Mother Blessing

My wonderful friend Jennifer had a Mother Blessing or Blessing way for me last weekend. We made a labor necklace and painted my stomach with Henna. It was really a great day and I am so thankful for the other women in my life who came to bless me on my way into motherhood for the third time.

Here I am with my sister getting started on the painting. She did a Max from "Where the Wild Things Are."

This is the finished product with the Henna still on it. I had to leave it on for about six hours before I flaked it off.

Me and my girl Jennifer.

This is the necklace we made for me to wear during labor. Everyone brought a bead to contribute.

Here is my finished stomach the next day. It got darker over the next couple of days and today I can tell it is on its way out.

Hearing Update

I can't remember what I last posted about G's hearing but I can say things are going very well. We have already had one of the aids break and had to send it in for a repair. That was no fun because we were without it for a week and she was walking around with one hearing aid in. She actually didn't seem too bothered by it so we just tried to get her to wear the one as much as possible.

We also had an incident where I accidentally put her in the shower with her one aid in and didn't realize it until she was out. Luckily she hates getting water in her face and the hearing aid came out dry. I am a water lover. I love to swim and shower and it is so hard to have such a fear of water this summer. We are working on some rules to help everyone remember to check her ears before she gets wet but it is still so scary. Living next door to a swimming pool has its advantages but it is also really freaking me out this summer.

We have started our home visits through the ECCO program which is a program sponsored by the Oklahoma School for the Deaf. We have a lady come to our house once a week in the evening and work with the whole family on communication skills and things we can be doing with G to improve her communication and ours with her. We met our "counselor" for the first time last week and I really like her. She has a lot of experience working with the Deaf and hard of hearing and I think she will be a wealth of knowledge as we navigate through this process. I also want to mention this program is free.

Our ext two steps are to get G's hearing tested again at the beginning of July and see if her loss is staying stable and we have an appt. with an ENT on June 30th to have her ears looked at by an MD. We all just need to hope the baby stays put until July so I can get these things taken care of.

I am just so amazed by Georgia and her ability to adjust to this situation. I know she is young and we have many challenges ahead of us but everyone who really knows G is so awed by her kindness and sweetness and love. I think that will take her far through this process and I know that I love her so much more than I ever thought I could.

My Girls

These two are so much fun lately. They get along amazingly well and really like each other. They are very much into playing baby and most of their play time centers around one being the baby or taking care of baby dolls. In this picture Georgia was teaching Darby how to hold her bay sister. Darby sat there and held the baby for over 5-minutes, which for Darby is an eternity.

G loves to put Darby to bed and here she is patting her back to help her get to sleep.

I am not too huge into dessert but summer brings out the Popsicle in me. I have found that the Blue Bell popsicles have the best texture and flavor if anyone is hunting for the perfect one.

5 Weeks To Go

We have begun the final count down to the arrival of baby #3. It is crazy to think I only have five more weeks of pregnancy to go and at the same time so awesome. I am ready to hold my baby and not be pregnant any more. The exhaustion is really getting to me and I have moments where I think I might die if I don't lay down right away. Sundays are the worst and I don't know if it is the week catching up to me or just the fact that I have Matt home to help, but a 2 nap Sunday is not unheard of. And while I am speaking of it Matt has been so amazing and considerate lately. He lets me sleep all I want and take all the breaks I need. I even spent a morning at the lake this weekend fishing with my sister which was such a treat.

I have begun the nesting process in fear of an early delivery (which won't happen) or in case the exhaustion gets worse. This weekend we deep cleaned and rearranged our bed room (aka "the birth suite") and got all the baby clothes out. We bought a dresser so we have somewhere to put all the clothes since the girls closets are already full and baby will be bunking with us for six to nine months. I alos set up the co-sleeper just to lay the ground rules and get the girls used to the idea that it is off limits. So far Darby has been in it and I have been sleeping next to a baby doll dubbed "baby sissy" that keeps getting put to bed there. I guess I need to get a little firmer with my ground rules.

And just for the record, it is not like she fits in this thing. Her feet are all wadded up under that blanket.

This weeks chores include ordering my birth supplies, calling and confirming delivery of the birthing pool, and finding a missing box of clothes that have gotten lost somewhere in the shuffle. I hop to have the energy to post a hearing aid update soon as things are going really well there. It is now the witching hour and I am off to bed.

Nanue & Big Papa Visited

We had a great visit with Matt's folks last weekend. We always have so much fun and it is such a relaxing time. The girls really enjoy both of them but Big Papa was a real hit this trip.
Darby was especially fond of him.

Here they all are just hangin' out on the love seat.

We got lots of outside time with the warmer weather we have been having. We didn't have to worry about travel delays at all which was a nice change from this winter.

Georgia intent on her chalk.

We can spend hours in the sand box and Big Papa really got into it with us.

We buried D's feet.

And then G's feet.

D kept trying to bring Nanue "food."

Then there was a wasp killing incident that Nanue handled with such grace.

The spray.

The smash.

The carnage.

We can't wait until their next trip to town. Nanue will be here in a couple of weeks and I bet we don't see Big Papa again until the new baby is here.

Debo's Birthday

Progress

Georgia came up to me this morning before school and for the first time said, "Momma, we need to remember to put my hearing aids in."

She will wear them for as much as 4 hours at a time now and usually forgets she has them in.

Genetic Testing

We were led to a really good resource for Genetic testing by the folks in OKC so we were able to afford to get it done without breaking the bank. The test is called SoundGene and they basically send you a packet that allows your own Dr. to do the blood draw and then you overnight it to their lab. Within 72 hours they send the results to your Dr.

So we had G's finger pricked and had her little finger milked enough to fill up 4 circles on a piece of litmus-like paper. She screamed through this whole process and Darby was sitting behind her. Darby heard the screaming and said, "I want to see." So she moved in for a better view of the trauma. Off the subject, we left my midwife's appt. the other day and Darby said, "I wanted Ruth to take your blood." I hated disappointing her like that.

Anyway, we got the results back and none of the markers came up positive. This doesn't mean it is not a genetic cause, it just means of all the genetic causes they know how to test for, it does not match any of those. I am neither happy or sad about this. I am not one of those parents desperate to find a cause because that doesn't really change anything.

Yesterday we had Georgia's hearing tested with her aids in and she did great. She defiantly hears better with them in. We also had Darby's hearing tested and she passed no problem, which is no surprise to me. I wasn't really worried but at least now we don't have to wonder about her.

In other news, G wore her aids from 8:30 until 12:30 this morning without even complaining or mentioning them. She has had them in all afternoon as well so that part of it is going really well. I am pleased she is getting used to them and they are becoming part of her day.

Bathtub Excitement

I decided to clean the bathtub today when we got home from work and G had her aids in. I turned the water on and she jumped back and said "The bathtub sounds different."
I laughed and said, "It must be fun to hear new sounds all day."
She just squealed and laughed and clapped at her new found bathtub sound.

I need to remember these moments when I am having a bad day. She really is hearing better.

It's Getting Better

Here is an e-mail I sent to my husband today:

I told G last night we would be wearing our aids today of most of the day, just taking breaks if we were in the car. So far she wore them from 8:30 until noon with only one 15 min. break. She took them out a couple of times at home this morning but I put them right back in and she accepted that. It is so funny because she will only take them out in my presence. She would never be sneaky about it which is one of the great things about G. When we got in the car after story time she heard and ambulance and decided to keep them in for the 5 min. drive to playgroup, but only if her window was rolled down. Two things she said this morning, one funny, one a little sad:

She told me she didn't want to go to school tomorrow and when I asked her why she said "Because none of my friends noticed my hearing aids." I will have to take her Oliver book tomorrow and see if the teacher will read it and show off her hearing aids.

She also was complaining during her car ride break that she didn't want to put them back in and said "I wish I had ears like you and Darby." Kind of broke my heart a little.

After nap we put them back in and she wore them for another couple hours and then took a car break. When we got home she put them in for maybe a half hour before we took them out so she could talk on the phone. I gave up after that. She had been a real trooper all day and I didn't want to push my luck. The little red spot she was getting is less red lately and I think she knows they help because at night when I give her the option to wear them while we read books she wants them in.

It is hard as a mom to do something you know your kid doesn't like. No mom wants to have to do that all day, especially when I am hoping for a positive association with the hearing aids. She is a precious little girl and I love her more and more every day if that is even possible.

Hearts for Hearing Trip

Here we are in the waiting room having Daddy read a book. Georgia loves to be read to lately and Matt has so much more patience with it than I do.

Here G is just being goofy and playing while waiting to get her aids in.

They had to measure the depth of her her in order to set the hearing aids right and G was resistant at first but once the audiologist got some bubbles out all went well.

More playing.

And here they are hot pink with purple swirls and sparkles ear molds and purple hearing aids. They look so cute in.

The hearing aids came with an otter who also wears hearing aids so while G got hers put in we put his in.

She thinks he is pretty cool.

this is the brief moment in which she left them in.

And here she is in the car wearing them and listening to her DVD player.

As I said before, it was a great experience. I have gotten over the angst of having her wear hearing aids and moved on to the challenge of actually getting her to wear them. I would say of her 10.5 waking hours today she wore them for 5 hours. We are slowly building and getting used to them. I can tell she hears better and speaks better with them in so it is just a matter of helping her realize it. We are going to try them for a short period at school tomorrow and see how that goes. She is a sweet sweet girl and is trying really hard to please me and be good even though I know it is hard at times.

Birthday Party

We did another paint party this year but added a few features since the kids would be a little older. Of course the painting was a big hit, especially with my kids.

Georgia always had to cover the entire paper lately so it takes her a while to finish a project.

Vivian had fun painting Darby.

Leonard had fun painting himself.

My little budding artist.

We had foam visors and foam stickers to put on them.

The intensity with which the backs had to be removed.

The crowd favorite was the "volcanoes." We bought a huge bag of baking soda and 2 gallons of vinegar and let the kids go wild.

The food coloring didn't hurt either.

We also made pipe cleaner bracelets with beads.

And here is the princess castle cake G had to have. I was going to buy it but wavered at the last hour and made it. Matt did stay up with me and help.

I thought G blew out the candles but this picture tells a different story.

The kids eating cake.

Emma was the last man standing and the 3 girls got back into painting after everyone else left. By the way, the "washable paint," not so much. Not when it was on the clothes to the extent G put it on.

This picture cracks me up. Georgia was having so much fun at one point she just took off running across the yard as if she didn't know what to do with herself.

Side Note

I somehow messed up my blogger setting and am having a hard time getting things back the way I want them. I think I just figured it out so hopefully my posts will stop being so choppy.

And the Cake

I bought G's cake at Sam's for her party at Mary's. I can only bake so much in a week and I think the Sam's cake taste good. Plus G wanted the princess rings.

She was able to blow the candles out by herself.