11-Months

So, yes.  Ryan is 11-months.

I cannot believe she is 11-months.  As slow as some of these days, weeks, and months have been in disbelief, denial, and anticipation, I cannot believe we are here.  This is our baby girl, our new normal, with her amazing cochlear implants.

Before 11-months ago, I had no idea what 'CI's were.  And before we knew it, we were thrown into this crazy world of hearing loss, early intervention, audiology appointments, surgeons, and speech therapists.  Oh, and that's alongside managing her crazy 2-year old brother.

Thank goodness we've made it here, as I don't think I could take anymore surprises like this one.  I'm so glad that Sean and I pretty much put our foot on the gas in terms of getting her to hearing as quickly as possible.  With help from all of her wonderful specialists and doctors, she will persevere.  If this is the worst that can happen, we'll consider ourselves so fortunate.  (I definitely didn't think that way the day she was referred to the audiologist because she repeatedly failed her newborn hearing tests.)

In regard our baby's development.  We finally crossed some huge milestones in the last couple of weeks-- pulling herself up and crawling are two things that have become recent achievements.  We are also hearing her vocalize so much more.  Amazing how far she has come in six weeks!

Also, she always sleeps through the night, her hero remains her brother; and oh yah, we are such a diva.  Child always, and I mean always wants to be picked up.  And not by just anyone, nope.  She's very particular.  Sigh.  She likes to be in the middle of everything.  Although she is pretty laid back in terms of just an easy going baby, she's very particular about ensuring that she's not forgotten or left out. (Of course, that means putting her in the middle of the room around all of us, not just playing with her toys 2 feet away from me.  I tell ya, Diva Ryan.

Less than 3 weeks from her official 1st birthday.  We are planning a small celebration-- of course for her, but also for the fact that we, the Reedy's survived this year and are looking forward to living our new normal.

Pics

Just a couple pics from my phone

Strings

Ryan is doing great.  She is still healing from the surgery.  Funny thing, she gets these strings on the outside of her scars.  Her body (I guess) is rejecting a couple of the stitches.  We took this video about a week ago because the ladies at daycare were a bit concerned as one of her scars on her left side looks a little sore.  So, what do I do?  I take pictures of course.

 Don't you love the close up of the her ear?  See that string?  It looks tiny in this pic, but it's really quite sore looking.  Then, this pic is just plain funny because it looks like there is a dent in her head-- not accurate.  In final pic we were  trying to see if we could get a snapshot of how swollen she seemed.

Then, we are happy with daddy standing on the counter.  Love this pic below.

And, we aren't so happy with daddy holding us upside down.

Anyway, back to the story... that night, I did what any mother would do...no, I did not send the pictures to the ENT, or audiologist, or the pediatrician (partly because the pics doesn't capture what we hoped).  Nope, I took the tweezers and pulled the string out. Turns out, it was the knot that was stuck in her skin.  So I pulled out maybe a millimeter of string with a little knot.  Do not worry-- no blood or puss.  Just a little hole.  With Neosporin and some vaseline, it looks much better this week.  Not so red.

She has a few other little strings, but I'm not pulling those out...they do not look sore, so we'll see what our audiologist, Liesl, says this week when we see her.  Liesl will be letting more sound into Ryan's capacity of hearing this week (definitely not the correct terminology, but you get the point).  We are very excited as Ryan is definitely ready to let in more sound to continue to hear our world.  

Fun times in the Reedy household.

Checkered Flag, Here I Come!

Checkered Flag, Here I Come!

If I was keeping a baby book, that line would have glitter all over it.  A few days ago, Sean and I are standing near Bryce, putting on a shirt to start his day.  All of a sudden, in the midst of a singing/dancing silly rendition of a crazy two-year old being himself, he yells out 'Checkered Flag, Here I Come!'.  Of course, it took us a good 5-seconds of Sean and I looking at each other in a confused state until Sean realized what he had just said. 

In the now Reedy-household famous line, Bryce quoted Lightening McQueen, from the movie Cars.  This was not a line that is even emphasized in the movie (we had to watch it again-- I lost count on how many times now we have watched it-- to find exactly where McQeen caught little Bryce Martin Reedy's attention).

I have to say, that as he gets older each day, each day I miss his baby likeness, while cherishing the cute little boy (all boy) he has become.  He is soooo into cars, and trucks, and planes, and boats, and dinosaurs, and guitars, and legos, and sports balls, and golf clubs, and super heros.  It's a bit overwhelming when I think about it.  Gone are the days that he likes the cause-and-effect toys (ones that Ryan is just learning) or is interested in what is inside the cabinets.  Gone are the days when he ate Rudy's dog food.  Gone are the days when I could dress him without his opinion involved. 

As I reflect upon those days, I smile in anticipation of what is happening now, and what is to come.  He's learning to 'run fast' and he's learning to identify all the letters in the alphabet, and he's learning how put a golf ball, and he's learning how to catch a football (without flinching).  And, very important, he's learning how to hang on the monkey bars and how to swing on a swing by himself. 

With all these learnings, unbeknownst to him, Bryce has high expectations as an unintentional teacher.  Bryce will be teaching Ryan language.  As he is 'reading' his books, Ryan listens (yes, listens!).  Ryan will be learning a ton from her older brother as she begins her journey to language development.

That's all for now, more updates on Ryan next time.

First Sounds

On May 23rd, as previous posts have stated, Ryan received her Advanced Bionics Cochlear Implants.  These two videos are awesome-- they capture her understand that there is sound.  

This one was Thursday evening.  Bryce loves to make Ryan laugh-- this may be the biggest belly laugh Ryan has had.  So fun.

This one is her watching and listening to her favorite 'hopper'.  She was having so much fun.

Our weekend has gone pretty well.  Besides the fact that we may have a faulty CI (or it could be user error) it has been great.  We'll get that straightened out this week when everyone is back in office, as we can't get ahold of anyone anywhere since everyone is off for the holiday.

Ryan does excel at knocking her CI's off though-- not sure if she doesn't like the 'sensation' or whether she is just annoyed.  More to come on that as we continue to make progress this week.

Initial Stimulation- For Real

This was Ryan's very first stimulation of the very first electrode.  Our audiologist, Liesl, was 'testing' each of the four electrodes within each ear.  This was the very first electrode on the very first ear.  Note, that she actually cannot hear anything, it's literally a stimulation.  Ryan probably feels some kind of sensation, hence the response you will see...it's priceless...

Video: Cochlear Implants Initial Stimulation

So, because I'm posting this from my work computer, I could only send one video to be uploaded here.  I'm actually unsure of how this one got through on our email, but it's the best one we have.  (Our work restrains all videos-- or I guess, most videos...)

To say the least, we are super excited.  She is having so much fun with everyone these days.  (As per usual, but now it's amplified, no pun intended.)  As soon as I get to my personal computer I'll post more videos.  Sean took a lot.

She does pretty well most of the time, but I do think that some of the time she really doesn't like having it on...but she'll eventually get to the point where she'll want to wear her Advanced Bionic Neptunes all the time...

On Our Way

For those of you keeping up on the blog, I'll post something later tonight or at very latest tomorrow.  We are about to leave for the hospital for Ryan's CI Initial Activation.
We're very excited.  We'll keep you all in the loop on how everything goes today.

Ryan has been sleeping for the last hour or so, so we should have a very happy and awake baby for her first sounds.
Yay!  Happy dance!

Count Down to Initial Stimulation

91 Hours to Initial Stimulation.  Just sayin'...

Yes, the count down is on.  We seriously cannot wait for the Thursday.  Ryan is all healed up and she is really doing well.  There are very few scabs left over her ears, and although a tad bit of swelling remains, she really couldn't be better.

That said, here's the plan this week.  Work Monday - Wednesday.  Take the day off on Thursday, but we'll still drop Bryce off in the morning at school.  Maybe we'll go to Starbucks first.  Then, we'll make our way to the hospital after Ryan's nap.  The appoint on Thursday, the 23rd is at 2pm.  And, yes, we'll have cameras, cell phones, etc in hand.  Sean and I are preparing ourselves.  She may cry.  And that, quite honestly, would not shock me.  She is so particular these days, that something different (real different) in her world may not be the 'music to her ears.'

Speaking of the initial stimulation, were not exactly sure of the process, or what her first sounds will be, but most likely, or, I would guess, they'll let her play with toys as they are initially stimulating her.  That way, she'll all of a sudden hear the toys on the table as she plays with them.  I'm sure at that point Sean and I will start talking to her.  It's going to be so much fun.

Then, that begins our Memorial Day weekend together.  We'll spend the rest of Friday listening to the Mozart or Beethoven CD in the car on the way home, and then we'll pick up big brother Bryce.  As I sit here and type this, I'm listening to Bryce play with his cars, talk to
 daddy, talk to Rudy and just laugh laugh laugh.  She's got a big surprise.  I'm sure she will love hearing from her big brother most of all.  She is his biggest fan.

Some videos to post this time.  We did a carnival, we ran a race this weekend.  Never ends, but I'm finding this is only the beginning of the crazy world of kiddos!

Pre-Op Appointment

Well, pre opp appointment went really well.  Nothing really to report except Ryan girl is rockin.  She has a little bit of fluid left in her ears, so hopefully that will go away soon.  The surgeons took the tubes out of her ears before they began the surgery, but I would put some serious money on the fact that she will eventually have to have tubes again.  Sigh.  We'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Also, we still have to keep her ears out of water, but since she's a baby, and considering she doesn't have a lot of hair, that's not to hard to manage.  Her little incisions are healing really great.  It's totally amazing how fast these kiddos bounce back.  Most of her swelling has diminished, but some still remains.  Now that's it's going down, we can totally see the hardware in her head.  Kinda cool.  (and weird.)  We are hoping for more hair any day now.  I mean, seriously.

So, on that note, let's move on to attitude.  I really think next Thursday is going to be interesting.  We are crazy excited about this time, but I really think she might look at me and do a face that says, 'really mom, not cool, I'm taking this off.'  She is so sassy these days, it's not even funny.  She's fussy immediately when she sees me because she wants me to pick her up.  Once I pick her up, she puts her hand on my face trying to push it way.  If she doesn't like something she picks it up and throws it.  If she doesn't want her food, she throws it on the floor.  Sigh, I think we have a little me.  At least she's little Miss Popular with all her friends.  That helps to have at least some of Sean's personality for sure.

Anyhow, this video below is one that I took a week ago right before we left the hospital:

This next video was taken yesterday on our way in the hospital to our pre-op appointment.

Then we have some pics as we were waiting for the doc...