Nearing 4 months

I officially feel guilty. People always said that you take a million pictures of your first born and have two pictures of second kids. I think I'm running into the same problem keeping up Elin's blog. I just don't have time.  HOWEVER- I am making a concerted effort to take lots of pictures at least. So here is an update for the last month and a half. 

Elin had a playdate with her cousin Drew who is about 3 weeks younger than her. They are two cute fat babies and had a blast chatting to each other on the blanket. It will be so fun to see how these two grow up together since they are so close in age.

We had professional pictures taken when Elin was two months old and got them back a few weeks ago. They turned out terrific and Anya is the most photogenic of the group. Here are a few of my favorites.

We had our good friends from Australia visit for the last two weeks. Harry was amazing with Elin and he and Anya loved seeing each other again. We had many adventures including a trip to the cabin. Since we don't have a bathtub there Elin gets to sit in her jacuzzi tub in the sink. This kid loves her baths! 

Elin is robust. She has rolls upon rolls and her belly shakes when she giggles. She even has "muffin top" coming over her diaper! (Time to go up a size I know- BUT I bought a huge box at Costco and need to use them all first) She loves to eat and still nurses about every two hours if not more frequently  She takes a bottle like a champ so I am able to get out and about without worrying about her starving. 

We had a rough time with her sleeping about three weeks ago. She was still in her bassinet in our room. We were swaddling her at night too. She started waking at 2am and staying awake until 5am every night. Needless to say this was wreaking havoc on all our lives. To make matters worse she wasn't sleeping at all during the day either. The kid was working herself into a state of sleep deprivation. She is normally happy most the time unless she is hungry. Our sweet happy baby was a tired crying mess and we were quickly deteriorating too. I was clocking her naps and nighttime sleep and she was totaling between 7-9 hours in a 24 hour period. The average sleep recommended for a baby her age was 15 hours! We had a major problem and nothing we were doing seemed to be fixing it. 

We consulted other parents and the all knowing grandmothers and switched up our game plan. She has very bad reflux which means she spits up and vomits a lot especially when she is on her back. So what if we tried to prop her on her side to sleep? That did it. She was unswaddled and moved into her own room and own crib, propped on her side and she slept for a solid 9 hours. Since that wonderful discovery we have had regular naps in the crib and she goes down around 10 at night and sleeps until 7am. She usually wakes around 3am for a feeding but it is quick and she goes right back down now. Caveat- this is most nights. We have good nights and not so good nights but this is the normal pattern. 

Tummy sleeping is her most favorite position but we can't do that unless we watch her like a hawk. I freak out the entire time she is on her stomach but she can nap for 3 hours that way easy. For my sanity the side sleeping is the way to go. 

Hearing aids are a go

This was a very big week for us. Elin went in on Monday and got fitted for her hearing aids. She was fussy and annoyed with the initial ear tampering but her eyes just about popped out of her head when they were on and she could hear our voices more clearly. It was amazing to witness and we are so thankful to have them this early in her life.

(First time Elin hears our voices with her hearing aids in- it's incredible!)

The birth to 3 program for early intervention hearing loss in our state is incredible. We have been guided through this process so seamlessly it makes the whole experience not only tolerable but also enjoyable. We are able to share in Elin's small successes with professionals encouraging our excitement.

We have been assigned a Family Resource Counselor who works with families with children with hearing loss. She helps us pick an early intervention program and works as an advocate for us between our audiologist, the program, and the state. We are able to apply for funding to help pay for Elin's hearing aids and ear molds through this program as well.

The three early intervention programs are all unique and highly regarded in our community. We had a difficult time deciding between two of them. Seattle Children's has a program called Family Conversations that uses both aural rehabilitation and sign language to aid children with hearing loss in their auditory and speech development. The other program is called Listen and Talk and they focus mainly on each child's individual listening skills based on their audiograms (range of hearing) to help develop speech and language. Each program sends a specialist to our house once a week for the first 3 years of Elin's life to help her and us work within the constraints of her hearing loss. They also have parent groups and group meetings where families meet and the kids play and learn with other kids that have similar disabilities. It is amazing. Oh yeah by the way, it is no cost to us. It is funded through private fundraisers and state education monies.

Our dilemma was whether to go with a program that includes sign language as a back up way of communication for Elin or to solely focus on her listening skills so she could mainstream into school as a verbal/auditory student. We were concerned if we skipped sign language altogether we might be missing out on a skill set we desperately need down the road. BUT what we ultimately want for Elin is for her to be just like us and not have to rely on sign language at all.

So naturally I turned to the experts. My uncle Jim (the audiologist) helped define the positives and negatives of each program but ultimately he couldn't give me a definitive answer and directed me to speak to a colleague  She is the head of children's audiology at Atlanta children's hospital . She has worked in the field of aural rehabilitation and has first hand knowledge about the outcomes of such programs. Given what we know about Elin and  her particular hearing loss at this time she assured me that programs like Listen and Talk that focus solely on aural rehabilitation produce fabulous outcomes and kids easily mainstream into education. If Elin's hearing loss is progressive (meaning worsens) or any other factors/complication pop up as she grows we might need to rethink our choice. Thankfully we can change programs if need be anytime during her 0-3 years.

So that is what we have been up too. Elin has worn her hearing aids for 5 days. We put them in when she is awake and spend all our time talking, singing, and delighting in her reactions. She shouldn't wear them in the carseat in case she gets a hold of one and chews on it or throws it somewhere. Since she is still so little I have purchased a hat that ties under her chin securing the hearing aids under the earflaps. She spends a lot of time carted around in the carseat to and from her sister's activities so this will buy her a little more time with them in until she gets too big to be trusted alone with them.

(Our Aussie friend Belinda chatting with Elin day one of hearing aids)

We are so excited to see how these amazing tools will help her flourish. Hooray for technology!

Halloween under the sea

We had a very successful Halloween. Anya announced she wanted to be a princess (go figure) so we picked her favorite one- Ariel- and made her a mermaid princess. Being 3 months old Elin had no say in her costume choice so of course I found an adorable Flounder costume and she wore it with little complaint. For those of you who don't know, Flounder is Ariel's best friend. 

Our PEPS group still meets for a yearly Halloween party where all the kids dress up, some cry, and we drink wine and laugh. Now there are many more kids since some of the families are pregnant with their third children already. You can imagine the commotion when a large group of 3 year olds and all their younger siblings are forced to dress up and pose for a picture. We don't have one with all the kids in it but we have several good ones!

Anya also had a preschool Halloween party so she got dressed up once again. She frosted cupcakes, carved pumpkins, listened to a Halloween story, got her face painted and danced. It was awesome- all within a one hour time frame  They crammed over 60 people in the small church preschool room- it was chaotic and fabulous. Kids hopped up on cupcakes, frosting, and candy corn in costume.

On the actual night of Halloween Anya and Elin dressed up once more and went trick or treating in Ahma and Bobpop's neighborhood.  Anya's friend Charlie came with his parents and joined us.too. They had a great time and loved being out in the dark. It was definitely cool  to be out walking around at night and the candy was just an added bonus.