March For Babies

Last spring, I was invited by a dear friend to join her and her family at the March of Dimes March For Babies event, which is a five mile walk where the money raised goes to the March of Dimes to help with research so that all babies will someday be born healthy.

On April 17th, I will be participating in the March for the second time. Last year, I raised over $3000 for the organization and this year I hope to be able to help them out again. If you're at all interested in donating money to this worthy cause in honor of our sweet baby Nash, PLEASE go to our family's homepage on the March For Babies website or click on the link over on the right side of my blog.

Doing this March is such a special way for me to do something to honor Nash. I was so proud to wear his name on my back as I walked the five miles in the rain last year along side our family and friends and I truly look forward to doing it again this year. I am sure that Nash and all the other babies that are already in heaven, look down on their loved ones with such pride as we try to make a difference so that other parents don't have to feel the loss and pain that we bear everyday.

Love to y'all,
Tracy

And here's a video that was put together from last year's March... Enjoy.

http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/view_shared?p=88fb9ee094ad5b11262160&skin_id=601&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=email

Did You Meet Him?

Since the moment I found out I was pregnant with Knox, I have been thinking about how much I wish he knew both of his big brothers. It makes me so sad to think that he will never have the memories or the pictures that Tate has with Nash.

I have come to think of the relationship between my middle and youngest son in a unique way. I think I've mentioned it before, but I believe that all babies are born so perfect and so pure that the only possible place they come from is heaven. If this is true, then I also believe that Nash and Knox met each other the moment God chose Knox to join our family.

The day Knox was born, my parents had left the hospital to take Tate home for a nap and Brad went to grab some lunch. I was alone in my room with my little boy. I remember he was in my arms and the curtains in my room were wide open to reveal an overcast sky. All of a sudden, I got overwhelmed with emotions, as I sat there. So incredibly happy to be holding Knox and so incredibly sad to be missing Nash. I looked down at Knox's sweet little face, and whispered, "Did you meet him?" And then I sat there and cried. Tears of joy and tears of relief. Tears of heartache and tears of despair. Tears of pain and tears of peace.

At that moment, I knew the answer to my question...

Love to y'all,
Tracy

No More Doctors Please

Doctor #1
The past few days have been pretty hectic and tiring to say the least... and NOT because of having a newborn at home...

On Monday night, Brad and Tate were playing basketball around 8:00 when all of a sudden, Tate complained that his head was hurting behind his right ear. Within seconds, he was screaming in pain, not able to move his head. We tried to get him to calm down, but he was hysterical. These were screams that were not typical of him at all and Brad and I both were very concerned. I put a call in to the pediatrician to see what could be wrong, but the screaming escalated and then Tate told us he was "really tired." The first thing I thought of there was something wrong in his brain. I looked at Brad and within ten minutes my parents were at our door so they could watch Knox and we were pulling up to the ER at the Children's Hospital in Plano.

I know that most parents maybe wouldn't have taken their child to the ER at this point, but Brad and I can't help but jump to the worst possible scenario when things like this happen to our family. So we got checked into the hospital around 8:30 and waited about an hour before we saw anyone. By this point, Tate had calmed down a bit as long as we didn't move him from laying his head on Brad's shoulder. If we did, he would begin screaming again.

After about an hour, we saw a nurse who took his vitals, gave Tate a big dose of Motrin, and told us to go back out and wait. She told us she didn't know what was causing the pain, but that there is a type of "infection" that can occur that we may need to do testing for. We sat in the waiting room again for about an hour and then went back to a room. We had a really great nurse named Adam who was so good with Tate. Around 11 or so, a doctor came in and examined Tate and asked us a bunch of questions. The Motrin had kicked in by then and Tate was much more comfortable, although he still couldn't move his head without pain. After a quick look, she told us he had a virus in his throat and an ear infection. HUH? He never once acted sick or told us he didn't feel well until his head began to hurt. She said his lymph nodes were swollen too. All of this could combine to explain the pain in his head. She gave Tate a purple popsicle and some ear drops and said that if they seem to help him be able to move his head, she would be confident that this was all we were dealing with.

She came back a little after midnight and assessed Tate's head movement. He was still in pain, which seemed to surprise her. She said she was debating whether or not he should have a CAT scan because sometimes with bad ear infections there can be an infection in some bones behind the ear or also abscesses that can form. At this point, Brad explained to her our family's history and that if there was something that needed to be done so that we would know 100% that he was okay, then we would like to do it. She agreed with us and ordered the CAT scan.

In order to do the CAT scan, however, Tate needed to have an IV put in so that he could get the "contrast" into his system. For adults, this is typically something we drink, but for kids they do it in an IV. Great. But Tate was absolutely perfect and sat there like a champ as they put the IV in his hand. Around 1:30, Tate finally had his CAT scan. And again, he laid there perfectly still, all wrapped in blankets with an elastic band around his head to keep it still. He looked so little lying there. His eyes were huge, as the machine rotated around him.

It was at this point that I kept thinking about how our children trust us so much. They just do what we tell them, regardless of what it is. They look to us for reassurance and protection and encouragement and it's our job to give that to them every single day. Even in times like these, when we, ourselves, are scared out of our minds. I stood there, watching my little boy, praying that there wasn't something that would come back on the CAT scan that would rock our world once again. I was praying that whatever the scan told us, that I would be able to protect him and be there for him every step of the way.

We went back to our room and by about 2:15, Tate finally fell asleep. We sat in the dark, quiet hospital room, waiting for the doctor to give us the results. As the minutes crept by, my worry escalated. Why was it taking so long? What would they tell us? My heart was pounding as I laid next to my sleeping three year old.

Finally at 2:45, a doctor came in to tell us everything looked normal and it was just a bad ear infection. I can't even tell you the relief that poured through me. We left with a prescription for an antibiotic and some numbing ear drops. We finally got home by about 3:30.

Doctor #2
Tuesday afternoon I had to take Knox into the doctor for his two week check-up. His pediatrician said he's doing very well. He now weighs 8 pounds 1 ounce - so he's gained over a pound since we left the hospital. I went ahead and brought Tate with us to the doctor so she could look at him again just to make sure he was really on the mend. The first thing she did was look in his ears and tell me that he did NOT have an ear infection! HUH?! She swabbed his throat and minutes later we found out that it tested positive for strep!

She explained that sometimes the pain from a bad case of strep can actually be felt in the back of the head because of swollen lymph nodes, etc. And this must have been what he was feeling the night before. She was pretty annoyed that the ER doctors even mentioned the words "infection" and "CAT scan." She thought that was way too invasive and all it did was scare us. So Tate got put on a higher dose of antibiotics and she sent us on our way.

Doctor #3
You may remember that at my last sonogram with Knox, the doctors noticed that his left kidney wasn't draining fluid as quickly as his right one. In the hospital after he was born, they did a test with him where they gave him a catheter (poor baby!) and shot some dye through his system to see how it was draining. They needed to make sure there was no reflux (the fluid going the wrong way through the tubes). Thankfully, everything came back normal. But today, I had to take Knox in to a Pediatric Imaging place to do one final test with his kidney. He had an ultrasound done on his kidneys and bladder just to double check to see if there was any reflux. At least this time it wasn't nearly as uncomfortable for him (besides the cool jelly that they put on his belly). We don't have those results yet, but I'm not too worried about them since the dye test came back okay.

To top it all off, when we got home, I called my doctor to see if she could put me on something because my head has been pounding for the last few days and over-the-counter stuff hasn't helped at all. Thankfully, she called in some antibiotics for me for a sinus infection.

So... between head pain, false ear infections, strep throat, sinus infections, and kidney ultrasounds, our family is trying to be back on the mend! What a crazy few days!!!

Love to y'all,
Tracy

Newborn Pics

Just wanted to share some pictures we had taken over the weekend of Knox. We had them done by Erica May again (the same photographer that did our family pics back in November). She is so wonderful with the kids and I would HIGHLY recommend her for anyone looking in to getting pictures taken.

Go to this link to see the pics...
http://emay.photobiz.com/viewing/
Click on Newborns and Maternity.
Then click on the one for Knox.
The password is "sievers."
(You may need to temporarily allow pop-ups on your computer to view the pics).

Enjoy!
Love to y'all,
Tracy

Baby Update

It's a funny thing when you have a baby... Knox is a mere eight days old today and yet I hardly can remember my life without him. He is such a perfect fit to our family.

I know all too well that sometimes, a newborn can "trick" his parents these first few weeks. They act all sweet and cuddly only to turn out to be little hellions once the third or fourth week come around. With that said, Knox has really been a pleasant surprise as far as his demeanor and neediness.

Knox's Favorite Things...

Sleeping

Pooping on Mommy

Tooting

Burping

Tate

Cuddling

Eating

Did I mention tooting???

Knox's "Unfavorite" Things...

Baths

Getting his diaper changed

Changing clothes

Binkies

As you can see, so far we've been very lucky. I'm sorta waiting for the other shoe to drop... wondering when Knox's "true colors" might start to show up. But in the meantime, I'll take him as he is. My sweet, sweet boy. What a blessing.

Love to y'all,

Tracy

Welcome To The World, Knox!

Just when I thought maybe our little one was going to take his/her sweet time joining us, I was surprised with a night full of contractions, culminating in the birth of our third son, Knox Myron Sievers...

Sunday night around 10, I decided to head to bed. Pretty much as soon as I laid down, I had a contraction, but didn't think much of it because I'd been having them sporadically for weeks at that point. But about thirty minutes later, another one came. By midnight, I'd had maybe five or so and they were actually pretty uncomfortable. Around this time, the contractions became closer together - about ten minutes on average. This lasted about two hours. Then they started coming noticably stronger and a little quicker - probably seven minutes apart. I turned on our T.V. at 3:00 and watched some show about planning a wedding (not really much to choose from) and I just needed something to take my mind off of what was happening. By 4:00, the contractions moved to three to six minutes apart and I decided it was time to get ready to head to the hospital. I woke Brad up at 4:30 and then hopped into the shower (I had to shave!). Brad got up a little after that and we got ourselves set to go. I called the doctor to tell her we were on our way and then my mom so she could come watch Tate. We left the house around 5:30 and headed to the hospital. The car ride was pretty uncomfortable - I think I had three strong contractions in the short eight or nine minute ride.

We made our way to Labor and Delivery and got checked into room 10 (which is the same room where Tate was born!). At the first check I was five centimeters dilated. I had to wait a little for my epidural and finally got it at around 8:30. Once they checked me again, I was 7-8cm. A nurse came in a little over an hour later and said I was completely dilated and ready to push. So we sat, waiting for my doctor (she came on at 7:00am - WHOOOHOOO!), who affirmed what the nurse had said.

So at 10:00, we got ready to push! The first contraction came, and to spare you the details, the head came out. At this point, she asked, "Okay, last chance. What do you think? Does the face look like a boy or a girl?" I couldn't see it, but said I was sticking with boy. Once the second contraction came, my doctor pulled the baby the rest of the way out... and there HE was!!! Another sweet, perfect, baby boy!!! Knox had finally arrived!!!

Of course, we cried and just stared at him in wonder, as they placed him on my chest. I just kept telling him I loved him and I was so glad he was here. Brad was all smiles. It felt so good to see that look on his face again. It was a beautiful moment and I will treasure it always.

Here's the official info on the newest member of our family:
Knox Myron Sievers (middle name after Brad's grandfather)
Born on February 1. 2010
10:06 am
7 pounds 8 ounces
19 3/4 inches

We got home yesterday afternoon and we're all doing well. I feel like I have so much more I can share. So I'll be sure to try my best to post more as the week goes on.

Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts this week (and always).
Love to y'all,
Tracy