Another Learning Experience!

All the cousins at the City Museum!


Heading to Six Flags!

Having fun at the museum! Our trip is just starting!

I'm happy no matter what!

It's been awhile..I've got some updating to do! I'll start with our family vacation last weekend to St. Louis. It was fun, but very, very HOT! We began the trip by stopping at the City Museum in downtown St. Louis. It is an old warehouse that a man has converted to a museum with all of the cities "junk" or "artifacts". It has hidden slides and tunnels and lots of stuff to climb in. The kids had fun! Six Flags was on the agenda for Saturday and even though it was hot we all had fun riding the roller coasters and water rides. On Sunday we hit the Hurricane Harbor waterpark connected to Six Flags and stayed cool by staying wet. The waterslides were a blast! Alayna was a trooper the entire time! Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa she didn't stay out in the heat all day. They took her back to the motel to relax in the air conditioning. We were very grateful. On Monday, we all toured the Anheuser-Busch headquarters. It was very educational for the adults and the kids liked the horses. Dana enjoyed the complimentary beverages at the end! It was a great trip!

We headed to Peoria this past Tuesday for Alayna's vision and ABR hearing test. We take her to the Illinois Eye Center outside of Peoria to Dr. Vahey. Her vision seems to be heading in the right direction. Everything looks good so far, she is just "visually immature" according to the doctor. That makes sense though. She is delayed in about every other aspect, so being delayed visually isn't really a surprise. Plus, it goes along with her hearing. We return in 6 months and they will dilate her eyes at that time to check them on the inside. We'll keep you posted.

It was a challenge to keep Alayna awake most of the trip! We had to do this because the ABR was a "sleep deprivation" test where she wasn't going to be sedated. We let her take a 25 minute snooze on the way down and then after that we were literally in her face, shaking toys, tickling her feet, holding her, and even prying her eye lids open at one point! Big sis, Lexi, went along with us and she was a big help. We all got to laughing at Alayna. Her head was just bobbing back and forth because she was so tired.

This test was done at St. Francis Medical Center. Thankfully, she fell right asleep in the room as the audiologist was attaching the probes to her forehead, behind each ear, and shoulder. It was another learning experience! Again, I can't tell you all how much we've learned so far through this adventure and I know we aren't done yet! She slept peacefully in her carrier for an hour. It took that long for the audiologist to test her in all frequencies and gather the data on the computer. We stayed in the room the entire time and it really was a piece of cake...this time! I was saying a little prayer to God asking for assistance in keeping her asleep so the test would go quickly and we could go home. At that time I glanced to my left and on the wall was hanging a cross with Jesus nailed to it. How many hospital rooms have that in them? You don't see it very often, but I knew God was watching over us.

The test was kind of inconclusive. Or maybe I should say just not definitive yet. Alayna does show some hearing loss, we just don't know at what level. It looks to be mild, or at least we pray it is, but they want to test her again in 1 month. In her right ear, her ear canal was covered nearly 75% with wax. So, it's hard for sound to get through. She did better on the high pitch frequencies which the sounds like "s", "th", and "f" fall into. We are the most worried about the low frequencies which contain the sounds "m", "p" and "d." Honestly, I didn't go into the test thinking we'd get a clear bill of health. Alayna is more than likely going to need hearing aids and I'm coming to terms with that. I just want her to be able to hear all sounds. It's just not an easy thing to accept that your child can't hear everything. Hearing aids come with challenges and expense, but it may be a necessity that we have to overcome. We head down there in 1 month and we'll know for sure then what the next step is. I'll keep you posted.

Hearing and vision are ultimately tied together. It affects Alayna's ability to track objects, respond to people's voices, respond to loud sounds, and being able to turn her head in the direction a sound is coming. If she ends up with hearing aids, I really hope we see a big difference with her alertness and eagerness to engage in "play." She is so laid back right now and could really care less to watch a rattle. It may be because she really can't hear it's noise. To take care of the wax in her ears, we stopped at the Pediatric Group on our way home and the doctor cleaned it out. We've got some drops to use for a few days and we hope that helps. She just very waxy ears.....what can you do!? We'll definitely have them cleaned out prior to going back for the other ABR test too!

Overall, she is doing great. We are still working on rolling over and she is close, but just not strong enough to do it on her own. Her smile still melts my heart and her giggle every now and then is so cute. She is so loveable and I can't help the fact that I want to kiss her all day. You could just eat her up! I go back to work in 1 week. Even though I'm ready because I haven't worked for nearly 7 months, I'll miss the time we spend together during the day. She is going to a babysitter though who is very excited to get her and she knows all about special needs kids. Alayna will be in good hands.