Recovery Day 2

  Well, the bandage didn't last long. E pulled the bandage off today and we had to put on the plastic cover given to us by the hospital. I actually am kind of glad he pulled it off. I like this protector much better. It is not nearly as bulky and he seems much less annoyed by it. E was back to being himself today. With the new headband, we were able to put his right hearing aid on. He seemed very glad to have his hearing aid. Once we put the hearing aid on, he was back to babbling and laughing as usual. Today's challenge was to keep him from being TOO rambunctious.

A Bit of Light Yoga ;-)

Happy to Have the Hearing Aid

Surgery Day

  Well, it's finally done. On today, 11-11-11, my baby was implanted with his cochlear implant. The surgery went very well and we were on our way home around lunch. He is not a happy boy with his giant bandage and scratchy throat, but all is well. I have never seen my son so grumpy, but I would be grumpy too! He is doing pretty well with his pain meds, but has little interest in eating. Some of our friends are making bets on how long they think it will take before he has enough of the bandage and takes it off.

At the Hotel on Surgery Eve

X Marks the Ear

Playing with the Stethoscope

Recovery Time

At Home with Elmo and His Books :-)

  We have to try to keep the bandage on for a minimum of two days. This means we are probably going to have to hold him in the recliner and sleep because I guarantee that thing will be off in the corner of the crib if he gets a moment alone.  We go back to the surgeon Thursday for the post-op check. My sweet boy looks like a cross between Rambo and Princess Leia and is most frustrated with the bandage. His is hoarse and scratchy from the breathing tube during the surgery. We can't get his bandages wet for a while, so he's probably going to have some wild hair for a week or so. Overall, it seems to have gone well. I am told by other CI parents that he will likely be back to himself by tomorrow. Recovery is quick for energetic little ones. Here's hoping that 11-11-11 is a lucky day indeed! I know we will never forget it!

Update on Surgery

   Ok, so I've been tracking down the source of the mess up with our surgical date. I found out that the surgeon told his secretary five months ago that he would be out of town. That was even before we received the original date. The secretary failed to inform scheduling. While talking to the surgeon, one of the schedulers noticed a discrepancy in the schedule and changed the dates. The dates were changed on October 26th and someone failed to inform us. Basically, more than one boo boo was made when this thing started to roll down hill. After several phone calls and some negotiation, we are rescheduled for surgery this Friday. I have already warned them that we will probably be checking in daily to make sure everything is on track this time. To their credit, there has been a great deal of scrambling to get the issue resolved. Now, we get to hold our breath again...

The Sweetest Little Thing

  First off, I want to just say a big THANK YOU to everyone that has reached out to us this past weekend. The kind words, hugs, and encouragement have been like a healing salve on our hearts. You guys have really made me feel so loved and it is so wonderful to see how much my little boy is adored. It makes me laugh to think of how many of you were ready to go kick butt and take names for our sake :-) I have some tenacious friends! I like to keep up the appearance that I am well put together. For those of you this weekend that saw the cracks in the facade, thank you for allowing me to fall apart just a moment and thank you for helping me put it all back together.

  E has become really good at understanding what we tell him. Saturday, his papa fell asleep on the couch. I silently signed to E, "Look at Papa. Papa's asleep. Go get him!" E knew exactly what I said. He grinned and ran across the room to Papa, jumped up on the couch, and commenced to wallowing all over Papa to "wake him up." This morning, I heard my husband tell E, "go give Mommy a kiss." I look up and here comes E into my office all by himself. He takes his paci out, leans on the arm of my office chair and puckers up to give me a kiss. It is so cute that it makes me want to do some crazy happy dance. I love when he does things that we did not train him to do and wonder what other things he is picking up on his own. It's definitely time to start really watching what we say and do in front of him!

  Speaking of training, our "happy accidents" on the potty are increasing in frequency. I am still not sure he has made the connection between eliminating in the potty and the potty party that follows, but I think it will get there soon. I mentioned before that we have started just sitting E on the potty each night before his bath to just get him used to the idea so that he is not wary of the potty when it comes time to train. To our delight, E sometimes goes while he is sitting there. E had also started to pinch his nose to indicate that he was stinky after he had filled his diaper. Last night, he indicated a "stinky" before he did anything. Just as an experiment, I took him to the potty. E finished his stinky on the potty!!! I was so excited! E is now 17 months old and it looks like we might be making some excellent progress toward readiness for potty training. We did a little celebration dance and let him use the flush handle. His reward any time he goes in the potty is to get to use the flusher handle. He is not to touch it at any other time. I don't want things to start disappearing around here! Unless you are a parent, you are probably wondering why I am actually blogging about the potty habits of my kid, but anyone of you that has experienced this knows that this is a REALLY BIG DEAL :-) For the rest of you, hang in there with me...I will not always talk about life behind closed (bathroom) doors.

The Ugly, The Bad, and The Good

  The Ugly:  I talked with the hospital again. I have made certain that we will not be billed for the hotel room we had booked. I got the "new" surgical date moved closer than the one we were given Thursday. We are still trying to track down just what happened and where the communication breakdown occurred. I will be contacted Monday after the surgeon gets back in office to see if we can get an even better date for the rescheduled surgery since this not the first time the date was moved. E's case is supposed to be "high priority" but has not been handled as such. There is some major booty kissing going on! Stay tuned for more on "As The Stomach Turns."

  The Bad: Shortly after learning I will be laid off at the end of the year, I discovered that there was an opening in town for a graphics instructor. We live in a town where there is very little need for graphic design skills (as in zip, zero, nada) so I was amazed to find something right up my alley right here in town! It seemed so perfect and the timing was just amazing. I felt like God might be opening a door for me. I put a ton of time into prepping my portfolio and making a branding package. I got called for the interview. It really seemed to be falling in place. The interview seemed to go well. A little tiny ember of hope started to glow. It got snuffed out today. I received a letter in the mail telling me I was not the chosen candidate. I guess it's very nice that they let you know even if you weren't chosen. I just couldn't help but wonder why that carrot had been dangled in my face though if it wasn't meant for me. I don't think it would have been such a big deal except that it really did seem to just be tailor-made and set in front of me at the perfect time. I am once again really confused as to what in the world is going on in our lives right now. It just really does seem like the old saying, "when it rains, it pours."

  The Good: The good of course is my E. He is my smile. He has suddenly discovered giving kisses. We have always showered him with kisses, but E has suddenly decided that he wants to give kisses and that he wants to give them on the lips. I don't know where it came from other than seeing his daddy and me kiss. It is the sweetest thing! While sitting with me in the floor coloring, he suddenly stopped and looked up at me with puckered lips. I gave him a kiss and he clapped and giggled. He finds a new way every day to melt my heart :-) 
 
  My husband's parents drove up and spent the day with us today. It was wonderful to be able to spend time with them. These are the good things in life.

E Snuggling with Papa

Devastation

  We booked a hotel. We were supposed to drive down tonight and have E's surgery in the morning. We were supposed to receive a phone call telling us what time the surgery would be. We never got that call. We called them to try to get the information. We were told they moved the surgery date. Nobody ever informed us. No call. No letter. Nobody informed the audiologists. We are devastated. I can't even wrap my mind around this! The new date would mean that we would have to do the pre-op over again! Someone's head is going to roll. We both got off work. My parents got off work. We have waited and waited and waited. This is unacceptable. I am in the process right now of getting to the bottom of this and YES, I WILL GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS!

Hair

...and when we took off the Yoda hat, E's hair looked like this: