May 21st 2010 & now.

On May 21st 2010, 2 years ago today, we where given Savannahs Diagnosis. We were devastated. I remember this day like it was yesterday. Not only because we where worried & uncertain about her future but because we didn't know back then that she would be able to learn to speak. Our life changed instantly. But we realized that things could be worse, we loved her no matter what.We knew the journey would be a long one & that every day would be challenging trying to teach our daughter to listen & speak. But we where told by the time she was ready for School she would be talking like her peers. The early days where hard, all the appointments, the speech therapy, and the constant thought "Am i doing all i can for her."

Then the words started coming & we couldn't have been happier. It felt amazing to hear simply little words like "mama" come from her.

But we knew time would only tell to what extent she was really hearing with her hearing aides. Savannah at the time was not eligible for a Cochlear Implant because she had too much residual hearing in her good ear (mod/sev).
Even though at times i wished she was implanted, she then would show me how well she was doing & then i would be glad she wasn't. 

The last 2 years have been a rollercoaster of good & bad, i wouldn't have changed it, but today i still sit here writing with a heavy heart worrying about her near future. The biggest difference from 2 years ago to today is that she will speak just like everyone else, we just have to go through all of these hurdles first! And without the hurdles there really would be no journey.
Savannah has been doing amazing even though she is now hearing at a severe/profound, profound level.

Her expressive & receptive language is amazing & age equivilant but,

we wont know much more untill we see the ENT next week whether they will refer her to the CI clinic again or they will try grommets.There was some fluid present but a few weeks back the ENT was unsure if grommets where going to help.

 We have another hurdle to overcome, but Savannah is still doing great & is a trooper and we will continue to do everything we can for her.

We are so lucky that she is an amazing little girl  who smiles through it all.

Happy Mothers Day

I wanted to wish all the mums out there a "Happy Mothers Day"

I hope you all had an amazing day with your kids.

I  had an amazing day with my beautiful kids.

I truly am blessed with the four of them.

movies,pretzels & lots of snuggles on the couch! perfect!:)

i also got spoilt with some lovely handmade gifts from the heart!

I Love being a mum

B is for Butterfly

Today i took the kids to some Easter holiday activities in our local area. It was surprisingly a lovely afternoon. They had a butterfly tent where the kids where able to hold the butterfly's, then we headed over for some face painting & then Easter Bunny came greeted the kids with some chocolate.
The kids seem to enjoy these no fuss activities & so did i! it was easy & enjoyable.
Savannah was so excited about the butterfly's, she loved it. She also got 2 little butterflies on her arm by the face painter. She was stoked!

All afternoon she was talking about her butterflies....the only word myself or my mum could really understand was Butterfly...... But she knew exactly what she was talking about. She is so cute when she talks. :)

Happy 2nd Birthday!

It was my sweet baby girls 2nd birthday today! Cannot believe 2 years has gone by already! Couldnt be more thankful for such an amazing daughter! And what a 2 years its been! wouldnt change anything for the world!  Here are some pictures from her party today :)

Where is Ryder

I don't even know where to start anymore. As time moves on i should be feeling excited about Progresses we are having with Savannah. But it seems as time moves on I'm more &  more worried. Yesterday we finally had some hearing tests. The results where clearly showing a 10db drop in her mod/sev ear along the 2000 & 4000 freq. I have suspected some changes  in listening skills, comprehension & new language over the last 5 months. The trigger for me was the fact her language has really come to a halt. She was doing so well & now we haven't even been getting some of the easy words she used to say. I will admit, its becoming extremely disheartening.

The Audiologists have suggested to turn the volume up on her hearing aides as a solution ... BUT my main concern is, what if turning up the hearing aide is in fact distorting the quality of sounds she is hearing?

They also commented on the amount of Wax they had seen in her ears. So today i took it upon myself to ask for a quick sneaky appt with the ENT whilst we where at the school for playgroup. Luckily our ENT is awesome & said she was happy to clean out Savannahs ears! 

So she retrieved a very disgusting amount of wax & noticed Savannah has a double ear infection???? How on earth does a double ear infection go missed is beyond me! She is teething so it could be apart of that too?
So todays quick lesson was to get her ears REGULARLY checked for wax & other nasties!!

Straight onto antibiotics & what do you know, this afternoon Miss Savannah has been talking every ones ears off..Coincidence?? Maybe, but in the last few hours tonight this girl was listening & talking more than she has in the last few months! So maybe it was just some wax after all?

We are back to the ENT in 2 weeks & another round of Hearing tests as well so we will know more then! But for the moment I have strapped the FM on & we are going to work on some new words with her & it gives me some hope that this could only be a small issue & not a progressive hearing loss issue.

I don't even know where to start! its been so long since i have blogged, the time has literally just slipped out from under me! With Christmas, Summer vacation, my trip to NYC & then straight back into it with Kinders & School. To put it bluntly I'm exhausted already & its only feb!! LOL
Christmas was magical with my little family as always, was even better this year that the two older boys are starting to understand it more, Savannah was totally loving all the new toys & Ryder well he of course enjoyed the paper more than anything! LOL as always our kids got spoilt. Santa was cheeky leaving all those gifts ;)

Shortly after i left all my 4 babies with hubby for 10 days to visit my best friend who lives in New York. Had an absolute ball, the kid free time was awesome, but at the same time i missed them like crazy!!!

On my return we spent lots of time at the beach & the swimming pools with the kids, enjoying summer whilst it lasts! We didn't do alot of work with Savannah over the holiday break, i always feel guilty not doing it, but she enjoyed herself. We did see some things here & there from her, but we haven't had alot of "new words" for awhile. She does continuously babble all day long & never stops talking, but we cant understand her yet. As i said there are a few words here & there but not alot.

Savannah just recently started the Early Learning Program at her school which is she does for 3.5hrs twice a week. Shes not even 2 yet so i think that's plenty for her. She didn't do very well the first day i left her :( it was so hard, but i can understand because she has never been away from me since she was diagnosed. So the ELP program will be amazing for her! She gets better each session & hopefully it will help her language come along.

Because its been so busy in this house i missed my first ever hearing appt for her! It was meant to be a round of hearing tests too! I was shattered because we haven't had tests done in over 8mths & we really need to see whats going on. We couldn't get back in now untill late march & she has the ENT then as well.

We are slightly concerned that she isn't hearing as well as she has been. We have noticed she is relying on lipreading alot more & gets confused when we ask her things. Don't get me wrong she still does alot of things we ask, im just wondering if she struggles to hear what we are saying more. Hopefully when we do the hearing tests we can see whats going on.

 We are just cruising along with her & hoping that we hear some new words soon. With Savannahs 2nd birthday coming up this little Miss has really come into her own. She refuses to be dressed by me, she MUST pick her own clothes out...LOL lovely choice with the socks hahaha

We almost had a small breakthrough with toilet training, we actually arnt training her, but her older brother blake was toilet trained over christmas break & she figured she would have a go, she did well but didnt quite understand. And her personality is just amazing, she is so cute, cuddly & funny, but then she turns into a stubborn tantrum throwing nightmare..LOL the joys. but gotta love her ;)

Posting this link I found about the stem cell trial for hearing loss in kids, very interesting article & video :)
http://www.multivu.com/mnr/53686-cord-blood-childrens-memorial-hermann-fda-approved-stem-cells-hearing-loss