Our New Addition

The action began at about 3 a.m., Monday, Aug. 2. Tracey woke up with agonizing pain in her chest — much worse than the eight months of heart burn she suffered after every single meal — and knew something wasn't right.

 A quick call to the hospital's birth center, a moment on hold, and suddenly we were on our way to the emergency room in the middle of the night. Who knew what lay ahead? Both of us thought we would be back home in  a couple hours, catching some sleep and at the worst taking a day off from work since we were up all night. We were wrong.

Once we made our way through the E.R. doors, a nurse was convinced Tracey was having contractions. This man, in hindsight, had little to no idea what a contraction was. Still, we were quickly shipped up to the birth center at Saint Clare's Hospital in Weston, Wis., a few miles from our Wausau home.

Soon after, we were sent back to the E.R. when it was discovered Tracey was not in labor. Apparently, if we weren't having the baby, we weren't their problem.

An ER doc, who had an awesome southern accent, thus immediately gaining my trust, was in charge of Tracey. Based on her symptoms, which at this point were under control courtesy of an IV induced pain medicine, Doc thought Tracey had a gall stone.

An ultrasound verified a gall stone was not the issue — at least not anymore. Perhaps she had passed one — Doc was still convinced of this, blaming it on a bratwurst, which she described as a "nasty sausage" and said a "Brat" in the south is no more than a bad child. On a side note, the ultrasound reconfirmed that he was actually a "he." Just saying: Huge huevos.

Either way, Doc called an OB/GYN doc in Marshfield, where we had planned to have the baby. Marshfield Doc did not like the looks of Tracey's platelet and liver enzyme counts.

A short while later she was southbound to Saint Joseph's Hospital in a town of Rib Mountain ambulance.

By the time I got there, Tracey was in a labor and delivery room, again having her blood tested.  Dr. Sampson, who was on call, said there was a chance she had HELLP syndrome, a potentially life-threatening complication that develops late in a pregnancy in about 1 in 2,000 women. Great. Rare and life-threatening; We all were getting very nervous.

Doc returned about 20 minutes later and confirmed what we expected: Tracey was going to have an emergency C-section. Life stopped for a moment. Tears ran, but we prepared for what was necessary.


It wasn't that little man was in danger. We knew he would be fine. The scary part was for Tracey. Would her platelets rebound? The only cure was delivering the baby, because her body was destroying her platelets.


She moved  into the OR about 15 minutes later — family already on the road and in the air — and at 1:07 p.m., Aug. 2, 2010, Braden William Miller was born. He came out of the room swaddled and looking great. Even at 18 days early, he was 6 pounds, 12 ounces, 19.25 inches and pure baby badass.


Tracey came out of surgery about 40 minutes later and began her recovery. Needless to say, her numbers rebounded during the next 48 hours and she began to feel better. 


Then the next four days in the hospital began. Following are pics from those moments, and more tales from Tracey.