Church to Hearing Aids and Everything in between

Sunday, August 9, 2009 - I woke up at 5:30am intent on not falling back asleep so I would be up and ready for all of us to go to church together. We don't leave for church until 10:15am so I had a few hours to kill! Needless to say I was able to get a few loads of laundry done and actually feel productive before we left for church. I even steamed Elle's outfit so it would be perfect for our major outing! Elle had been fussy all morning so Lee and I were both anxious to see how she would do at church. Sure enough, we got to church and it wasn't three minutes before she started getting fussy. Lee's mom took her out of the sanctuary and walked in the halls with her. Lee's aunt Debbie took the second shift so Vickie could come back in and listen to the sermon. She had the magic touch and Elle fell asleep in her arms. Thank goodness for Vickie and Debbie! Thank goodness that we go to church with a lot of family members! I walked out about halfway through the sermon to see how she was doing and Vickie and Debbie had it under control so I was able to sit and listen to Lance's sermon. Lee and I snuck out of church before it was dismissed so we could grab Elle and leave before everyone else left. Before leaving, we had to take some pictures to commemorate this momentous day! Of course, Elle woke up on the car ride home and was a perfect angel!

Monday, August 10, 2009 - Elle had an evaluation for physical therapy. It went really well and I am praying they call us to set up a weekly scheduled time. Basically, the therapist played with Elle for an hour - the whole time she was making notes about Elle's posturing, her strengths and her weaknesses. At the end, she told me that Elle does have weak neck muscles/arm muscles that she would like to continue to work on. She gave me a sheet of exercises to do with Elle - most of them make her scream because they revolve around her being on her tummy. We just keep chugging away working on our little lady's neck control! After therapy, Elle got to go to work with me! I can honestly say that by the time Lee came to pick her up from the office so I could actually get some work done - I was exhausted! But..she did good at the office with me. It helps that all my co workers just wanted to love on her all day so they kept her occupied!

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 - Hearing Aid Day! Lee went into work early but then came back home so we could all go downtown to the med center to TCH for Elle's hearing aid fitting. I strategically planned Elle's outfit for the day. She needed to be wearing something that accentuated her hearing aids! After getting our little princess dressed for the day and the car loaded with all of Elle's accessories - the three of us headed downtown to meet with our wonderful audiologist. I just love our audiologist. I love her so much I may try to hook her up with my brother in law! She had all Elle's goods ready to go when we got there. I must say that when she pulled out the hearing aids I squealed in delight because they are so cute! Our audiologist was so excited that I ordered pink hearing aids and sparkle ear molds - I think she was just as excited as I was! By the time the hearing aids were ready to be put into Elle's ears - she had fallen asleep. She slept through Dr. E putting them in and us talking. It was a definite lack luster response. Lee and I both were expecting eyes wide open kind of reaction. Well - that reaction came later. She eventually woke up and started experiencing the world for the first time. Her reaction to the waiting room was classic. We walked out into the crowded waiting room - people talking - the tv going - and Elle just didn't know what was going on. Her eyes got huge! I was so excited for our little princess. I had to give Dr. E a hug before we left - it means the world to me that she was as excited as we were for our little princess. After getting the new aids, we headed up to see our precious nephew, Witt. It will be a super exciting day when Elle and Witt can play together and it won't be in a hospital room!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009 - We had an appointment with a gastro doctor. After discussing all of Elle's feeding issues with the doctor - she made a few changes to Elle's medicine (what it is being compounded with) and she made the exciting announcement that she thinks Elle is ok to start supplementing her feeds with rice cereal! Over the course of the next week or so we will also be changing her feeds from 4 ounces every 3 hours 7x a day to 6 ounces every 4 hours 5x a day. Hopefully, this new feeding schedule will help our little lady put a few extra pounds on her and help her grow some more before surgery. Lee picked up some cereal on his way home this evening and this evening, we fed Elle rice cereal for the first time! At first she hated every minute of it. After a few minutes she realized that she was eating something different and absolutely loved it!

I really need to be more careful when I am taking videos because they don't rotate! Oh well - she is still super cute even if she is side ways!