Hey there sister girl!

I haven't posted much about the heart disorder that was found in Landri's last surgery.   I will post more information on that in future posts. Since this is a genetic disorder Halle had to go for an EKG today as well.  This process has really made me appreciate even more the bond that they will always share as sisters - so blessed!  Here are just a few of my favorite "sisterhood" pics........enjoy!

               Birthday!

I got your back!

Two peas in a pod!!

Countdown to Sound!

Since Landri's surgery last month many people have asked us...."so can she hear?".  Not yet!  The University of Iowa Hospital waits one month from surgery to turn on the implant to allow for healing of the incision sight and the swelling to go down.  We have been counting down the days!  Landri's implant will be activated on November 23rd - 3 days before her first birthday!  We are very excited!  At this appointment they will give us the external pieces that Landri will wear to make her implant work.  They turn the implant on slowly over a series of appointments called mappings.  Landri's brain has never heard sound so the audiologists will slowly increase the sounds she hears over a series of appointments.  We have been told that at the first appointment she will likely not respond to much until her brain starts to make sense of the new sound. It is similar to how a newborn tunes most everything out because nothing makes sense at first.  We are so excited for this journey to begin!

Please click on this link for a super short and simple video explaining how the implant works.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmNpP2fr57A

Landri's implant will look like this.  It is the new Cochlear Nucleus 5 sound processor.  She will be the first child at the University of Iowa with this new technology.  We ordered one white and one chocolate brown with fashionable pink covers of course!  Cochlear Implants are not a cure for deafness.  When Landri has this on she will have access to sound.  When it is off - when she is swimming, bathing, sleeping  - she will still be completely deaf and hear nothing. 

Through this journey we have had the honor of meeting some wonderful and brilliant families.  We have been able to share with them their "activation victories" and watch videos of the children saying their first words.  I want to share some of these videos on my blog to give us all inspiration.   Since I am still a newbie blogger I first need to figure out how to upload the video files.  Give me a few days!  Seriously.....there are days when the whole thing seems surreal that we have a deaf child.  Then in the same thought it seems completely insane that with the wonders of technology our completely deaf child will have access to sound.  I can hardly wrap my mind around it at times.  We sort of start to lose touch of what it is like to have a hearing one year old around.  We are so used to getting right in front of Landri to get her attention, using our hands and gesturing, and working so hard to get her attention so that she is part of everything that is going on.  I am excited for her to share in the laughter of our family, hear her sister sing the songs that she has made up just for her (Halle made her a song about a cat and porkchop - need I say more - it's a must hear!), and even to get woke up by the barking dogs.  It all makes my heart smile.  Sooo....start the countdown and we will keep you posted!

IOWA ELITE CHEER - Go Halle Go!

Halle had her 2nd Cheer Competition today!!  We had a great time today watching Halle and all the Iowa Elite Cheer teams perform!  This is Halle's first year of cheer and our whole family is loving it!  We are lucky to have such a great squad with awesome kids and fun families!  When they performed today I don't think I have ever seen them do their routine better!  They aced it!  Good job Halle!  We are so proud of you! Enjoy the pics!

Happy Halloween in Pictures!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS!!

Pumpkin Farm Times Two

We took two trips to the Pumpkin Farm this year!  The first time was with Halle and her friend while Daddy and Landri stayed home recooping from surgery.  We are so lucky to have an awesome pumpkin farm here with animlas to feed, a couple haunted houses, a huge corn maze, pig races, hay to jump in, and a ton more!  The girls had a blast running around the farm and we topped off the day with Halle picking out a 25 pound pumpkin!  "Isn't this place awesome??!!" was Halle's theme for the day! The pic is of her and her friend Chloe "peacing out". :-)  Loved it!

The second trip was our whole family on an evening trip to the farm sponsored by the AEAs in our area for the families of deaf and hard of hearing kids.  It was a cold rainy night, but they had a nice warm party room where we ate dinner and played games.  Of course....do you ever realize that it is cold outside when you are 8?  never!  When we very first got there Landri's Teacher of the Deaf snatched Landri out of our arms to introduce her to everyone so Greg, Halle and I took the time to run around the farm and had so much fun even in the cold.  Halle made a buddy there and they went in the haunted house like 1000 times.  The best part was that we got to connect with families in our area that have already been in our shoes.  A few of them were families that I called right after learning of Landri's deafness so that they could tell me "everything will be okay".  It was so great to meet them and their wonderful kids in person.  What an awesome new family we have created around us!!  Very cool!

We have a very busy week to come....Halle has dress up days everyday at school for Red Ribbon Week, Marion is in the football playoffs, Halloween, and Halle's 2nd Cheer Competition.  Go Go Go!!  Thank goodness everyone is fairly healthy and as far as I know....only Landri's Teach of the Deaf Therapy appt, but NO doctors!  Wooooo hooooo!! 

In the days to come I will post more on how Landri's implant will work and hopefully let y'all know her activation date which is when they will turn her implant on and she will hear sound for the first time!  Then we can all start a countdown!

On a very very side note...Amber...the apple crisp rocked....thanks so much!

Peace out!

Celebrating Surgery with a Cheeto

Last Friday Landri had her second Cochlear Implant surgery!  We are so very happy to report that Landri's left ear had a very successful surgery.  It took only about 3 hours and was "text book".  They bring in a team from electrophysiology to test the implant during surgery and her auditory nerve responded!! This is great news because until this we had never had confirmation that Landri had a working auditory nerve.  Woooo hoooo......she does!  Here is a picture of Landri celebrating at the hospital with her favorite snack.....a cheeto.....which makes perfect sense because Halle's first word was actually "cheeto". :-) 

We did have one surprise during surgery.  While in post op they noticed an abnormality in how Landris heart was beating on the monitor.  That led to an EKG and meeting with their Pediatric Cardiologist within hours of surgery.  It was determined that Landri has a heart abnormality called Long QT disorder. We are now in the process of determining which strain of the disorder she has and also since it is genetic...who else in our family has it.  In the meantime, they have Landri on medicine to slow her heart rate down in hopes of evening out the beats.  As we learn more on this....I will post more.  For the time being...thoughts and prayers.

                                  

Landri got her stitches out today.....still smilin and doing great!!

Going Smoothly with the Inge Crew

Here it is!  Spending time with two of my most favorite kids besides my girls.  The best picture we could get without someone taking a nose dive off the couch.