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.

Party at Mary's

We had a party at Mary's on G's actual birthday. Her big present was a princess bike.
















Both the girls got Wiggles dolls























This is what I always though the Wiggles might do in their private time.
























G really wanted a special birthday hat so we got her a princess tiara (whose kid is this?).

















Mary and her girls.

Spring Performance at School

Hair Fun

The Snakes are Out!

Princess Ears

Our appt. with Hearts for Hearing was Friday morning at 10:30. Matt took the day off work and we arranged to have Darby go to school and my mom to care for her after that. I found myself in a horrible mood by the time Matt got home from work on Thursday. I was short with the kids and generally a little mean. Around 7 I told Matt I was going for a walk and left him with the girls. As soon as I stepped outside I realized my mood was caused by a deep feeling of dread.

Here we had this gorgeous, innocent, precious little girl on a path of "normalcy" only to discover she was no longer on that path. She was on a different path. The finality of actually getting the hearing aids was what made it seem so real all of the sudden. I walked over to my mom's house and had a good cry to get it out of my system. My mom, as always, was wonderful and sympathetic, and said the right things. I felt much better after that and returned home to finish off my duties as a mom for the night. (As a side note, I also realized I had broken out in hives from either the worry or the stress. They are gone today.)

We got up Friday morning and hit the road around 8:15. Georgia was really excited about he trip and about being alone with her mommy and daddy for a whole day. Honestly, sometimes all of us need a break from "The Destructor" (Darby). We got to HFH at about 10 and were obviously early. We chanced it and went in hoping maybe they were ready for us and they were not. Finally at 11 the speech pathologist took us back and spent about an hour testing G and getting an idea of where she is developmentally speech-wise. We were really please to find out both her expressive and receptive speech are at or above her age level. We were also told that if her hearing loss was progressive and she eventually went deaf, with cochlear implants, she could always be audio/verbal (meaning we wouldn't have to rely on sign language).

The audiologist finally came in and said that the aids they were fitting Georgia with with the first pair of a new generation (Oticon Safari 600) and that the software was giving them a problem. She suggested we take a lunch break and they would call us when they were ready for us. That was fine because I was starving (as usual) and G needed a break. We were right by Penn Square Mall so we headed over there for lunch and running around.

They called us at about 2:00 when we had just gotten in the car to find a park so we headed back to get our new hearing aids. Georgia was very excited, even though I don't think she fully understood what hearing aids meant. I should mention that I felt great the whole day. I never came close to a breakdown or even crying. The people at HFH were so nice and reassuring, by this time I was as excited as Georgia to get her new aids.

The fitting was pretty uneventful except for the fact that G wouldn't wear the hearing aids. This was no surprise to me, but the people there said most kids walk out with them on. Georgia was tired and ready to be home so we put the hearing aids in her case and headed back to Tulsa at about 3:30. Once we got G set up with a DVD and were on the turnpike she said she wanted to wear her new hearing aids. So Matt, who had never put her hearing aids on, climbed in the back seat and put them in her ears. She kept them in all the way home and half-way there even said "I like my new hearing aids. They make me hear so much better."

As soon as we got home she took them out and didn't put them back in until we read books before bedtime. I have to go take care of the kids now but I will try to post birthday pics and trip pics tonight and update how we did with our hearing aids this weekend.

Hearts for Hearing

We have our appointment at Hearts for Hearing in OKC one week from today. We will take the ear molds (pink and purple swirls with sparkles) the Health Dept. had made for us and be able to have her fitted for aids that day. She and her daddy went and picked up the molds this morning and she likes them so that is one step. She wanted to hold them in the car and that is great. The sooner she takes ownership the easier my life will be.

D-Rae's B-day

More Hearing Information

So far this blog has been nothing more than a vehicle to share pictures of my family with far away family and friends. I still want it to be that but now I feel like I have a story to tell that may some day help another mother or father find their way through the hoards of information out there on hearing loss.

Before I go into what happens next I just want to say this is really hard. I have a friend whose boy has high functioning autism. She always has a smile on her face and stays positive in my presence. Never before was I able to relate to her pain or agony over having a child that will be faced with a challenge for the rest of his life. I now know there are probably nights she cries herself to sleep and days where the tears sit right behind her eyes but hopefully stay there unless she is alone in the car. On the other hand, the face she puts on for me is the face that gets him and her through the day. What else is she supposed to do? Sit and cry about it. And I now know, as she has learned, sitting and crying doesn’t do anyone any good (although there are some days it is allowed and sure feels good).

In the same breath I know what is wrong Georgia is fixable. It is not cancer or meningitis or autism. It is as fixable as crooked teeth or bad eyesight. While these fixes are a little more mainstream, they probably feel bad at times to the kids dealing with them. So my goal is to stay positive but allow myself moments of weakness as any mom would. I am so blessed to have in-laws that, believe it or not, dispense hearing aids for a living. I am blessed to have the amazing support of my parents and siblings and all my in-laws and to have a job that allows me to take the time(and phone calls) to deal with this issue.

Now this is where I may lose some of you but journaling my encounters with the professionals helping me along the way is part of working out what I am doing in my head. I contacted a wonderful woman today in OKC who is with Hearts for Hearing and learned so much. As of yesterday we were looking at some major out of pocket expenses (including some aid from a grant funded program) because insurance does not cover anything to do with hearing loss or genetic testing. Today I found out if we go to OKC they will give us our first pair of hearing aids for free and significantly reduce what we thought we were going to have to pay for genetic testing. The genetic test looks at Conexin 26 which you can follow the link to read more about if you are interested. There are two reasons for the test. One is to further investigate if the hearing loss is progressive and the other is to let us know how closely we have to watch the new baby. If not for these two factors, I would not care what the cause of her hearing loss was.

The other exciting information out there is that Tulsa Public Schools has some wonderful services for the deaf and HOH (hard of hearing). They will provide you with free ear molds every six months (because young children grow so fast) which would otherwise cost $100 a pop. They have an audiologist on staff and we can have G’s hearing tested for free whenever we want, and they have an individual who keeps an eye on G’s progress to make sure she is getting the help she needs an doesn’t fall behind. When we first found out about this I told Matt I was now considering home schooling but after more thought and all the services TPS offers, I think public school is still right for us. They also provide a free FM system which is awesome and you can follow that link to find out more as well.

This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as people I have talked to and things I have learned in three short weeks but I am excited about the information I have and am ready to improve my baby girls quality of life as soon as I can.

Just the Facts

I have been thinking about this post for a few weeks now. I have not yet felt that the time is right for it and I am not sure I feel the time is right now. But I have some time and am feeling positive about things it seems like as good a time as any.

When Georgia was a little older than three I took her to TU to have her speech evaluated. At the time I understood her, and other family members understood her but strangers had a hard time. Part of the evaluation was a hearing test which she refused to cooperate with. The speech part went fine and the therapist said she was “normal” for her age and development. Within three months after that her speech cleared up and she was much more understandable.

Some time around Nov. or Dec. I noticed when we were in the car she had trouble hearing me talk to her but I assumed it was because she sat behind me and sometimes the radio was on and a car is a noisy place to begin with. Then I realized she would often times say “what” when I addressed her and my back was to her or I was in another room. Now lots of kids say “what” but hers was not the distracted, “you just interrupted my thought”, kind of what. It was the “I really didn’t hear what you said,” kind of what.

I talked to my mom about it and to my husband and they agreed she seemed to say “what” more now that she was really conversational and speaking to us in a more complex way. I had to have both girls hearing tested at the Health Dept. as infants because G would not be still enough to pass the hearing screening at the hospital and Darby was born at home. Both girls did pass the newborn hearing screening. I made an appt. at the Health Dept. to have G tested since I knew insurance wouldn’t really help and the health Dept. would be priced reasonably.

I totally expected them to tell me she had fluid or wax in her ears, send us to an ENT and get the whole thing cleared up. The hearing test was on a Wed. and during the test I was in the sound booth with her and she was so good about wearing the ear plugs and head band. She played the games but after about 30 minutes, I could tell she was done. I could also tell during the test, she was not hearing everything.

Once we got out of the booth the audiologist, Casey, set G up with some toys and I looked at Casey and said, “She didn’t hear everything.” I was told that was correct and that there was no blockage in the ear or damage to the middle ear which meant her hearing loss was sensorineural. In other words permanent and inoperable. The audiologist wanted me to bring her back the next week to re-test and make sure the results were accurate.

Matt and I both went with her the next Tuesday and had her re-tested. The results were very similar and in line with a “mild” hearing loss. With this type of loss she misses out on perhaps a faucet dripping or the birds singing and has a hard time if there is any background noise. Her speech has not been assessed in the last two weeks since we found out but I feel like she has done really well for having such a hearing loss. She speaks clearly and has the ability to converse using seven and eight word sentences.

The only treatment for this kind of hearing loss is amplification, or hearing aids. We have 3-months in which we can try out the aids free of charge and see if she will wear them and how much they help. She got to pick them out herself and they will have a purple behind the ear part and a pink and purple swirl with sparkles ear piece. We are hoping to start using them in a little over a week, after her birthday and party. Georgia has already started calling them her “princess ears” and asking when she will get them.

There is so much more involved with this in regards to emotions and how Matt and I are feeling and how we have made some of the decisions we have made and what decisions we have put off making, but that will be a different post. I just wanted to get this out there. I don’t know of any other children that wear hearing aids and have a minor hearing loss. I have grabbed as many books as I can, joined as many message boards as I can, and called as many local organizations as I can. If there is one thing I CAN do about her hearing loss, it’s be knowledgeable.

Easter 2010

Easter Morning

Bubble guns.

At Mary's.

Sweet Pea.

The Girls.