Brett Alan Tracy

It wasn't perfect and it wasn't routine, but then again neither was my pregnancy. Wednesday morning started at 3am for me, after a couple of hours my contractions progressed and I woke Nate up and we dropped off the girls. On the way into the hospital the pain that I had been having on my right side continued to intensify. The nurse started to monitor the baby's heart rate and after a few minutes she called my OB who arrived within minutes. The next thing I know, I have nurses all around me prepping me for an emergency C-Section. Somehow in the midst of all of this, Nate and I were left alone just long enough for him to give me a blessing(I am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband)The baby's heart rate had increased to 210 and continued to go up. We arrived at the hospital at around 6:20 and by 7:36 baby Brett had arrived.

The pain in my right side was my placenta rupturing which put stress on the baby and caused his heart rate to increase and put him in a state of distress. Brett's recpitory was high, his blood oxygen was low and he had a PDA(Patent Ductus Arteriosus)a type of heart murmur. They started an IV, put him on oxygen, and to help the PDA correct itself he was put in a NICU box in a dark room and wasn't allowed any stimulation. Which meant that Nate and I weren't allowed to touch or even talk to him. I was a mess, I couldn't hold my sweet baby boy that I had worked so hard to get here. Finally Thursday afternoon wonderful nurse Jenny(she's been there for all 3 of our babies deliveries)came and got Nate and I. She decided that since someone had to hold Brett while she was changing his bedding that it may as well be us. We got to hold him for 10 minutes and then we had to give him back. It was Friday afternoon before we got to hold him again. They let me burp him after they fed him thru his feeding tube.

My poor little guy has had a rough go, but he is making progress everyday. He started Wednesday at 80% oxygen and tonight(Sunday)he is down to 33% and he has to be at 21% for 24 hours before he can go home. They took out the feeding tube this morning and he is nursing well. He still has 3 to 4 days of antibiotics left but I'm being optimistic that we'll be able to go home soon. Everyone has been so wonderful, so many prayers and visitors. The nurses and my doctors are amazing. Nate and I have been so blessed to have wonderful friends and family to help take care of us.

The countdown begins!

26 weeks ago I thought there was no way possible that I would make it this far, let alone with my sanity intact. After months of throwing up, needles, IV's, hospitals, and Dr.'s appointments I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! This pregnancy has been filled with ups and downs(more downs than ups) but I am so grateful to be having this baby boy. As of my last ultrasound 2 weeks ago, the baby is right on schedule. I have to say that with everything that has happened its been so nice to get to see him every 3 weeks, I've had 11 ultrasounds in the pregnancy. We just pray and are keeping our fingers crossed that there are no ill effects on the baby with everything that has happened and all the medication that they have had me on. My perinatologist and my nephrologist both think that it will take somewhere between 3 to 6 weeks for my body to reset and if it doesn't then I'll have to have a biopsy done on my kidneys.

In other news, the girls are growing like weeds and watering them doesn't help! Every Thursday Nate flood irrigates our yard and the girls think that it is the coolest thing.  It's only been warm enough for the girls to play in the water once over the past month. The weather here has been crazy, rain, snow, wind, and if we are lucky, occasionally the sun will shine. So we spend a lot of time inside making forts, watching netflix, and using our imagination:

Here they are using empty diaper boxes as race cars, spaceships, and a train. I love that they play together, don't let me fool you....they definitely fight with each other and Maya loves to antagonize Jensen. Its really sad that Maya is only 2 and she knows exactly what to do to push Jensen's buttons! Nate and I really have to use our self control sometimes and not laugh when Maya does stuff to Jensen, we don't want to encourage her to pick on Jensen, but sometimes its hilarious! The girls share a room and have their own beds but sleep together. Every night at 8:30 they lay sideways on Jensen's bed, Nate reads them 4 to 5 of their books and then a chapter or two out of the classics, i.e. Peter Pan, The Little Princess, Camelot, and Treasure Island. They love story time and only Daddy is allowed to read, if I read to them Daddy still has to come in and read before they will go to bed.

Well, as you can clearly see, I am not an avid blogger. It's been almost a year since my last entry. You would think with all the time I have on my hands while I am at the hospital I would have updated you all a couple of times by now.

Just in case your in the dark, let me shed some light.....

We are expecting baby #3, now you all may be excited and think this is wonderful news, and its not that I don't, but let me share with you what the past 14 weeks have been like.

At the beginning of December I found out that I was indeed pregnant!! On December 22 I became ill, thinking that I had the flu, however, after 4 days of throwing up and body aches and fevers I sent myself to the Dr. It took several days, IV fluids, and numerous blood tests to find out that I had West Nile Virus. Apparently you can become infected and then it can lay dormant in your body until your immune system is weakened and then it takes over. On January 14th, I went in for my first O.B. appointment. Dr. B took one look at me and had me admitted. My blood pressure was 83/46, I had lost 7 lbs in 5 days(a total of 13 lbs all together), and I could barely walk. After 5 days of IV fluids and lots of medication she released me to go home, but I was not allowed to be alone. I have been diagnosed with a condition called Hyperemesis, it affects 1 to 2% of pregnant women and can last the entire pregnancy. With Nate in school and still coaching basketball, me and the girlies moved in with Grandma and Grandpa. They take wonderful care of us and Nate stays with us on the weekends.

So after I got out of the hospital I still required IV fluids. The easiest way for this to be done was to put in a PICC line, a permanent IV line that goes in at my arm all the way to chest. They draw my blood from this line as well as give me my IV fluids. So EVERY day I go to the hospital and they draw my blood, run the labs and send them to the pharmacy where they mix me a custom "banana" bag according to what I'm low on(yesterday for example, they gave me 10 grams of Magnesium, whereas a normal person would get 1 maybe 2 grams). All of this takes anywhere from 7 to 10 hours a day! I go and see a high risk Dr from the University of Utah on the 4th of March and we will go from there. They have done 2 ultrasounds and everything with the baby looks great so far!! So we wait and we pray that this baby will be healthy and strong.

In other exciting news, In April we take our sweet Jensen to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City to find out why her body isn't working properly. Her bowels don't work and she has a difficult time going poop.

Maya and Jensen on Halloween

Other than that, we are doing great. Little Maya isn't so little anymore and Jensen is smart as a whip. She loves learning and going to preschool, or as she calls it "playschool". We are so grateful for the prayers and helping hands that have been extended to us, everyone has been so wonderful these past few weeks. We love you all!

As our world spins!

It's not spinning out of control. It's just spinning, constantly spinning and sometimes I have a hard time keeping up, that or I get a little motion sick!!

(Bonus picture of Maya playing Peek-A-Boo)

So we survived a month of travels. From Missouri, to Arizona, and then Boise. The girls are wonderful traveler's as long as they have their DVD player going, needless to say, we watched a lot of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Princess and the Frog.
We enjoyed the Easter holiday and Jensen loved the idea of coloring eggs and even more searching for them after the Easter Bunny hid them.

Jensen and Maya both got new jammies in their baskets and instead on wearing them all day!

We also lost our dog T-Mac, this past month. He dug a hole under our fence and hasn't been seen since. So now we have a new puppy. He is a boxer/collie mix, he is 10 weeks old and his name is Duke. The girls just adore him.Our cute family at the Grand Canyon

Spring Break - Spring Training

Okay - here we go! Our spring break travel adventures got off to an early start, by about a week. On Tuesday March 2nd, Nate's grandpa passed away, so Wednesday night @ 8:30pm we got in our car and headed to Missouri. We (or should I say Nate, I only drove like 4hrs) drove thru the night (19hrs) and arrived in Harrisonville around 4pm Thursday. We had a wonderful time visiting with family, and attended a beautiful service for Grandpa Tracy. After Church on Sunday, we loaded up and headed out. We ran into heavy fog in Kansas all the way to Denver at 2:30 in the morning. My big brother Richard saved our bacon by getting us a room there. Thank heavens cause we couldn't have gone any further. We got into Blackfoot Monday at 8pm.

Then Thursday, I packed our bags again, and we left Friday night for Arizona! Spring Training here we come!! Sunday after church we took Jensen and Maya to the Phoenix Zoo and had an awesome time. Jensen was so excited to see Marty and Melvin! (We had just watch Madagascar in the car on the way here.)

Monday and today were spent doing what else....watching baseball. Last night we went to the Royals - White Sox game and I got Willie Bloomquist's autograph, I know most would wonder why, but he use to be a Mariner!!! Today's game was Royals - Brewers were Nate got Alex Gordan's autograph, I however, got to much sun, and made Nate leave the game in the middle of the 7th.....good thing there is another game tomorrow. In my defense, it was 82 today and we were sitting in the sun, on the lawn in the outfield. Tomorrows games will be much better, thanks to the Royals 1st Baseman/DH Billy Butler, who has comped us tickets!!!! Boy it pays to know somebody how knows somebody!

After we got home(to Dan and Meghann's)we took the girls swimming. I chickened out and would only go in the hot tub! Jensen loves her new "tube in a suit" swim suit, it helped her swim all by herself! What a big girl.

Our 2 Week Holiday

Lets see, where to start...I guess the beginning is as good as anywhere, right?

The weekend before Christmas, our puppy, McGrady, ran away. Nate and I spent all day Saturday driving around trying to find him. We called the animal shelter and left a description of him and wouldn't you know, Monday morning I got a call that they had him. We thought all was well, until Thursday morning when I got up to take him out, and he wouldn't move. Good ol' Rob came and picked him up and took him to the vet and we found that he had 'PARVO' (flu for dogs) and apparently only 30% of dogs that get it survive.

As you can see, we opened our own DOGGIE CLINIC and were in charge of giving T-Mac (what Jensen calls him) IV's twice a day was well as 4 shots a day. After 5 days T-Mac was given a clean bill of health.

Jensen and Maya all dressed up in their Christmas Dresses

Jensen awoke Christmas morning to see that Santa had come and delivered as she said:

"Big Presents" '

Jensen and Maya opening their
presents from Grandma Tracy

Jensen got Elmo's Kitchen

and Maya got an Exersaucer

from Santa

We had a fabulous New Year's Eve party at our new house with our new house mate

Jacob(Nate's brother), Rachel and Scott, Jillyn, BJ and Landon, and Collin and Tracy Folsom and their kids. We had dinner, banana splits, played lots of fun games and rang in the New Year!

disclaimer: sorry no pictures, we were having way to much fun!

So we woke up Friday morning to a beautiful blanket of snow. So off we went to Rob and Dana's to borrow the four wheeler and do some sledding. Jensen rode with me for a bit and then took a ride with Aunt Rachel on the sled!

I think she had more fun building

a snowman than sled, she didn't like the snow hitting her in the face.

We hope everyone had a very Happy Holiday season.

To all our dear friends and family, we love and miss you all!

Well our little Maya is growing up to fast! I took her to the Dr. for her 6 month check up and she now ways 16lbs 8oz and is 25in long. As you can see she loves solid foods! Her favorite is mom's homemade plumsauce. Starting her on solid foods has eliminated almost all of her acid reflux. (Yeah!)

We spent last weekend in Provo with Nate's family for Rachel and Scott's reception. We had a ton of fun and loved spending time with family that we don't get to see very often.

And thanks to Grandma Tracy's hard work, Jensen and Maya got beautiful new "Princess" dresses(that's what Jensen calls them). She loves wearing it to play dress up!

Last month we also celebrated Jensen's 2nd birthday. As to her request, I made a mickey mouse cake. It took 3 cake mixes and 4 containers of funfetti frosting. Mickey's head was a 12" round and the ears were 8" rounds. After everyone left we still had an ear leftover.

Jensen's favorite birthday present(according to her Daddy) was the basketball hoop he got her. She loves to climb up on the sofa and dunk it! Nate say's she going to be his shooting guard and will be able to dribble with both hands by the time she's 4.

A Blessed Event

Sunday, July 5th was Maya's big day and she had a lot of family come to support her. I was a little worried that the beautiful dress Grandma Tracy made for her wouldn't fit where she has already gained 4lbs but it was a perfect fit. Thank you Grandma Tracy.

Mommy even went to the effort of painting Maya's fingernails so the ring that Grandma Jewels got for her would look even more pretty on her little hand.

Aunt Rachel enjoyed holding and feeding Maya until she loaded her shorts, spewing poo all over her, her dress(yes it came clean), and Aunt Rachel's skirt.

After a wonderful dinner of Smoked BBQ Pork sandwiches, spinach salad, frog eye salad, and root beer floats the busy day came to an end with Maya and Grandma Jewels taking a nap.

We are truly blessed to have 2 beautiful girls and a loving and supportive family and group of

friends. Thank you to everyone for all you do!

Strollers & Potties

Well after much deliberation, research, and contemplation we have decided to add another member to our ever growing family...we are pleased to introduce 'Cady' weighing 48 lbs and 52" long and she's the Cadillac of strollers.

Jensen just can't get enough of her new ride. We took it out to the park the very afternoon we got it and took the girls for a ride around the greenbelt. When we got home I left the stroller up and where did I find her just 15 minutes later...she'd climbed in and buckled her self into her seat!

We are also getting Jensen acquainted with the potty. We went to the store and let her pick one out and bought the "Elmo Potty Time" DVD to go along with it. She loves the DVD, but the potty, not so much. She likes to sit on it with her clothes on, she tells us when she's got to go or when she's gone, but the moment you try to take her diaper off and make her sit on it she freaks out. No worries, though, all in her own time...right? She does however, have the technique down, but she definitely doesn't like to be interrupted while she's reading!

Aww Summer Fun!!!

This past Saturday Dan, Meghann, and Grandma Jewels joined Nate, me, Princess Jensen, and Maya on a trip to lovely Lava to enjoy a day of swimming. Grandma watched Maya, while the rest of us swam our hearts out. Jensen's favorite swim game was being thrown back and forth by Daddy and Uncle Dan. As you can see she had a fabulous time, as did the rest of us. Afterwords, we stopped for ice cream, drove home and had a bar-b-que. Uncle Dan then proceeded to beat us at "The Farming Game" while Aunt Meghann kept breaking her back, getting sent back to the second week of January. Poor Meghann! We are going to have Maya's baby blessing on July 5th at 12:30, followed by a luncheon at 2:00, all who wish to attend are welcome.

As My World Turns

You all know that I am not a true blue blogger. I don't post weekly or monthly for that matter, but seriously, my world has been spinning out of control since little Maya arrived. Don't get me wrong, I love my little bundle of joy, the only problem is I haven't had much time to truly enjoy her. A couple of days after having her I got kidney stones, then mastitis, and a week ago Maya was diagnosed with RSV. When she was born she had a Mallory-Weiss tear in her esophagus that caused her to spit up a little blood, that had healed but all the coughing caused by the RSV caused that to bled again. We have to give her breathing treatments every 4 to 6 hours and she had to have a round of steroids for her lungs. We are seeing improvements and are hoping that she return to her happy and healthy self soon! I am suppose to go back to work in a week and a half, but I think I am going to take a couple of extra weeks so I can get my world back on track.

Our New Bundle Of Joy

Maya Katherine Tracy graced us with her presence April 22, 2009 at 1:55 p.m. weighing 6 lbs and is 19" long, although she was 2 1/2 weeks early she is healthy and has a good set of strong lungs.

Our Family Update, Part 1

Okay, I know that I have been terrible at keeping up with our blog, but since I went back to work I am doing good to keep up with the laundry. So to get you up to speed we have:

Jensen as Tinker Bell for halloween!

And My Crafty Candy Turkey's

These past couple of months have really flown by for Nate and I. Jensen has been going to Day Care 3 day's a week and loves playing with all the other kids, the other 2 days she gets one on one time with Grandma and Grandpa. She is using her words and is up to about 35 to 40 words. Nate is super busy at school where they are now into the heart of the Basketball season. I have been back to work for about 10 weeks and I love it. I miss being at home with Jensen but its nice to see our medical bills going down. Speaking of medical bills.....

We are so excited to announce that.......It's a Girl!

We hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday Season!

Umm Pizza! And a BABY!

Well, as you all can see Jensen's new favorite food is PIZZA! We made homemade pizza last Friday night for Uncle Dan and Aunt Meghann.

She likes to eat it in her own way, first she eats off all the cheese and sauce, then she eats the rest from the middle out! It makes for a bit of a mess but what ever keeps my baby happy!

So, I took Jensen with me to my last OB appointment last week and we got to listen to the baby's heartbeat! As soon as Jensen heard it she pointed to my belly and started saying "baby, baby". I swear that girl's to smart for her own good!

Happy 1st Birthday!!!

Well a year has come and gone and our sweet little girl is now officially 1 year old. We decided to wait and have her birthday party a week late since Grandma & Grandpa Tracy were flying out for the special occasion. We had a wonderful Bar-B-Que with tons of food (thanks to everyone's efforts) Chocolate and Fun Fetti Cupcakes with ice cream and a ton of presents. She is definitely one spoiled little girl. And for those of you who haven't heard yet, Nate and I decided to give Jensen the gift that keeps on giving...the right to be a bossy big sister! We are expecting a new little bundle of joy on my birthday, May 7! By the way, check out the new video under the Jensen's Video's bar.

I can't believe she's WALKING

So for about the last month and half Jensen has been walking around everything, tables, couches, walls, pretty much anything that she can support herself against. Then is was walking to and from those objects, you know 3 or 4 brave little steps with one final lunge. Well today she decided to just start walking on her own, 6 steps, then 7, 9, and so on. So here is a little snippet!

Labor Day Weekend

Well, tooth #5 made its appearance last week and the only thing that seemed to put a smile on the little girls face was her very first Popsicle(I'm sure the sugar had nothing to do with it). Honestly, after she was done eating, she took a bath, went right to bed, and slept through the night.We also took Jensen to Lava Hit Springs with Dan & Meghann this past weekend to go swimming. Jensen wasn't sure what to make of all the water at first, but once she sure warmed up to it and had a great time.









I think, however, that she enjoyed the OREO cookie that she got her littler hands on more than swimming!