Aidan going to get his diaper

The last few days I have tried to slow down on signing that way I can see how much Aidan truly knows verbally. He knows quite a bit and we have been working on diaper. I asked him to go get his diaper, no signs, no prompts, nothing but the word and he ran to get it.

Aidan putting together his Mr Potato head

We have been working on body parts with Aidan by using the Mr potato head, books, and ourselves. Here is a video of him correctly getting the different parts of Mr potato head with just listening.

Still going strong

Aidan is doing fantastic picking up language. He repeats 2-3 new words a DAY! He may not keep them but he sure repeats them. We are making a master list of words he imitates, words he uses spontaneously, and then words he understands when I say them.
Receptive(ones he understands)-Hi, ByeBye, All Done, Mom, No, Alex, Andrew, Aidan, Hot, UhOh, Night Night, and Molly(the dog). There are even more but we just started this list the other day and I am writing them as I notice he understands/uses them. His imitated words(ones he imitates without knowing the meaning)-circle, purple, woah, ow/ouch, mine(although I think he may know this one now), help(seems like he is getting the meaning of this too, and milk(seems he knows this one one day and not the next), there are also more here but I want to make sure we are on top of words he is using so I'm not adding the words I heard 2 weeks ago and not since. Spontaneous words-words he uses with meaning with no prompting whatsoever-Hi, ByeBye, All Done, Mom, No No No, Uh Oh, Hot, Molly, Woof Woof, Water, Moo, Baa, Night Night, Thank you, and Star. Now remember, he has only been hearing for 1 yr and he is actually about on the same level as Andrew-he has probably a few more words than his baby brother(14 mths old) but Andrew can do b's, d's, s's and a few other consonants, while Aidan can't get the consonants out yet. So Andrew's "star" sounds like "stah" while Aidan's sounds like "ar" I have heard the r and n come out but never at the beginning of a word, always in the middle of some babble as I think it is easier to do that. I think when you say Robot it takes a little more than when you say star, both have an r sound, but the r is star is easier for him to get out.

Oh, and eval at Tech went good, the students oooh'd and Ahh'd all over him, he is the only Bilateral implant child in North La and everyone was so excited to see him. They were poking their heads out the door in hopes to get him to say "Hi" and he did! He certainly performed for them and showed them what he can do. A lot of people believe that children that have AN-Auditory Neuropathy-what Aidan has-should not be implanted as there is less success in gaining language. But Aidan has shown a lot of people that it is worth it to implant kids like him as he is understanding language, gaining new words everyday and doing really great!

October goodness

Some new things we have as of today--Aidan says wawa and signs water! He does it appropriately as well. He doesn't have that first w sound down great, but it is there! He is saying "mo mo" for No No, even includes the finger wag :) He calls the dogs "Mah"-doesn't make sense to the ordinary person, but one of our dogs is Molly, so that is what he is calling both dogs, and he called the cat that today as well. "mi, mi"(sounds like hi but with m) he is saying this for night night. He says "one" as we are doing 1, 2, 3 Magic for discipline which incorporates counting to 3, so now he is trying to count with me. We are also working on letter recognition. This is just bonus, nothing too serious, but we are pointing out letters in his book and he will say "I", "A", and "Y" but those are the easy ones for him. Sometimes he will point to an A and say I, same for the other letters, but he doesn't have actual letter recognition yet, he's just guessing. Still working on "daddy" but today he actually tried, didn't get the "d" sound in there, but he got a similar sound that sounded like "ah e" You've all probably noticed by now that he's great with vowels, and things that start with m. That is because they are easier to say and we have to teach him how to move his tongue and mouth to make different sounds. Doesn't seem hard and it is ingrained in us, but it is quite hard for him. Good news on that front though is he has finally mastered blowing! It's a simple thing but so important. For one, blowing helps move the tongue into a different position-the position to use letters like "b and p" There is all kinds of other things--like he when someone says a word, he will babble the correct amount of syllables, he's getting a cadence to his voice--like before he would say mama with the same inflection. Now sometimes he increases the pitch so it sounds slightly different and not a monotone, which is great! He is doing really well for 1 year of hearing and I think in 2-3 yrs we won't notice much difference between him and his peers. Oh and I think we may try out the potty in about 6 mths. Starting to lay the foundation for him now, kind of hard when his comprehension isn't so high so relying on a lot of visual cues-mainly saying/signing potty when others go, letting him flush, trying to let him sit on the toilet a few times a day--which is a lot harder than one would think considerig Andrew screams at the bathroom to come in and if I let him in digs in the cats food/water/litterbox. But all in all, doing quite. Oh, he also goes to Louisiana Tech on October 26th for an evaluation by their team--basically from what I was told is he is in their program and they are going to gather info at this meeting to see where he is.

Aidan says hi!

New stuff

Aidan is learning quite a bit and trying to say some more words. He says milk very well-doesn't enunciate the k. He tries to say more and it sounds like maah(long and drawn out) but he is signing it at the same time so I know that is what he is attempting to say. I've heard Yea, and Yay a few times, not sure if they were planned or not though, but I have definitely heard the Y sound coming out a lot more. He is getting that H sound out a lot better, which apparantly is hard to do. He says Hot(sounds about like Hah, no T sound yet), He says, eye/I(not sure he is referring to either one but he will repeat it occasionally after I say EYE), he will also say Hi and wave, sometimes he will do that one right after me, but he is stubborn and only wants to do it when he wants to. Other times he will wave to the cars going down the street and I hear "HI" I wish I could get all of these on camera but he won't perform when he sees the camera ;) Oh he also tries to say Ball, he doesn't have the B sound yet so it sounds like Ahhl(not quite an L sound though, but close)
We are working on blowing every day and he still can't blow, doesn't seem to know how, but he can exhale very strongly, so we need to figure out how to go from a strong exhale to an actual blow. We were putting cotton balls on the table for him to blow across the table but he can't blow strongly enough to move them so we have changed to blowing kleenex's and he can move those by his strong exhale and he is very proud of that! We also have a lighter that we use to light candles and he loves trying to blow that out and is doing great with that.

The signing is going very well, he knows a ton of signs and can immitate most anything, but he has trouble connecting the sign to the object, I think that will progress a ton more soon enough. In the car we will sometimes sing/sign the alphabet, esp if we are waiting in carline for Alex, and Aidan will attempt to sign t with me, he does quite well, but he also makes a sound when I say the letters as well-he of course can't say the letter correctly, but he can make a little sound with it.
He does have other sound approximations but I can't think of them at the moment. We go to New Orleans again on the 9th for his programs to be increased so he will get a higher level of sound. Oh, I have noticed him respond some with just his left ear on. That is the one that was just activated so it is the ear that has had less stimulation. But I have taken the right ear off(without him knowing-just turned it off) and then called his name and he did look at me, I also said the word MOM and he parrotted back MOM, so he is hearing with it, just very low right now. I think had I said a word he didn't already know, I would have gotten less response out of him. Oh, and this was with his back turned to me, so he didn't read my lips and guess which word/sound I was saying. So that is good there.

Milk and quack quack

Aidan lately has been saying milk. It sounds more like MEAL(but not much enunciation, if any, on L). And then when we point to the duck in his book he will attempt to say quack quack. He doesn't get the Q, or the CK, sounds like wha wha, but you can obviously tell that is what he is saying. Oh and he said Maah for Molly the dog the other day as well!

Big leaps

Aidan has done really well the last few days.
He had speech yesterday and he said a few words right after the therapist did. They were playing with playdough and cutting it with a knife, he said "I" and made the correct mouth placement for F, although he didn't sound it out, she said Ball and he said "Awl", she said dough, he said "oo" so pretty good when he usually only does a few sounds. Who knows if he will say them again or if it was a one time deal, but he is definitely making progress. Aidan has also been saying "Awt" for hot-pretty close but doesn't have the H sound just yet, he also said "yea" a few times right after Alex did, I'm not sure if he got the Y sound in there or not, probably not, but I was in the other room so heard him from there. We usually sign and sing the alphabet a few times a day and Aidan is trying to immitate that and he hums a sound at each one, so although he can't sing ABC he can vocalize with it. He is signing a lot lately, he can copy most of them, he is watching Signing Time right now and is signing along with it, he has done uncle, grumy, silly, etc in the span of just a few minutes. We really love this series and have almost all of them, I think we are just missing maybe 5-6 of them, which will be going on the Christmas list :)

Oh and news on the school front--our ST hasn't mentioned yet about Tech, we were talking about it yesterday but I forgot to actually ask her if they would take him. However next week after I drop Alex off at school, we are going to have therapy in town b/c the therapist has to see 3 babies before she has to be in a meeting and so we are meeting them in town. We are either meeting at the church or Tech(where Aidan will get extra therapy hopefully). She is calling them to see if they can spare a therapy room for us to use that way we can kind of get him in the door, let him meet him and then talk about them working with him a few times a week.

Aidan will be going to preschool in the fall and I voiced my concerns to our ST about what kind of environment he would be in. I had been worried that they would put him with very low functioning special needs kids and I wasn't sure that would be the best learning environment for him. So I asked the ST about that and she said most likely he will either be in a regular class with other 3 yr olds and leave for speech or he will be with other high functioning special needs kids--like milk down syndrome, high functioning autism, other deaf/non verbal kids, etc. So that made me feel a lot better. Not that there would be anything wrong with him being exposed to lower functioning kids, it's good for kids to be around higher needs kids but I worried that the teachers would be too busy working with them since they would have greater needs and Aidan could get shafted and not have the best learning environment.

Activation of the left ear

Aidan has his left ear activated on August 3, 2009. Went quite well. He cried for a few minutes, tried to rub his head on my shoulder to knock it off. But as of today, he is doing really well. Doesn't pull it off as much as he did with the first one. Of course he isn't hearing very much out of it yet-so small that it is immeasurable. But other the course of several months we will increase the volume and he will be at it's max volume in about 9-12 mths. Over the next 4 weeks we will increase his different programs a slight bit and then go back to New Orleans on September 9th to get 4 more programs that we will work through.

Surgery went good

Aidan had his 2nd cochlear implant surgery on July 22nd, 2009. Everything went fine, he of course had a hellacious time coming out of anesthesia, just like last time. Except this time it was worse b/c he wouldn't open his eyes so he fought me for a long time to get done, he didn't know it was me-couldn't see/hear me. But he wasn't in any shape to get down, so we ended up getting them to give him a little morphine, which settled him down and then he slept most of the afternoon away. He was doing pretty good by 7pm, walking around, playing a little, even ate him a slice of pizza. The next day we went to his post op appt, he was glad to have the bandage removed. We then took him to the zoo and he had a great time.
At the aquarium, day before surgery:

Hospital gown:

Resting after surgery:

Day after surgery, ninja baby:

The day at the zoo:

The zoo has an animatronic dino exhibit, it is pretty neat:



Aidan walking to see the giraffes:

Sitting with the monkeys:

2nd Cochlear Implant Scheduled

We found out yesterday(June 1, 2009) that our insurance has approved Aidan to receive a 2nd cochlear implant. He is scheduled for surgery on June 22, 2009. It is all happening very fast but we are thankful he is getting the chance to hear out of both ears and are hoping it is just as much a success as the 1st one.

What's going on here

Aidan is doing extremely well with his implant. He still repeats mama but not sure he gets what it means just yet, he will try to repeat up(sounds like UH), uhoh(sounds like UhUh, and hot(ahhhh). So not perfect but very good. He usually repeats things after me although he has said hot/ah all on his on after getting hot food.

I spoke with our insurance yesterday and found out what the criteria is for Aidan to qualify for a 2nd implant and for them to pay for it. According to their list, he meets all criteria. We go to New Orleans to see the audiologist on the 22nd and will see the Dr as well. He has to see the Dr before they can send in preauthorization for the 2nd implant. If all goes well, and we have no reason to suspect it won't, then we should get approval within 1 mth after our April 22nd appt, so we could know something as early as the middle of May. If it is approved, they will probably schedule surgery sometime this summer.

What happens if insurance decides not to approve? I asked our audiologist this same question. And she told me that Cochlear(the company that puts out the implant) has an appeal team and they will go to bat for us to appeal the decision-I didn't ask how long that process takes as I figured it would be quite lengthy-so let's hope we don't have to go that route. Our audiologist did say that we have a very good chance at being approved, even more so since Medicaid paid for the first one, not them, so they are only paying for one.

Baby Chatter

Aidan has been saying mama all day today! He hasn't attached meaning to it yet, but everytime I say it, he mimics me. Or well at least 1/2 the time he will copy me. Hopefully everyone can see this video.

A word I didn't expect to hear

So the past week or so we have been working on Ling sounds with Aidan-aa, ee, mm, shh, ss, and oo. He loves Shh and turns the second I do it. We were doing mmm rather heavily today and yesterday. Today he kept going mmmm, mmm over and over! Great progress for him. And then he said it. He doesn't know what he said, but it is the word I have wanted to hear for the longest time. mmmuma. I of course know it isn't a word, he is just babbling finally. But hey, I'm going with it and soon enough it will hopefully be a full out Mama.

In other news, the speech therapist wants him to stop using sippy cups. She thinks his tongue isn't strong enough and we need to strenthen it by him learning to use straws. She explained that if he doesn't strengthen his tongue and learn to pull it back while drinking, he is going to have trouble with pronouncing certain syllables. So we are working on that. She also mentioned getting rid of the paci. Yea, I don't think that is happening. He needs that thing to go to sleep, so I am only letting him have it at nap/bedtime and he is doing good. I do plan on trying to get rid of it at 2, but I'll be ok if he still has it at 3. There is just no way I can take it away while Andrew still has his, so once his is gone, Aidan's will hopefully be as well.

The hearing world of Aidan

Aidan is in quite the mood lately. And not a good one. He had a checkup yesterday b/c I wanted to get his ears checked before Christmas. His ear infections are gone, thanfully. So that means his moodiness must be teeth. I don't blame him, they hurt. On the hearing front, he is doing pretty good. I don't know what he is hearing, but he definitely hears us. Occasionally he will turn when I say his name. I don't think he knows his name yet, he is just hearing me say it! I have noticed he turns a lot when I say words that start with A, maybe b/c I say his name a lot :) Today he was a bear and kept pulling off his processor. So I took it off and let him have a break. What do you know, he seemed to be even more irritable with it off. I put it on 1 hour later and he calmed down. So I think he is starting to recognize that sound is GOOD.

Aidan saw Santa

And he didn't care for it. I didn't take the other two boys since I didn't expect to see Santa. Hopefully soon they will all get to see him.

News on Aidan

We had Christy(ST) and Margaret(family plan lady) here today working with Aidan. Margaret works with all the deaf kids in 9(I think) parishes, so hearing loss is what she knows. She gave Christy and I both some good ideas on what to do with Aidan. We are putting him in the highchair with 1 person in front of him to sign/talk/play with him and the 2nd person sits behind him and introduces sounds(from speech and toys) to see if he will turn to it. He turned to the sound quite a bit so he is hearing. But there were times he didn't turn and that was mainly when he was too engaged with something else. So we need to work on getting him to ackowledge sounds while being occupied.

We do notice him responding to some stimulus in the everyday world, but the environment needs to be pretty quiet and the stimulus needs to be loud. We are of course running into the problem of having 3 children in the house. Alex is always running back and forth, yelling, talking, whatever. Andrew is either being held, fed, rocked to sleep, or crying. So it is a very busy environment for Aidan to learn in, and that is a problem. Don't think it can be remedied, short of sending the kids to live somewhere else, which won't be happening. So, I do think it will take a bit longer for Aidan to learn, but maybe by the time he is 2 he will be old enough to realize that the implant helps him and won't take it off as much. Only time will tell.

Christmas Fun

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas Card I made

Those that are family will receive one in the mail in a few weeks

Aidan hearing

Only sometimes does Aidan acknowledge a sound,here is a little video if him doing just that :) I know it is dark, but it gets the point across

The Special Mother

The Special Mother

I recently stumbbled across this inspirational story written by Erma Bombeck:

Most women become mothers by accident, some by choice, a few by social pressures and a couple by habit.

This year nearly 100,000 women will become mothers of handicapped children. Did you ever wonder how mothers of handicapped children are chosen?

Somehow I visualize God hovering over earth selecting his instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation. As He observes, He instruct His angels to make notes in a giant ledger.

“Armstrong, Beth; son. Patron saint…give her Gerard. He’s used to profanity.”

“Forrest, Marjorie; daughter. Patron saint, Cecelia.”

“Rutledge, Carrie; twins. Patron saint, Matthew.”

Finally He passes a name to an angel and smiles, “Give her a handicapped child.”

The angel is curious. “Why this one God? She’s so happy.”

“Exactly,” smiles God, “Could I give a handicapped child to a mother who does not know laughter? That would be cruel.”

“But has she patience?” asks the angel.

“I don’t want her to have too much patience or she will drown in a sea of self-pity and despair. Once the shock and resentment wears off, she’ll handle it.”

“I watched her today. She has that feeling of self and independence that is so rare and so necessary in a mother. You see, the child I’m going to give her has her own world. She has to make her live in her world and that’s not going to be easy.”

“But, Lord, I don’t think she even believes in you.” God smiles, “No matter, I can fix that. This one is perfect –she has just enough selfishness.” The angel gasps – “selfishness? Is that a virtue?”

God nods. “If she can’t separate herself from the child occasionally, she’ll never survive. Yes, here is a woman whom I will bless with a child less than perfect. She doesn’t realize it yet, but she is to be envied. She will never take for granted a “spoken word”. Nor, will she consider a “step” ordinary. When her child says “Momma” for the first time, she will be present at a miracle, and will know it!”

“I will permit her to see clearly the things I see…ignorance, cruelty, prejudice…and allow her to rise above them. She will never be alone. I will be at her side every minute every day of her life, because she is doing My work as surely as if she is here by My side.”

“And what about her Patron saint?” asks the angle, his pen poised in mid-air.

God smiles, “A mirror will suffice."

Aidan is finally walking

Aidan decided that 15 mths was time to start walking and is taking off. He is now officially walking more than he is crawling.

Playing baseball

Yesterday when we went outside, Aidan decided he would play a little ball.

Getting the ball up there:


Getting ready to bat:


And chasing after the ball:

New therapist

Aidan's new therapist stated today, she is great. She gave me some great tips to help Aidan localize sounds and we noticed today that he is reacting to sound! He blinks when there is a loud sound, so it is like he is startling, but not like a newborn startles. This is great news!

I went through the kids toyboxes to find the toys that make the most sound, zylophone, piano toy, rattles, hammer, and put them in a special place just for Aidan. We will be working as much as possible every day with him to help him localize sounds.

Stares

So I took Aidan with me to do the grocery shopping today. It was his first day to wear his implant in public. It felt so weird for everyone to be staring at him. Would have been much better had they just asked me what the heck that contraption on his ear was instead of walking with their head craned backwards. He did very well keeping it on though, the store is a nice distraction for him.

While checking out at the store I ran into a girl I went to high school with. I can't remember her name, heck not even sure I ever knew it. Anyway, she is also deaf and has a newborn daughter. I talked to her a few minutes-how neat that she can read lips and talk good enough for me to have a conversation with her. It was nice to see that even though she is deaf she still has a life. Something I worried about with Aidan-whether or not he would go on to have a family, go to college, all the typical adult things. Too bad I didn't think to get her email so we could continue talking, but I am sure I will see her again eventually.

Better and Better

Aidan is becoming much more accustomed to his implant processor as the days go by. Still not wearing it for long periods of time but we can get him to wear it for upwards of 20-30 mins before he starts really fighting us on putting it on. We even got an hour out of him yesterday and that was with him only pulling it off 2-3 times. We have come to the conclusion that if we take him outside and carry him around the yard, or pull him in the wagon, that he will leave it alone. We have bumped him up to the 2nd level and are on the 3rd volume of that level. No visible response to sound yet, but I think he does hear some b/c of the look on his face when I turn it on. Not sure how high of volume he may hear, but I think it is some.

New haircut

Took Aidan to get yet another haircut today. That boys hair grows so fast, but it is gorgeous. No more curls for now but I am sure they will be right back in a few months.

Before:


After:

And he is on

We had Aidan's activation today. Went pretty well. He does not like his equipment that goes on his head and pulls it over every minute or so. The audiologist put in 4 different levels for now. There are a total of 50 levels she will program into it over time. Each level has 9 levels of volume in it. So right now he is own the first level with volume at 6. Over the next few days we gradually go up to 9 and when we have been there for a while we go to the 2nd level and go through the 9 degrees of volume, then to the 3rd level, eventually getting to the 4th level with a volume of 9. After we reach that(within 3 weeks) we go back to the audiologist and she adds 4 more levels for us to work through. Eventually we will get through all 50 levels---each level gives him more and more hearing--I believe it is set at diffrent decibles and increases as we go up, but I am not 100% sure.

So right now he is hearing at the lowest frequency, meaning he really can't hear us right now. Mostly he is getting used to wearing the processer on his ear and stimulating his brain/ear to accept the new sounds. He is hearing something though as he cried as soon as the audiologist turned it on. He pouts/whines everytime I put it back on his head and turn it on. Hopefully he will stop pulling it off and get used to it soon. All in all, very encouraging.

Aidan playing on his new firetruck from Mimi:


What his implant actually looks like-a rare moment with him keeping it on:

New Activation Date

I finally was able to get the audiologist from Oschners Hospital on the phone today. We are now set up for an appointment on September 15th, so 10 days away. I am really looking forward to this day but I am also dreading it. This is the day we will find out if this is going to be successful for him-so it will either be a really happy day or a really really sad day. Overall, it will be an emotional day for all of us.

I did get his Dr's bill in today. In total, he has run up a bill of $55,000. That doesn't include the next several months of adjusting the implant to get it working right, the several years of therapy he will have, or the several years of Dr's appts that are sure to follow. Thank God for Medicaid or we would be screwed and he probably would never of had this opportunity at gaining some hearing abilities.

Damn Hurricane Gustav

SO it looks like Gustav will be hitting Monday and Tuesday and it is headed towards New Orleans. We were supposed to be headed down to New Orleans on Tuesday to get Aidan's implant activated. It doesn't look like we will be going, but we will find out for sure Monday night/Tuesday morning. It really sucks, I was really looking forward to this day and don't want to postpone it. I am hoping if we do have to cancel it that we can get in later that week or early the next week. Our luck we won't be able to get in for another several weeks, then I'll be really pissed.

So much new stuff

Aidan has finally started signing some. He signs eat, ball, cold(though I don't think he understands this one), and baby(not sure if he gets this one of not). It is great to see him finally connecting things together.

Aidan is now also getting tooth number 2 and 3 in. Although he is also grinding them together which I hate the sound of. Hopefully he stops doing that very soon.

Aidan is finally walking while holding onto my hand, but when I let go he will not go any more. He is still very unsure of it but I expect him to be walking by 15 mths. That gives him a month and a half to get a little more confidence.

He is also stacking blocks(and putting them back in the bucket). I love seeing him connect everything together and try to copy me. He also will pick up toys occasionally and throw them in the toy bucket, although he usually prefers to throw them out of the bucket :)

AIdan and ALex have a new brother!

We welcomed our 3rd baby boy into the family on August 18, 2008. Andrew John David was born at 8:09am weighing 8lbs 9oz and 21" long. He has a head full of brown hair and looks like his mama :) Not at all like the other 2 boys. Alex does ok with him, he could really care less lol. Aidan is a bit jealous and not quite sure what to make of him. I think it will get better in about a year when Andrew is mobile and can play.

A few pictures:

Finger paint

I took the kids outside to finger paint a few days ago. Aidan didn't really get it but I think he enjoyed himself.

A few pictures:





I decided to brave giving him his own plate a few days ago. Of course it was lasagna so that was a big mess. He really enjoyed it though.

Activation Day

We have scheduled Aidan's implant activation day for September 3, 2008. I cannot wait for it. Originally we didn't think I was going to be able to go with Edward, since I will be having a csection on August 18, but I think I will be healed enough to go. Even if I am not, I think I will push myself anyway. I may be in a lot of pain, but I don't want to miss that moment for anything. We haven't told family yet when the day is and might not if we don't have to. I can see everyone calling us all day that day to find out the news and if it doesn't work, it will be pretty hard on us. Some of our family don't seem to understand that this isn't 100% foolproof, it may not work at all. So everyone please pray that it works for him and he can finally hear on that day.

Current picture of Aidan's scar

For all wondering, Aidan's incision is healing quite nicely. Soon you won't even be able to see it. His hair is growing quickly and I think in 2-3 mths should cover the spot :)

This is the best picture I can get, I have to wait for him to be asleep before he will elt me get a picture as he loves having his picture taken and will cheese for the camera :)

Learning many new things

Aidan has been learning a lot of new things lately. He finally figured out how to drop the balls into his ball toy, he also picks up toys and puts them back in the toy bucket :) Of course he still enjoys throwing them out more. He has finally gotten his first tooth at 12.5 mths old, YAY! Now if only he would get some more. Edward is taking him down to New Orleans tommorow for a checkup. Kind of sucks b/c he will have to drive there tommorow night after working 6 hours, it is a 6 hr drive, so they won't get there until 11pm at the earliest. The appt is at 1:15pm and will most likely only take 20 mins tops--I believe they just want to make sure the incision is healing like it is supposed to, which it looks great to me, I'll try to get a picture when he wakes up.

Alex and I made cookies today, thay boy is loving to cook. He doesn't like to eat though, weird little boy. Aidan ate his cookie and enjoyed every minute of it. A few pictures to document his first chocolate chip cookie.

Not too scary looking

Aidan finally managed to pull the steristrips off of his incision today. So I got my first real look at what it looks like under there. Not as bad as I expected, but it does go up a little higher than I thought it would. Still a little swollen and it is bruised around the area. I think it is itching him just a bit as he keeps scratching at it.

Here are a few pictures of what it currently looks like:

Aidan's surgery

Aidan did pretty good for his surgery. He didn't come out of anesthesia happy at all, in fact, he cried for the first 5-6 hours off and on while trying to sleep. He is happy now and doesn't seem in too much pain. The incision isn't as big as I expected but it is a lot more swollen than I thought it would be. We have to go back for a checkup in 2 weeks I guess to make sure his body doesn't reject the implant. Then we will go back sometime in August, maybe beginning of September. I am going to add some pictures from the surgery so feel free to skip the last few that show the incision if you don't think you can handle a little blood.

In his hospital gown





Edward and Aidan sleeping after the surgery



Aidan is finally in a happy mood, but hates the bandage


Picture of the incision site, still covered with steristrips and will be until the fall off


You can kind of see how swollen that side of his head is

Aidan's 1st year

I finally got around to making Aidan's video of his first year. It seems like it was just yesterday when I took these pictures. Time with a baby goes by way too fast, we all need to remember to slow down and enjoy this time, we will never get it back.

Almost time

The time for Aidan's surgery is fast approaching(6 more days)and I am getting so nervous. It is so hard to watch them take your baby while you have to sit in a waiting room and pray that everything goes okay. And then to see them lying helpless in the hospital crib is even worse. I was so sick to my stomach last time and that was just for a cat scan. We will be going down on Sunday after Edward gets off work at 2pm and will hopefully be on our way back home by Tuesday afternoon. I will try and update everyone as I can but that all depends on if we have internet service there. Otherwise I will get my sister to update everyone.

Happy 1st Birthday Aidan!

I can't believe he is one already, time has gone by so fast.
12 mth stats:20 lbs 2 oz29.5"
He can sign eat, understands milk, mommy, daddy, and sleep. He can clap, wave bye bye, cruises the furniture, but is still afraid to let go and walk-maybe in a few months. No teeth for him yet-but I can see the 4 top ones under the gums.
He will be having his surgery on the 21st, so 9 more days.

Donation

If you would like to help our cause to get a 2nd implant funded for Aidan, feel free to donate here.

All about Aidan

Hi, I am Cassie. I am the mom of 2 boys with a 3rd boy on the way. Our soon to be middle child is Aidan, he will be one on July 12, 2008(tommorow!) Aidan was born with Auditory Neuropathy--a type of hearing loss that affects the nerves in the ears. After many tests he was diagnosed as having severe to profound hearing loss in both ears. He has never heard sound.

Aidan will be having surgery on July 21, 2008 to get a cochlear implant. Insurance only covers him getting one implant, so if it is fully successful, then we have a chance of him having 100% hearing in one ear--so an overal 50% hearing. But, it isn't likely to be 100% in one ear, probably more like 80%, could be worse, could be better, let's hope for better. We are hoping to get his other ear implanted within the next 2 years. Only downside? It is a 30, 000$ surgery, one in which we have no hopes of being able to pay for. But something that we would really like to have done so that he can gain more overall hearing and have a bigger chance at success--success in school, success in life.