Bye, Bye

So earlier today while I was at work I got this e-mail from my Mom:

"Tanna, your dad was just leaving and he was waving and saying bye bye to the babies... all the sudden C waves right at him and looked and said "bye bye" and waved again! It was plain as day! I've never heard him actually say bye bye and know he knew what it meant, have you??? I can tell he did!"

C has had his CI since March 24, so he is considered 4 months old in hearing. He now says Mumma and Bye Bye!!


Much Love,

Tanna

Thanksgiving Thursday, And Other Notes...

Here is my second post for Thanksgiving Thursday but before I begin I want to catch you all up on the results from Colton's CT scan.

Sorry I am just now posting on the results but I just now have some free time to post. We got his results on Tuesday and we got great news. C's ears look great, he had no fluid, no scar tissue and nothing that would prevent the Cochlear implant from working. I asked the Dr. if his ears look so good, what caused his hearing loss? The Dr said since hearing loss doesn't run in our families he has no idea what the cause. It could have been caused in the womb, him being born premature, from the vent, from the blood transfusions or any of the med's that he was given to keep him alive. Even without knowing what caused the hearing loss I would have done it all again to have him here with me now healthy and happy.
We scheduled his surgery for Feb. 4th and I can't wait! They will only put one implant in one ear for now and then in 6 months to a year later they will do the second implant for the other ear. It should be an outpatient surgery, so if all goes well he will be home by that night. The Dr. said he should be in bandies for about 4 days and then 10 days after the surgery they will turn the implant on.
Tomorrow I will be meeting with the Dr. who will be mapping(programing) the implant and picking out which implant we are going to go with. Once I post this update I will be doing a little research on the different implants, so when I go in tomorrow I look like I know what I am talking about: )
I have high hopes for C to hear once he has the surgery. It will not be an easy process but it will be worth it when I hear him say his first word.
There is a blog(The Lawrence Triplets)that I follow regularly and the author is the mother of a set of BBB triplets. One of her precious sons also has profound hearing loss and has had the Cochlear implant surgery. This brave little boy has been such an inspiration to me. If you have time you should stop by her blog and see how amazing the Cochlear implant is(it doesn't help that her little boy is VERY smart).

Thanksgiving Thursday:
1) Great Friends!!!
2) Our Family Disney Vacation is only 46 days away.
3) C's good CT results
4) The start of American Idol
5) Daddy teaching D a new word "Apple"
6) I am off tomorrow
7) Tomorrow is Payday
8) My brother started his new job this week
9) Hubby's 85 year old Grandpa had knee surgery this week and he is home doing great.
10)God's Love

PS. Tomorrow the babies will also be having their 18 month check up so I will try to post ASAP to let you know how that went.

Much Love,

Tanna

The Kindness of Strangers

On Thursday night my Hubby and I felt brave so we took the babies to Outback to eat dinner. I admit I was worried about taking them to eat at such a nice place but they did great(well right up until the end of the meal). As we were being taken to our table we did get a few looks of fear from fellow patrons scared that we would be seated next to them. After we were settled at our table the people sitting in our area started asking questions about the triplets.
When the babies were younger I could prevent most questioning from curious on lookers by avoiding eye contact and acting like I didn't hear them but now that the babies are older they tend to stare and wave at everyone they see, so it's making it a bit more difficult to curb the questions. Really I don't mind talking about the babies, it is my favorite subject, but at times I would like to run my errands with out getting the 5th degree.
Luckily that night I was in a talkative mood so I didn't mind the questioning:
Are they triplets?
Two boys and a girl?
Do they run in your family?
Did you use fertility drugs?
Are the identical or fraternal?
How do you do it?
Do you have a lot of help?
Are you done having babies?
Those are just some of my favorites.
There were two ladies sitting to the left of us that were very friendly and C was really flirting with them. After their meal was over one of the ladies leaned over grabbed my hand and put something in it. She said " I am so proud of you and your family, Merry Christmas". Then she walked away, I looked down into my hand and there was $40. WHAT she gave us $40. I couldn't believe it. I was dumbfounded. I didn't know what to do and I admit my face was really red. We have plenty of money but over the last month we have been really stressed with Christmas being next week and C's up coming Cochlear implant surgery. This wonderful lady helped to reopen my eyes, that God is everywhere and he worked through her to release some of our stress.

In other news we went back to the Audiologist to schedule for C's Cochlear implant surgery or that is what I thought but before we can schedule the surgery he has to have some more tests run. On Jan 7th he will be getting a CAT scan to make sure he has all the working parts of the ear. Once they prove he does then we can schedule the surgery. From what the Dr said it looks like he will be having the surgery towards the end of January. I am so ready to have him in the implant, have it working and C hearing but I know it won't be that easy. Once he has the surgery the Dr will let the implant heal for about 10 days then they turn it on. After that C will have to learn to hear through therapy. Before I had C I took my hearing for granted. I try to put myself in his shoes to feel what it must be like to not hear anything. Some days it still hits me that he can't hear and that I have a deaf child. Please pray that this process is as easy and painless as possible.

Much Love
Tanna

"And the Stockings were hung by the Chimney with care..."

And then Momma barricaded the stocking so her 3 little monkeys could not destroy them.

I have finally decorated the house for the holidays. As you can see by the pictures I have to block EVERYTHING off to keep them out.

The main culprit is D. She can get into everything.
D has figured how to get in and out of her baby bed. When she wants to, she can climb over the security gate. The other day I looked over and D was on top of the dinning room table just about to stand up. That girl is going to be the death of me. I don't know what to do to keep her from climbing and getting into everything. My Mom keeps the babies for me during the day and she has a baby fence that goes around 3/4ths of her living room and this is to keep D out of everything. Really the fence doesn't stop her they just slow her down. Beside the little toot getting into everything she is talking up a storm. Her favorite words right now are Santa, Clock, Pretty, Up, and What's that. Her favorite sentence is "No, no hot". Which she uses on her bothers to get them to not touch her toys. She is too smart for her own good.
L is doing really good he doesn't say as much as his sister but now when he sees Santa he says He, He, He; which is suppose to be Ho, Ho, Ho. He is a little confused but it is really cute. At this time L may be on Santa's naughty list due to his need to bit his brother and sister. I have tried about everything to get him to stop but nothing seems to work. I hope this is just a stage he is going through but only time will tell.
Big boy C is also doing really well. C has profound hearing loss and in testing we found that he can only hear low loud tones, so in day to day life he can't hear anything. He will be having his Cochlear implant surgery next month. I am not sure of the exact day yet but we go to the Dr on the 16th of Dec to schedule everything. We have high hopes that this surgery will help him hear. To what amount he will hear, I am unsure but the Dr's have high hopes that he should hear at about 80%. He is doing great in his development. He has learned that if we aren't looking at him he need to vocally make a noise to get our attention. He has also learned a few signs. He signs ball, more, cracker, bye bye, hi, and come here. I love seeing him sign, it like hearing him say his first word. L and D are also learning signs but since they can hear, they have picked up the signs a little faster.
The babies are now 17 months old and I don't know were time has flown. L and C are cutting 4 new teeth, two on top and two on bottom. That puts their total up to 16 teeth. D is bringing up the rear with 8 teeth but she is in the process of cutting her jaw teeth so that brings her total to 12.
Well my Husband has taken the boys for the day to watch football at a friend’s house so D and I are off to go Christmas shopping. I am running out of time Eeeeekkkkk.

Have a great weekend!!

Much Love
Tanna