Hearing aids

 Today was a big day for Kelson.  He got his hearing aids!  We've been working toward this for a few months now and we were all pretty excited to get them.  Claire and I talked about it this morning and she wondered if they will hurt him and what tool will we use on them.  She also asked at dinner tonight if she had hearing aids when she was a baby. 

We headed to ECHO for our 8:30 appointment.  We spent time working with Miss Jean, the audiologist, learning how to care for the aids, change the batteries and about how sophisticated the aids are.  In our goody box we even got a childrens book about an elephant who has hearing aids. It sounds like Daddy & Claire are reading it right now. 

Kelson's aids are set to hear everything but an adult aid can be changed depending on the sound situation you are in.  Well, his can to, but they aren't.  He needs to learn speach and you can't rule anything out that might help him learn his speach.  It's a pretty technological little tool.  We will work with the audiologist and therapists on a regular basis to get them set to just the right settings for him. 

Kelson is only wearing his aids for short amounts of time right now.  He had them on for around 20 minutes this morning and then we put them in for a couple of hours tonight.  The didn't seem to bother him at all tonight.  We noticed quite a bit of feedback in his left ear but we'll work on that.  In a few days we will teach the sitter all the tricks and he can wear them during the day too. 

We're not confident that he is hearing more but my first thought is that yes, he is hearing more clearly now.  He has been smiling when he has them in, doesn't mess with them, and turns toward us when we are talking to him.  Only time will tell, but this was a big step toward conquering this auditory nueropathy. 

First Day of Preschool - a bit outdated

I made this shortly after Claire started pre-school and I still can't figure out how to print it, but at least I figured out how to share it on here!

 

January 13th update...in random order

 

I've got tons of pictures to upload but can't get blogger to let me do it.  Looks like the cell phone camera wins out again. 

 

I'll start by giving you a brief rundown of what's been going on since Thanksgiving and then tomorrow (hopefully) I'll have another Kelson exclusive for all of you!  We have had lots of appointments but tomorrow is a big one. 

 

Kelson loves being naked!  He's been that way a lot lately since he has a tendency to choke on his food or have a coughing fit and spit up ALL OVER!

Early last week Trever was gone before the kids got up and headed to Peoria to take his last big test.  Claire sent this picture to wish daddy good luck!  Now, he's one step closer to helping you invest your money!

We've had a few struggles with eating baby food, but the kid LOVES ice cream!  

Claire's idea of a fun mommy daughter date is getting groceries.  Thank goodness for the free horse at meijer!  That's all she needs as a reward for being a good shopper!

Our whole house has been sick since Thanksgiving.  I took this picture because Kelson was finally starting to feel better.  He's still got one heck of a cough, but SO much better!

On Christmas Day Kelson turned 8 months old.  He's babbling, rolling back and forth, reaching for toys, likes to play peek-a-boo and sooooo big and get up 2-3 times a night to eat and primarily snuggle.  

December 28th is a special day around here since there are 2 birthdays.  Mom & Trever share a birthday but Claire didn't think it was fair to share a cake so we had two different desserts!

We also had our first trip to Immediate Care the weekend before Christmas.  Claire had a little pink eye going on and after a LONG wait we finally got some drops so we could start celebrating!

Claire likes to watch the letter game with me.  One night she walked up to the tv and started touching the letters.  She was "helping that lady out" and pretending to be Vanna.

Kelson licking his first beater.

Kelson keeps a close eye on his sister.  Sometimes his eyes light up when she walks in to the room and sometimes he cringes.  

An attempt at a Christmas card picture. 

Choices

We were prepared to make lots of choices as parents.  Choosing a name.  Choosing a babysitter.  Choosing their first show pig and heifer.  Choosing where they go to college...well I guess there really is only one choice there.  But choosing the color of your kids first hearing aid..that's not something I ever expected to do. 

I mean, really, how do you make that decision.  What color is he going to like in 3-5 years?  Do you pick one that will blend in with his skin and hair?  Do you pick a color that is going to stand out?  Do you pick purple because that's what his sister would pick if she was getting hearing aids? 

If you want to cast your vote, you can check out your choices here.

While Trever is off choosing which suit to buy for his work trip next week, I'll be pondering be pondering beige or blue.

6 months, 7 months and a trip to the booth

I know. I know.  It's been a while.  Back off and catch up with me.   



 

A little over a month ago, Kelson turned 6 months old.  He weighed in at around 12 pounds 4 ounces if my memory serves me.  He was finally on the charts for height but is still lagging behind in the weight category.  We also started him on rice cereal and have slowly been introducing other vegetables.  He's not a big fan.  

The week after Kelson's 6 month check up, we headed to Carle for his LAST post-op appointment with the surgeon.  This time we saw Dr. Bowtie instead of the surgeon that fixed Kelson's hernia.  But, the good news is we're done going back to Peds Specialty!  One less appointment to go to!

Since then we've decorated for Christmas

Celebrated Kelson's first Thanksgiving - not very photogenic that day and not a fan of the mashed taters either.

Let Claire try her hand at feeding him. 

Finished out the football season with an awesome day to tailgate.

Claire learned to eat ice cream from the carton.

Claire got a fancy hairbow from Aunt Kyla & fuzzy boots from Aunt Ria for Halloween. 



And before we knew it Kelson was turning 7 months old!!!

Today we started a new set of appointments that will keep us on the road to Champaign for the next several weeks.  Kelson had his first trip to "the booth".  "The booth" is the soundproof room at Carle ECHO where Kelson will go 2-3 times a week until the audiologist can find just exactly what his level of hearing loss is.  We had a good first appointment today but she determined that his right eardrum was not as flexible as it should be.  He's had a cold for a while so she figured he had some fluid in his ear and suggested that we head to see the doctor just to be on the safe side.  So, off to see Dr. Austman he went.  She said there was some fluid on that ear but it wasn't pink so not much she could do.  Pretty much the answer we expected..  But, if it's still an issue on Monday it could effect his tests.  He goes back in the booth on Monday and again on Wednesday next week.  He weighed 14 pounds 8 ounces today at the dr. 

 

At 7 months old Kelson is:

Rolling back and forth

Smiling up a storm

Getting up at least once, sometimes 2-3 times a night

Wants to be held all-the-time

Chatters and blows raspberries

is not a big fan of baby food

drools a lot

does not like having a wet or dirty diaper

 



A Blessing for Kelson

On April 26^th I got to see my son for the first time after his helicopter ride to Urbana. I was excited to see him and Trever since I’d been away for both of them for about 24 hours, recovering from the C-Section. Shortly after I saw Kelson, Trever and I went back to our room to decompress and talk for the first time face to face, without an audience, since our world had been turned upside down the day before. At this point he told me he wanted to have Kelson baptized.

I was thoroughly against it. I was not giving up on my son. I felt that if we have him baptized we were giving God permission to take him to heaven and I wasn’t about to quit fighting for him. Up until this point everyone had told me it was ok to be scared and tried to make me feel like things were not going to be ok. I was calm and never doubted God’s intentions for Kelson. I knew he would be fine. The only time I really questioned if Kelson would be fine was the instant that Trever mentioned baptism to me. However, that is when I learned the real meaning of being baptized.

I don’t think I’ll ever forget his baptism. I remember sitting there in my wheelchair and watching Pastor Liz get a travel size bottle of baptismal water out of her purse. Not your typical baptism. I remember the NICU staff letting everyone that was there visiting at the time come back to his isolette even though only 4 of us were allowed back there at a time. I remember everyone sobbing, and feeling the real reason we were doing this was because he wasn’t going to survive to have a church baptism. And as Pastor Liz did the baptism, I remember feeling a huge sense of relief wash over me. She prayed for him, but she also prayed with me. At that point, there was not a doubt in my mind that Kelson had God on his side.

Before Claire was baptized, we took a little “class” with Pastor Liz. I remember having several conversations about people having a baby baptized and then never seeing the child in church again. We discussed the importance of not only the family raising the child in a Christian lifestyle but the idea that the congregation was making a commitment to support the child in his/her Christian life. Because Kelson did not have the commitment of his church family on April 26^th we knew we wanted to have a “church baptism”. And last Sunday was the day.

Our church does not believe in being baptized twice so we couldn’t really “Re-baptize” him. We are also in the process of finding a new church home in our new community and felt like asking the congregation at our old church to make a commitment to Kelson was being kind of hypocritical. But Pastor Liz had the right idea. She did a very nice, very simple, blessing for Kelson and for our family as we start the next leg of our journey. She anointed Kelson. She said just the right things. And we were able to share our little miracle with some of the most instrumental people on our team. Both the Piper City United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church have supported us spiritually and financially, helped us move, fed our friends, and stalked our blog for almost 6 months now. And for that, we are beyond thankful.

Yesterday was, in a way, just a symbolic gesture. But, it was also a glimpse back at how far we have come in the last few months and a stepping stone in to the next leg of our journey as a family. We are grateful for the church family that we’re leaving behind in Piper City and we are excited to find our perfect fit in our new church family in LeRoy.

5 months plus

 A friend recently sent an e-mail that discussed using the word "busy" when someone asks how things are going and it has continued to pop in my mind over the last few days.  Several people continue to ask "when are you going to update the blog?" or tell us "we're going through Kelson withdrawls".  So, instead of using the word busy as an excuse to why we haven't blogged, I'm going to tell you that blogging is not a priortiy these days.  We are living life.  Finding our normal.  Making our house a home.  Trying to be the best we can be at the careers we have chosen and raise two semi-well behaved, somewhat polite kids while attempting to keep them fed and bathed on a regular basis. 

So, what have we been up to since month 5....

Kelson has been growing like crazy!  He's starting to eat us out of house and home and we're anxiously awaiting the ok from Dr. A to give him some "real" food.  He has speech therapy on Wednesdays and physical therapy every other week.  He enjoys chewing on his hands, smiling all the time, and is quite the wiggle worm.  Kelson was 11 pounds 3 ounces at his 5 month check up. 

What else has been going on around these parts since our last entry?   We've had a couple weeks off from football games but filled them with other outings.  Last weekend we made our maiden voyage to Curtis Orchard with Trever's sister, Kyla and her two kids.  Everyone enjoyed themselves and we came home with pumpkins and apple fritters.  The kids really enjoyed playing together, running and getting muddy.  Kelson was a good sport through most of it. 

 After the orchard we headed to Rantoul to celebrate with one of our favorite 2 year olds.  Hunter had a construction themed party and all of our kids enjoyed playing with his toys. 

 Yesterday we lounged around the house and worked on little projects around the house before heading to Alex & Theo's house for a hog roast.  We enjoyed catching up with some Piper City friends and introducing many of them to Kelson for the first time.  Claire really enjoyed playing with Alex and taking a ride on his 4-wheeler. 

I caught this picture this morning before church.  Claire loves to hold her little brother...for short amounts of time...and Kelson humors her...sometimes.  They were both in great spirits this morning and it shows here. 

I also have a few prayer requests to share with our faithful blog followers.  Before our time in the NICU I probably couldn't have named a single person that I knew well that had been through a NICU or pediatric hospital stay of their own.  Since that time it's like premie and sick babies have been the theme. 

I want to share my friend Lydia's blog over at Corn Fed Kansan.  Her little girl, Lorena, was born around 28 weeks gestation and wasn't due until around December 1st (I think my stats are right).  But, she's a little fighter and doing great according to her mommy's blog.  One of the hardest parts for this family is that they live 2 hours from the hospital and don't get to visit as often as they would like.  Please keep them in your prayers.

Also, prayers would be appreciate for little Carter who had a very rough start with a diagnois of Cystic Fibrosis and had a large portion of his intestines removed shortly after birth.  I believe that his mommy & daddy got to take him home this weekend.

...for Gabrielle who was suppose to be born around Thanksgiving in Arizona but decided to make her appearance while in Illinois visiting. 

...and finally for Laia who at about 10 days old has been fighting a fever for a few days and took an abulance ride to Peoria. 

We know that all of you have prayed for us and we have truly seen the miracles that God can do!  Please pray for our friends that they may see those same miracles in their little ones.