Merry Christmas!

We had a GREAT Christmas this year!! We spent alot of time with our families and just relaxed! Santa brought Elli the presents she asked for and she was SO excited! Briggs enjoyed the wrapping paper and watching everyone else open their gifts. I tried to take the kids picture together in front of the tree but they would not sit still. This last picture tells it all... It was an all around great holiday!

Poser!

Briggs was cracking me up while Elli and I were doing our cookie thing. He LOVES balls and will play for hours with them. So anyway, he was REALLY into this soccer ball (if you click on the picture it will enlarge and then you can see all the drool all over his chest and shirt) and every time I'd get his attention he'd look up and pose for the camera with his beautiful smile. Oh I could just eat him! He is such a PUNKIN!!! I can't get enough of him!

Cookies for Santa!

This past Sunday Elli and I baked and decorated sugar cookies for Santa. Nick wanted to sample them of course (he's the cookie monster in our house) and Elli told him they were all for Santa. Nick assured her that Santa will not need ALL of them but that she better leave him 5 or 6 cookies!

MRI/CT

I received a call yesterday from Boys Town and Briggs MRI/CT has been scheduled for February 4th. This appointment is a milestone for us!! We learned that he would need to complete this step in order to receive cochlear implants back when he was only 2 months old and 7 more months felt like an eternity but of course time flew by and here we are with a date. We also knew that once his MRI/CT is complete, if everything checks out fine, then all the paperwork will go to insurance to await approval and we'll potentially be 1 month from surgery. Keep in mind that Nick and I found out there could be a potential hearing loss the day he was born, when he failed his newborn hearing screening. Of course we were told it was most likely equipment failure in the nursery or amniotic fluid in his ears from coming through the birth canal and of course I believed the professionals (Nick not so much, but I did) and no family history and Nick and I and Elli all hear so why wouldn't I believe them. As time has gone by REALLY fast I've just been so anxious to get him implanted so he can finally hear my voice!! That has been the hardest part for me! Boys Town informed us that Briggs is the youngest baby they've had that has been diagnosed, fitted with hearing aids AND found out the cause. SO I am very relieved to have the MRI/CT scheduled - it is the LAST step before surgery so this means we're getting SO close!! Briggs will need to be sedated and what I am most nervous about is him being hungry before it and me not being able to feed him, BUT we will get through it and I'll just pray he won't need to eat. We are to be at Children's Hospital at 8:30am and they will take him back and prep him for the anesthesia and his MRI and CT are scheduled for 10am. That will take about 45 minutes and then he'll be in recovery for about an hour. After he is released we take the scans and head over to Boys Town Hospital to consult with his surgeon. Briggs has Connexin 26 which has nothing to do with the anatomy of the ear or anything anatomy wise in the head so everything should check out fine. Please start praying though because I have been dreading this from the beginning. We've gone through so much and completed all the steps for his implants and everyone says he is a perfect candidate with it being the Connexin 26 but the MRI/CT is what makes that decision and they have to do it as close to surgery as possible so I just hate to think about possibly being let down when we're so close! I could have posted this later since we're about 7 weeks from February 4th but I was too excited!

Okay last post for today... I had to catch up!

Below is a picture of Briggs and his new play area... his crib! He's perfectly content sitting in there playing with toys and he's safe!

This is actually what Briggs was doing during our Christmas tree decorating. He was having a blast in his exersaucer. A BIG thank you to whoever invented that thing!!!

Christmas Tree!

This posting is a little out of order but I had to add it. We always put our tree up Thanksgiving weekend... sometimes sooner because I usually can't wait. Here is Elli helping me straighten out the branches. She looks enthused huh?

Here is Elli putting her Santa letter in the letter holder. The Santa letter story is in a previous posting.

Here is Elli and Briggs in front of the tree! Elli loved hanging the ornaments!
Here is another and I just love Elli's face. She really did have a blast with the tree!

Jesus is the reason for the season!

First of all... without Him we wouldn't have our two amazing kiddos!! Every day Elli talks about Christmas and I'm sure to remind her after answering her questions that Jesus birthday is the reason we have Christmas and all those presents Santa delivers are in celebration of Jesus birthday. It's so easy to get wrapped up in all the traditions and shopping etc. and I want my kids to always remember the real reason for the season! So I randomly ask her... "Elli, why do we celebrate Christmas?" and she yells out... "because it's Jesus birthday!!"

Elli had her 1st Christmas program at Church last night. Did I cry? Of course! There were about eighty 3 to 5 year olds and the Church was packed with parents and families. All the kids got lined up on the stage and then Elli found us and waved. I leaned over to Nick and reminded him that moments like this is why we have kids!! There was a craft festival before the program and Elli made a charm bracelet, ornaments and a candle votive holder. She had a great time!! After her program (which of course was priceless) we went to her favorite restaurant with both her grandpas' and grandmas'. Before her program Elli and I played beauty salon and we curled her hair and she even got to put a tiny bit of her Halloween glitter make-up on. I took our camera to Church but things were so busy so I'm glad I took some pictures at home.

Priceless!!!!

So Elli REALLY believes in Santa this year! Last year she definitely understood but was only
2 1/2. She wrote her letter to Santa Saturday evening and stuck it in the letter holder on our Christmas tree. First thing Sunday morning, when she woke up, she went running out to the tree... the letter was still there. She was SO disappointed and came to me and asked if Santa was going to come to her house this year. I told her he was VERY busy right now trying to collect all the letters and to check again in the morning (Monday morning). We went to church and out to eat at Applebee's and then came home to take a nap. We all laid down and Briggs woke up so I got up and then Nick got up and Elli was still sleeping. I told Nick about Elli and how sad she was that Santa didn't come for her letter so he took it out. About 20 minutes later I went down stairs to start some laundry and Elli came running downstairs with her letter holder and said, "mom, mom look Santa came for my letter!!! Please look in here to make sure it's really not there". The minute she woke up from that nap she ran right out to the tree to see if Santa came. The look on her face and the tone in her voice was priceless!!! Absolutely priceless!! It was so cute to see her and of course I made the biggest deal out of it and we danced and cheered. It was so fun!! Moments like those are a great reminder of why being a mommy is SO amazing!!! Every year we have Christmas Movie family night once a week. That night we watched Polar Express and her eyes were so wide, glued to the t.v. and as soon as it was over she asked if she could watch it again. Then she couldn't stop asking Santa questions. Oh to be a kid again!

Boys Town Appointments

Well we had another round of appointments at Boys Town last Wednesday. We started out with audiology where they tested him in the sound booth. To us it seemed like a waste of time (which of course I never said out loud) but apparently the audiologist thought the same thing because she kept reiterating that doing this test wasn't a waste of time because it's getting him familiar with the sound booth room and the "game" they're trying to teach him. Those of you who have a child with hearing loss know exactly what I'm talking about but those of you who do not... well here is an explanation...Once a child is of appropriate age (6 months and older) the audiologist likes to do a sound booth test. This test can see if a child responds to sounds louder than 90db (however the child has to understand the "game" and 6 months old is the youngest they try this). Nick held Briggs on his lap and an audiologist sat in front of him and another one was outside the room talking into a microphone. Anytime the audiologist says something the other one sitting in front of Briggs would point towards a light that was flashing off to his side. So once the baby learns the "game" they would look at the blinking light when they hear a sound - if they hear a sound. The audiologist said to us before we started that this first time is just getting him used to the booth and training his brain to look at the light when he hears a sound but she would be VERY surprised if he actually responded. Well they tried for about 2 or 3 minutes is all and then he was ready to get down and play and they were done. They also only tried it with the hearing aid in his left ear (we only have 1 hearing aid and we switch it from one ear to the other every other week). She said she would like to repeat it a few more times but they may never see a response. She said he's just too young and since he'll be implanted at 10 months he may not pick up on the game. Of course I asked the purpose of doing this and she said they like to have documented whether or not he responds to any sound before implanting since the implants take away any residual hearing that may be there. We do not have another sound booth appointment scheduled at this time.
Then we moved on to the speech/language evaluation appointment and this appointment was a requirement for Briggs implants. It was basically a talking session with a speech pathologist since Briggs isn't implanted and he's so young. She asked us if he is vocalizing and watched him play and that sort of thing. She said we will do this every 6 months for the next 3 years and then 1 time a year for a few years after that. She'll work with LPS and they'll set goals for him etc.
Then we saw Dr. Lusk (Briggs E.N.T. and surgeon for the cochlear implants). He checks him every 2 months to be sure there is no fluid in the ears and everything looks great. We talked to him some more about the surgery and Briggs ears looked great so that was good news!
Our 4th and final appointment was the most exciting... it was another device orientation and Nick and I chose a device for Briggs!!! I know it doesn't seem like that big of a deal but it's a VERY BIG deal and I've been doing so much research on the devices and it was great to get all our questions answered and agree on a device.
Our next round will be in 2 months (first week in February). Briggs will be 9 months old and he'll have an MRI and CT at Children's Hospital and then we'll head over to Boys Town to meet with Dr. Lusk and go over the MRI and CT results. If everything checks out fine with the MRI and CT then all paperwork will be sent to insurance and we'll patiently (yeah right) await approval (fingers crossed and lots of praying)!!! The approval process will take about a month and if they approve then his surgery will take place right away the first week of March. From what I understand though, if insurance denies you have to wait a certain amount of time before pre-authing again??? C.I. moms, correct me if I'm wrong please... I'm sure all insurance companies are different. We have Blue Cross Blue Shield and from what I hear they approve the surgery.
Until next time...