her eyes appear to be a beautiful brown!!!

We are speachless at how blessed we are as a family and we cannot wait to unite our whole family of four when we are released from the hospital.

Lucky mommy was only in labor for 4 hours and only had to push through 2 contractions. Such an easy labor in contrast with the first labor!