Princess or Tom Boy??

Still trying to figure out if Emerson is going to be a Tom Boy or Princess! Since I'm still dressing her, she looks like a Princess but I think she is leaning on footballs, backwards hats, and sports! Either way- she loves the beach and her friend Maddie!!

Loving the Weather

Emerson was so thrilled to finally get the boat back into the water. Travis and her have been "playing" boat in the garage for quite a few months now. Emerson was so excited that her best friend, Will was able to join us on a evening cruise around Lake Jessimine.



Emerson's class has been celebrating Dr. Seuss this week! They were having a birthday party for him today with Green Eggs and Ham! I'm not sure why the silly pose but you can tell she was ready to celebrate!

She DID it....Twice!

It couldn't have been a happier day at our house. We have been trying to introduce the potty to Emerson but she just hasn't seemed to care. She will sit on it, call it potty but nothing has been happening (if you know what I mean) until this morning! I was brushing teeth with Emerson when she said "pee pee" so I went through the drill of undressing her and taking off her diaper and she actually sat on the potty and did the business! I couldn't believe it.

She surprised me again this evening by going again. I guess I'll need to stock up on lollipops!!

My Little Valentine

Today we spent half the morning at the doctors office for a serious cough that Emerson has been battling. She was diagnosed with bronchiolitis and was given a nebulizer for breathing treatments. We were disappointed that we weren't able to attend Arnold Palmer's Annual Heart party but we did have fun playing together on Valentine's Day.



Emerson is extra loved!


Emerson all ready to attend her Red Party at school. I messed up dressing her in a white shirt, she came home with a red shirt! :-)

Roller Coaster

In the past few weeks we’ve been given an enormous amount of “ifs.” Nobody likes “ifs”, at least I don’t. We received two dramatically different calls from Dan, our genetic counselor. The first one was on a rainy Friday and the news was upsetting. Bennett’s body was looked over by a retired doctor that does consultation work at Winnie Palmer Hospital. His specialty is skeletal dysplasia and he believed through observations that Bennett’s diagnosis was a rare form of skeletal dysplasia. This was very upsetting to Travis and I because it was very likely that we were both carriers of this genetic disorder. We would have a 25% chance of reoccurrence risk with another pregnancy. As you can imagine, I was upset because it added so much concern to extending our family. We truly believe that Emerson should have a sibling yet I wasn’t prepared to put myself through this much anguish again. After a depressing weekend, we received a 7:30 am house call from Dr. Dan on Monday morning. I could tell from the excitement in his voice that he was about to deliver new news, better news! He had just entered his office and found the chromosome analysis from Bennett’s body. From the chromosome testing, he believed that Bennett’s diagnosis should be Triploidy. He proceeded to explain that this was not a genetic disorder (Travis and I were not carriers) and this would not have a reoccurrence risk with another pregnancy. I almost fell over with excitement until he told me that this was not the official diagnosis- he still wanted to talk to some of his colleagues.
A week had come and gone and I was growing impatient, I needed answers. Without Travis’ approval I called Dr. Dan’s office to hear if he had any new information. I ended up leaving a message and he quickly returned my call and spoke with Travis. The official diagnosis is Triploidy!! I honestly can’t explain how thrilled I am to hear this wonderful news! I finally have the answer that we’ve been praying for- and fortunately it is a diagnosis we can bare. Without getting into too much detail, Triploidy happens when 2 sperms and 1 egg join together when making a baby or 2 eggs and 1 sperm join together. Either way it happens, the baby will receive 1 set (23 chromosomes) from each part. Bennett was given 69 chromosomes instead of the normal 46 that humans need. Though both of our children have been given extra chromosomes, Emerson’s 3 #21 chromosomes and Bennett’s 69 chromosomes the conditions are not related- they are both just extra special.
I was given the book Gracyn’s Song after Bennett’s birth. I would like to share one of my favorite quotes:
There are three types of people in the world: those who are going through a storm, those who are coming out of a storm, and those who are about to enter a storm. As much as we would all like to avoid the storms in life, no one is exempt from them.
I never imagined myself learning about genetics or chromosomes when I was younger. To be truthful they are both way over my level of thinking. I’ve learned more than I ever thought I was capable of from my two children. I continue to learn and remind myself that someone much greater is in charge of my life. I have to trust in God to show me the path that I am meant to walk down!

Our Redneck Girl

I hope that Travis isn't getting a reputation around our neightborhood for being a trash digger......but he keeps finding great things! I'll be honest, I found this but made Daddy go back and pick it up. One of Emerson's favorite words is truck- so she thinks she is pretty cool now that she has her own John Deer. Here is a picture of her and Teddy taking a ride!

Baby Bennett

This morning I had my follow up appointment with Dr. Logan. I’ll start with the good news; much to our surprise our baby was a BOY! I was actually shocked by the news because throughout the whole pregnancy both Travis and I believed that this baby was a little girl. We have named him Bennett, just as planned. The bad news is that the autopsy results have come back and they were not able to determine the diagnosis of the baby from the body. They have sent the body to Cedar Sinai for further testing. Dr. Logan did reassure me that the placenta and other documents were sent for testing at Winnie Palmer and we are hoping that we will get a diagnosis from those. We meet with the Genetic department next week and pray we will be given answers.
Though we didn’t know Bennett for long, he is forever in our hearts and we will be overjoyed when we get to see him again!