Mikayla's Blueberry

Grrr. Little man has fluid on both ears again. We had rescheduled his booth test for Tuesday, but now we have to wait a week or 2 before we can get him in the booth to see what he is hearing with the aids. We are still going to his first therapy appointment on Friday.

And to make it worse poor little guy has bronchiolitis AGAIN! It's the same thing that put him in the hospital over Thanksgiving, but he's older and stronger and EVEN tougher!!! He never ceases to amaze me with his resilience.

We go back to his pediatrician and ENT on Monday. Hopefully his lungs will be doing better and the ENT will say the fluid is gone. This will be the 4th time he's had fluid in his ears within his 6 months of life. Unfortunately he is really heading towards getting tubes put in his ears. With the hearing loss they are more aggressive about handling fluid, because fluid decreases the amount of hearing you have and is uncomfortable - so needless to say he hasn't been able to wear his hearing aids in the past couple days :(

Keep good thoughts flowing to this little man.

Wow! Time is flying by. Michael & I decided we needed to concentrate on our little man being a baby boy for a few. We were so caught up in doctor appointments, therapy school tours, audiology appointments that we nearly missed his first teeth coming in.

So the past few weeks we have been cuddling up and holding tight to our family.



We did visit the AVC here in Atlanta and observed a therapy appointment with a 4 year old boy who had a cochlear implant for about 8 months. It was overwhelming, encouraging and scary. We were amazed at how well he was LISTENING for only being activated for 8 months. His mom sat across a table from him, while the therapist sat next to him. He would look straight ahead and the therapist would do exercises with him and he would respond to her completely and accurately, showing that he could hear AND understand her directions. I was even more blown away when his mom started talking to the therapist about valentine's day plans (yea vday)the therapist responded and the boy just continued playing without even looking up. The therapist then very subtly changed the conversation back to the boy and he immediately looked at her and followed the directions she gave. It was incredible. 8 months earlier he couldn't hear, now he was able to discern when a conversation was directed towards him. I thought I would break down in tears of joy...except then Shiloh (who had been sitting in my lap the whole time) began cooing VERY loudly at the 7 college girls in the observation room with us. He had been smiling at them (all of them) the whole time, but then I guess he decided to make his move and he had to say something!!! What a ladies man.

Needless to say, we will be going to this therapy center. We begin April 3rd and are trying to stay grounded in today and not get ahead of ourselves (or our baby boy), but the anticipation is insane!!! We think he is definitely responding more and more ...again we think. It's incredibly hard to gauge whether he is hearing more, learning to hear, deciphering what he's hearing or just getting used to our movements.

Other than the typical 3 year old melt downs and the infant teething fun we are keeping pretty low key. We are recharging for what is ahead of us and trying to build in as much love as possible in Mikayla and Shiloh.

It's starting to become easier to be open about Shiloh's deafness. At first it was hard to get through a conversation without tearing up. Now, I can make it through the conversation and can even talk and answer questions. I just get to a point though where I start to close up...because I don't expect everyone to understand all that I am saying or even really care. Some people ask just to be nosey - they see the hearing aids on a baby and can't figure it out...some ask because they care. I'm finding comfort in answering questions of other little kids - especially in Mikayla's class. They are so innocent and purely inquisitive and accepting without pause. Isn't 3 years old grrreat?