The update y'all have waited for

Sorry to keep everyone out of the loop, I wanted to make sure my sister got her email before I posted this. Brooklyn had an awful night on Friday and Saturday morning I happened to call about 5 minutes before the Nurse Practitioner was going to call me. She had a perforation in her intestinal tract and needed to have surgery. We were so lucky that the nurse working that night was primary on Isabel also so she knows our family and we have kept in touch all this time. She was blessed with some mother's intuition for me and if she had not been there the symptoms may not have been caught for an hour or two longer. Needless to say we are so grateful for Jennifer. Surgery went as well as can be expected, she tried to give the anesthesiologist a hard time and make him earn his money by having her blood pressure going crazy. She came thru surgery fine but was obviously critical. Today is a bit better but not much. Mike and I have been trying to get excited about the itty bitty victories today but the nurses don't want us to get our hopes too high. I guess that's about it. We really won't know what else it looks like might happen for a couple of days or so. Please, Please keep her in your prayers, I know you may be tired of praying for her but this is definitely the most critical she's been since she has been alive...

On a happier note Today was Brooklyn's one week birthday... So she's now a 25 1/2 weeker! OH I almost forgot.... The nurses changed a tube in her mouth today and when they pulled it out... well my lil' girl didn't like it to much so she opened her right eye and glared at them!!!! At least my lil' girl is feisty. Will let you know as soon as we have more info on her outlook. Also thank you to all the church members here in St Louis who have been willing and able to come and donate blood for Brooklyn. We are so overwhelmed by the love that we have been shown.

PLEASE KEEP BROOKLYN IN YOUR PRAYERS

She is struggling today, we will keep you all posted. Thank you so much!

Prayers are answered

THANK YOU everyone who has been praying for Brooklyn... they have been answered. Her blood pressure was stabilized and she is off most all of her drugs treating that. Today has been a great day for her. Her ventilation continues to do well, little changes here and there but doing well. They started feeding her today!!!!! She handled her first few feedings well and will hopefully continue to do well. This may change as her gut is still pretty immature to handle is but at least for today we are estactic! She has a PIC line in now... so it will be easier for her to recieve drugs and nurtrients. I just can't tell you how great she looks compared to Tuesday. We'll take new pictures soon but since you may not notice changes they will not be posted daily. I was discharged from the hospital today and it feels so good to be home with my daughter and family. Isabel is much happier and better behaved. My mom came in this morning so she is here to take care of me. I'm looking forward to resting and getting Brooklyn's room ready, sewing stuff, cleaning, and of course being cooked for! However I've decided that I will really miss the craft-o-matic adjustable bed that the hospital bed had... rolling over off the couch or bed isn't as much fun!
Thanks again everyone!

And more updates

So Brooklyn is doing well today. We had a little scare last night. Her bilirubin (it's the build up that causes the jaundice) spiked last night which could lead to brain damage. So at 4 am when I woke up to pump I called down and found this out so of course being dead tired and forgetting that she was only 30 hrs old I started thinking bad thoughts then I figured if my milk didn't come in it was Heavenly Father's way of saying... well you don't need it because she won't be here. Needless to say I really REALLY needed some rest. I have it now so I'm back to my normal self! Thank goodness for sleep.. I may even get a sleeping pill tonight!!! So for all of you wondering how I stay so calm... now you know I"m not perfect. So her bilirubin has gone down over a full point and is continually getting better. Right now she's maintaining her ventilation, who new that my kids would breeze thru having great lungs! (no comments from my family on this!!!) So really we're just battling her blood pressure. It doesn't want to stay very consistent and they need that to correct itself before they can really worry about much else. Her Echo came back great, she has a duct in her heart that is open but since it's open in practically all babies and doesn't close up in the womb until around 32 or 34 weeks it's totally normal. Her brain ultrasound will hopefully be tomorrow so we'll see if she has any significant bleeding up there. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and well wishes. Thank you to all who live in St Charles who have come and supported thru visitation calls, meals ect, I really appreciate it.
Isabel was so excited to see her sister. She kept saying at her bedside.. that's my sister, that's my sister.... i wuv you bwooklwn! YES it was stinkin cute!
Here are a couple of more pictures from tonight. We had them turn off the lights for a few minutes so we could be closer to her and take a couple of pictures with out her stylish sunglasses! Oh and the ring on her arm is the same one that fit up Isabel's are to her shoulder... however due to Brooklyn's size, well frankly she needs to work out to build up the muscles to raise her arm so we can get the ring farther up!! :)

Pictures have arrived!

Hey everyone, Brooklyn was moved off the cadillac of ventilators and put on the next step up on ventilator. She's on 28% O2 now and she's doing pretty well. She's under the blue lights for her jaundice so please excuse the blueness of the pictures. Also she is sporting the newest in fashion wear with her black sunglasses! I'm recovering well and will get my epidural out tomorrow so if need be I can take sleeping pills!!! Ok so on with the pictures....

A new arrival

Everyone thank you for your prayers on behalf of me and my daughter... if you could please take the prayers you had for me and pass them along to Brooklyn we would greatly appriecate it. So now for the info. I was totally fine until Friday when I started leaking amniotic fluid so I called my MD and he wanted me to go to L&D to get checked out. I was admitted at 8ish and started the wonderful drug of magnesium (It's AWFUL!!!). The cramping finally stopped about 2am and I was just chillin waiting to hear news from any MD that would give me some. I did find out that I was going to stay in the hospital until I delivered because I was leaking the fluid. Later that morning I was feeling a lot of pressure which brought tears to my eyes and that continued all day. They did mulitple ultrasounds to find the issue and other then my bag bulging thru my cervix... that's all I had. About 3:30 they moved my room down to the more intense area across from the Operating room (same room I was in with Isabel) and the pressure feeling was there about every 5 min. OH! she was head down and of course flipped and was breeched about 1/2 way thru the day.
Right after they had me in the room the pressure kept coming back so they did another ultrasound and it turns out the Brooklyn was literally trying to walk out of me. Her foot was in the bag thru my cervix (yes it's as painful as it sounds ladies), so LITERALLY 10 minutes later my OB was called the nurse anestheitis was in my room starting my epidural. Mike's mom happened to show up at the perfect time to take Isabel to the waiting room and 20 after it started I was in the OR.

Brooklyn weights 1 lb 7oz and bruised on her legs from trying to make her escape. She's on the have duty ventilator and all in all doing as good as can be expected. They won't know her chances of survival until later. They said if she can make it thru the next 72-96 hrs she should make it. For those of you that are members of the church I would really appreicate it if you could please add her name to your local temple prayer roles.
The pics Mike took are not to clear of her face and head so we'll get more pic and try and get them posted ASAP.
Thank you everyone for your well wishes and prayers. My family truly appreictes it! Love ya'll

Second Verse Same as the First

Hey all, this is Mike...as many of you may have heard, Tracy is in the hospital. Two years and 4 months after Isabel made her debut, little Brooklyn (that will be her name) has decided it is now a competition, she is trying to come at 24 weeks where Izzy came at 27 and a half. We could definitely do without these silly little games. It seems that both girls are just like their mother, IMPATIENT! Please keep both of my girls in your prayers, it doesn't get any easier the second time around, just brings back painful memories. It's amazing though how much the Lord blesses his children. I thought just the other day that we are so blessed with how wonderful Isabel is. She is so smart, almost knows her Alphabet, can count and identify up to 14 and is like a parakeet in repeating every word you say. My personal favorite...when Tracy says "oh shoot" to which Izzy replies "Shoot mommy, shoot!" Thank you all, it is wonderful to know what wonderful friends we have, may the Lord bless you all!