Everything Looks Great

Landon has just completed is latest checkup and has received a clean bill of health from the Dr. Moloney. He still has a small bit of swelling in the neck area, but it seems to be decreasing on a daily basis.

On another note, Landon began to belly crawl and sit up 2 days after surgery. I am astounded at his progress over the past 4 to 5 days. Last night while I watched LSU beat Flordia again, he was able to sit up own his own from a prone position. It is really exciting to see his progress...

Bouncing Back

It's amazing how fast these babies bounce back from surgery. Landon is pretty much back to his old self again. He does have a lot more separation anxiety - he won't go to anyone else but me right now. He is back to playing on the floor with all his toys - as long as I'm sitting right there with him. Of course the last time he was taken from me they cut his head open so I'm sure it's just a side effect of that. Every day it gets better so he'll be back to his friendly self before long. We gave him the tylenol with codeine the first two days for the pain and then just went to regular tylenol. So far today he hasn't needed anything for the pain - he's been happy and playing all day.
We have noticed a few things that have changed with him since the surgery. He no longer does the scooting on his head with his back arched. He crawls on his tummy with his head up. He also doesn't throw his head back like he did when you hold him. He is doing a lot better with his head control and sitting by himself. The surgery has definitely made a difference in his balance issues.

This is the day after surgery - one of his ears sticks out a little but the other one doesn't.

The first side they did.

The second side. You think they could have at least shaved the same amount. Oh well, it is already starting to grow back so it won't be long.

We're Home!

We just got back in from our stay in New Orleans. Landon was able to have his surgery yesterday - he still had a little fluid in the right ear but the doctor said it wasn't enough to need to cancel. It actually went a lot faster then we thought it would - he was only away from us for 4 hours. We got to pre-op at 6:15 and they took him to the OR at 7:30. At 8:30 we got the message that surgery had just started and at 10:30 Dr. Molony came out and said everything was done and the audiologist had just gone in to do the NRT testing. By 11:30 we were back in recovery with him. It took him most of the day to sleep off the anesthesia (and the small dose of morphine they gave him right after to help until the tylenol had kicked in) He would wake up, take a bottle, and then go right back to sleep. Around 10:00 last night he woke up wanting to play. He kept trying to roll over but couldn't because of the large bandage on his head. We went for his post-op this morning and the doctor took off the big bandage so he just has the tape strips over the incisions. We talked with the audiologist for a minute and she said they got full insertion of the electrodes on both sides and that everything tested perfectly. He was playing peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake in the office so he is pretty much back to his normal, happy self.

Back in the hotel following surgery - he ended up spending the day in a diaper and towel because he kept soaking through everything after all the IV fluids they gave him.

Leaving the hospital to come home

On the way to his post-op in front of the Cochlear Implant Awareness Month display. Louisiana finally does something to be proud of. They are the first state in the nation to declare October as Cochlear Implant Awareness Month. Landon was the first surgery done during this awareness month and the first simultaneous bilateral CI surgery done.

Keep your fingers crossed!!

We took Landon to the pediatrician for his pre-op today - his surgeon is on vacation this week. We had a little surprise - he has a slight ear infection. He started yesterday with a clear runny nose but seemed to be feeling fine so we were hoping it would go away on its own. They took his temp when we got to the doctors and it was 101 - while he is laughing and playing peek-a-boo with the nurse. His right ear was red with a little fluid so they put him on an antibiotic. They checked his white blood count and said it was normal. As of right now we are still on for surgery. I spoke with the nurse at the doctor's office and she said to go ahead as scheduled (as long as his fever doesn't go any higher). On Monday Dr. Molony would look at it and make a decision one way or the other if he can have the surgery. He hasn't had fever since we left the office this morning so hopefully it will clear up and we can go ahead with the surgery. I thought for sure when I told her there was fluid in his ear she would say we needed to reschedule but she just said we'll see on Monday morning what his ear looks like and as long as he isn't running fever he would probably have the surgery. Like we weren't stressed enough over the surgery now we have to worry if he is even going to have it or not or if we will have to go through all the worry again a few weeks from now.

Happy Birthday Landon!

One year ago today, I was on the way to the hospital to be induced for high blood pressure. By the time we got there, I was already in labor (contractions every 3 min) and had to have it stopped so they could get the blood pressure under control. When Landon arrived 5 hours later, we thought all the surprises were over. Boy were we wrong! Leaving the hospital with our third son, we never would have imagined his first year would have flown by so fast because of the numerous doctor visits, tests, and therapy visits. I'm sure the next few years will fly by with teaching him how to listen and speak. We only have a few more days of buzzing - although I have a feeling his brothers are not going to let us change his nickname. I thought today would be a good time to take a look back at his first year before looking forward to his new journey - to hearing and beyond.

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One year check-up

This first year has flown by. We went today for Landon's one-year-old check-up and shots. He couldn't get one of them - the one for chicken pox - because he isn't exactly one year. We had to go early because he had to have the next dose of the HIB and Prevnar before his surgery. He weighed in at 19 lbs 3 oz and is 29" long. We are having his birthday party this weekend at Nanny Tammy's house. It's going to be a "learning to listen" party. We figured it would be a good time with all his cousins around to explain to them about the implant and some of the things we'll be doing in therapy. It's the Baby Sesame Street party set so one of the games we are going to play instead of stick the nose on Elmo is stick the implant on Elmo's ear. Nanny came up with the idea to make shirts for all the kids to wear that have their name and then their name spelled out in sign language. They came out so cute. We'll have to take a picture of all the kids wearing them.

Therapy this week

We went for Landon's monthly speech therapy session Friday. He's doing well with most of his skills. We still need to work on the sitting, but he is doing much better than he was. He is able to ride in a cart at the store and sit in a high chair as long as they have buckles to help keep his balance. We are giving him until after the surgery to see if this is related to his hearing loss. I've talked to quite a few who have said their kids had trouble sitting until they received their implants so we are holding off until he gets his. If it doesn't improve after that then we'll be setting up some physical therapy for him. He actually performed a couple of his new tricks - clapped his hands and waved bye-bye. He didn't do the lizard tongue - we forgot about that one. We have a few things to work on - getting him to stack blocks instead of just knocking them down, and getting him to put the rings back on the stacker instead of just taking them off.
We got the official orders from the doctor for the surgery so it's set for Oct. 1 with a post-op Oct. 2. It didn't have a pre-op scheduled so I'm going to have to contact them about that. With Dr. Molony being out-of-town the week before I'm not sure if they will want to do it a week before surgery or just check him the morning of. Luckily he's only had one ear infection so far so hopefully it won't be a problem.
Landon cut his first tooth this week. He's been miserable getting it. He's been running fever and only wants to be held by mom. Normally he's just a very happy baby so he's definitely not been acting like himself. It looks like the fever broke the night before last so hopefully he'll be getting back to himself soon. Connor's doing well in kindergarten. We are 2 weeks ahead of schedule in math and phonics. He'd probably be farther if I would let him.