Two months old!

Well it's definitely been a long two months that's for sure. Elin is thriving and getting a bit on the chunky side. Anya was a pretty small and skinny baby but Elin..... not so much!
She has several chins and Michelin Man arms and legs. Chubby babies sure are cute though.
The reason for her "beefiness" is her constant need to feed. She LOVES to nurse and I am getting quite good at finding things on my phone to occupy my time as I sit and feed her. There has been more then one occasion when Myles has found some piece of food on Elin and quizzically asked me where it came from. Well a nursing mom has to eat too and sometimes that requires me to do it while Elin is nursing and sometimes I drop food since I can't sit up at the table. Sheesh.

Elin has been smiling for four weeks now but the really good ones are just coming out. You can see her whole set of top gums and she giggles a bit too. She likes to have conversations and coos and responds when we talk to her. She particularly likes her Ahma and Diane Sweeney; both these ladies have the gift of baby gab apparently.

Anya is doing remarkably well with the addition of Elin to our family. We had a couple of rough weeks but I think we were also ironing out some "3" year old issues coupled with new baby. She has since returned to her normal sweet self and absolutely adores Elin. She does however think Elin looks like a boy but I do too so at least we are on the same page!

Sleeping you ask- oh yes, we don't do that anymore. No, it's actually not that bad. She usually gets up around 2am and again around 5. We have bad nights and easier nights but we knew what we were in for this time around. She is still in the room with us in her bassinet. I'm feeling brave and might be able to move her out after her first feeding into her room each night. I still check to make sure she is breathing often though so I'm not sure how this is going to go.

Elin can hear good enough to be woken by very noisy garbage trucks at 6am and Myles alarm at 4:45am. I was kind of hoping that the hard of hearing thing would lead to a very hard sleeper. Not the case here.
We had Elin's final hearing test last week. We were able to get all the results (finally) and have a good idea about her hearing loss right now. She will be fitted with her hearing aids for both ears on November 13th. We are excited to see the change. We are meeting with a Family Resource Coordinator next week and can set up our next steps to connect with other families and specialists in the area.

We traveled with Elin a few weeks ago. My friend Kelly Bratton got married at Lake Tahoe and we went down to celebrate the event. Anya stayed with Ahma and Bobpop and Elin came with us. It was soooo easy travelling with an infant. After having taken many plane rides with Anya and varying ages and infant is the absolute easiest age to take on a plane. Elin was amazing and the wedding was fabulous.

Anya has started Preschool this week and will go Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. It is a coop so I work sometimes and other times I just drop her off. It's only for 2 1/2 hours but it's great for both of us. She is enjoying it and meeting some nice new friends. Anya was a flower girl in my friend Drew's wedding this past weekend. She did a fabulous job and made sure to get every last petal out of her basket.

Elin's hearing

Thank god for newborn hearing screens. Elin had her newborn hearing screen the same morning we were anxiously waiting to find out whether we would be leaving the hospital to take her home. That morning we had received the bad news that her platelet count was low and we might not be able to go home as we had expected. We spent the whole morning watching nurses and doctors draw Elin's blood again and again as the platelet test samples kept clotting in the lab. It was an excruciating wait to find out if our baby was healthy enough to leave the confines of the hospital. During that same time we had Elin's newborn hearing screen. The woman tested her once, she failed, so she tested her again. And again she failed. As not to alarm us she said that many times babies that are in the NICU fail their tests only to be successful later. BUT we needed to see an audiologist to make sure everything was fine in a few weeks.
Shortly after hearing this news we received the fabulous go ahead to leave the hospital. Both Myles and I easily dismissed the failed hearing test and weren't concerned about her hearing upon leaving the hospital. I did do as I was instructed and set an appointment for Elin to see an ENT (ear, nose and throat) doctor and an audiologist.

On August 30th, Elin and I went to Swedish Issaquah for her appointment. I was completely unprepared for what was about to happen. I had convinced myself that Elin could hear just fine and her reasons for failing the screen in the hospital were simply the result of her traumatic episode and subsequent treatments.  The ENT checked her out and said there was nothing physically wrong with Elin's ears. Next we went to see the audiologist for the testing. Elin was supposed to sleep during the tests so they can measure the brains response to sounds they emit through tiny earbuds in her ears. Elin always sleeps most the morning but do you think she slept one wink during that 2 1/2 hour appointment. Nope. I was stressing trying to feed her, comfort her and get her to sleep so we could get on the with the tests and find out everything was fine. By the end of our time Brenna- the audiologist- said she wanted to discuss the results she was able to get with me. What came next was the biggest shock of my life. Brenna very calmly informed me my child had severe hearing loss. WHAT? COME AGAIN? It was as if someone told me I couldn't hear- I just couldn't believe it. She spent more then a 1/2 hour explaining to me what this meant and how I should proceed. I think I took in about 10% of what she was saying because I was in such shock. She handed me a large binder with tons of information in it about deaf children and sent me on my way.

I had gone into the appointment with no hesitation- no worry what so ever about Elin's hearing, now that seemed so naive of me. Out child would need special help her whole life.
Since Elin didn't sleep the results were sketchy. We knew she had poor hearing but didn't know what degree of hearing loss we were dealing with. In the most serendipitous of events my Uncle was in town that same week from North Carolina and he is a retired audiologist. The timing was amazing. We went to the cabin that weekend with my parents and my aunt and uncle. Jim (my uncle) spent hours explaining the results of Elin's tests and answered our multitude of questions. He simplified the world of hearing and hearing loss so well we felt we had a good grasp on what was to come and whatever the follow up tests would bring. We knew Elin could possibly need hearing aids or cochlear implants if her hearing loss was profound. He also informed us that she would most likely develop language and be able to speak and attend normal school. Thankfully we caught this at such a young age that she will be able to progress with her language development on a somewhat normal path. We will need therapy and it will be a challenge but Elin will live life like a normal hearing child with all our best effort.
Yesterday we had her follow up appointment at Seattle Children's in Bellevue. Brenna, the Swedish audiologist believed we would get the best care at Children's since they specialize in pediatrics. I kept Elin awake and hungry several hours before her appointment but even with a full tummy and totally exhausted she still fought sleep. Myles, with his amazing touch and swaddling technique, was eventually able to get her to rest. We were able to get about an hour of sleep testing done and now have a clearer picture of the extent of her hearing loss. She has severe hearing loss in her right ear and moderate hearing loss in her left ear.  She will wear powerful hearing aids on both ears which will help bring her level of hearing up. She has an appointment set for November 13th to have her hearing aids fitted. Until that point we are speaking to her normally and focusing on the left ear.

This is the simplified diagram of Elin's hearing from the results we have right now. The red is the right ear and the blue is the left.

When she gets her hearing aids there will be an adjustment period for her. As you can imagine it will be an intense change to go from the muffled unintelligible sounds she is used to to a louder volume and clearer noises. We will leave them on for however long she can tolerate them and always remove them when she sleeps. The trick will be getting her to keep them in when she is awake and batting at them as she gets older.

Elin with foam molds in her  ears for hearing aids

Unfortunately we didn't get all the testing completed during this visit either so I am returning next Monday to hopefully finish the process. With the results of these tests they are able to program and fine tune her hearing aids to the correct volumes and frequencies for her particular hearing levels.
We are being assigned a Family Resource Coordinator to help us navigate this new realm of infant hearing loss. I will update the blog as we make headway and start figuring out how to approach her hearing loss.
For the time being we will be learning some sign language and spending time cuddling and loving our special girl.
I was sent this link from a friend and I think it really encapsulates how we feel right now. Please feel free to read it.
http://www.thecainfoundation.com/bor/site/TheFoundation/WelcometoHollandPoem/tabid/99/Default.aspx

First 5 weeks

Once we got Elin home we settled right into our new chaotic life. Myles went back to work the Wednesday after Elin was born and that first morning home by myself with two girls was tough- I'm not gonna lie. During breakfast Anya hurt herself and was crying and then Elin started crying and I was about to cry because it was nearly 9:30 and I'd been up since 6 and hadn't been able to eat a thing. But alas, everyone was settled and I'm sure I was able to scarf some form of food down before it was lunchtime.

 Elin has been down to Gig Harbor twice and Hood Canal twice and spent one night on Ahma and Bobpop's boat. Yes- we have been busy. No rest for the weary here.

The first trip to the cabin was in August with Ahma, Bobpop, Aunt Natalie and Uncle Scott. Anya had a blast floating and swimming and Elin spent some quality time with her grandparents and aunt and uncle. We just spent labor day weekend at the cabin again and Aunt Sally and Uncle Jim were in town from North Carolina. Anya loved playing with Jim and Sally scored major points by bringing Anya some awesome new books and reading them to her over and over again. Sally spent a lot of time holding Elin and she happily slept in her arms.

We have visited Oma, Opa, Gee Gee and Grumps in Gig Harbor too. Elin was able to meet her cousin Drew during our most recent trip down. He is three weeks younger than her. Anya loves playing with her older cousins. 

Anya is having a ball with her little sis. She kisses and hugs her all the time and Elin seems to enjoy it. She is actually doing much better then we had expected. She is challenging Myles and I more but is an absolute angel to her sister. Oh yeah, Boone loves Elin too!

Myles has been back to work full time for over a month now and I am able to handle the juggling of two kids better each day. It only takes us around a hour to get out of the house now! I wish I was kidding about this! Myles gets home about the time Anya wakes from her nap and gets to spend some quality time with both his daughters. He is amazing with them both and I love to watch him in action. The girls are very lucky to have such a capable and loving dad.