Well we did the family photo thing (I'm not much of a portrait person) but I'm really happy with how they turned out. They were taken at Washington Park by a professional and you can see the start of the Fall with bits of color. They're copy written so I can't post them but click here if you're interested in viewing and you can also order prints if you so desire (I'm sure I'll be sending some with Xmas cards!)
http://www.movingpicturesclients.com/ (click on our picture)
Login: alyssa.hanada@gmail.com
Password: hike
Monday, September 29, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Mommy needs a valium
Yesterday was Collin's sedated hearing test at the hospital. Poor guy has been prodded before to evaluate his hearing but the Ear Nose and Throat doc wanted him to have a second opinion. At the prior tests, I nursed him and he slept while the audiologist stuck the probes to his forehead and put things in his ears to measure the brain's response to hearing...don't ask me to get too technical. But this time, since he's almost 6 months old and not asleep 80% of the day anymore, he had to be sedated. Meaning general anesthetic. Meaning nerve racking.
I know they do these things all the time at the Children's Hospital. They're completely competent. Still the thought of Collin being forced to sleep made me slightly anxious (okay or maybe I was pouring through all the worse case scenarios). I guess it doesn't help that my experience with being put under is waking up in a foggy drug-induced haze. Of course we're talking completely different experiences. Collin wasn't being cut open; except for the IV stuck in his foot, he wouldn't have felt any pain.
He couldn't have any solid food or formula 6 hours prior to the test. Thankfully breast milk was okay up to four hours before. Keep in mind the test is at 1230. Collin is a good eater. By the time we got to the hospital he was trying to put everything in his mouth including the thermometer. The anesthesiologist went over questions and assured us Collin would wake up fussy but be just fine. I handed my baby over and they laid him down on the table where at this point he was just pissed that he wasn't getting his food and who the hell were all these people manhandling him? A mask was put over his face to breath in the sleepy meds and I watched his little legs twitch. That was the hardest part. He screamed for about 30 seconds then was out. We were whisked out of the room.
Three and a half long hours later the test was done and Collin was still asleep. The audiologist confirmed what we already knew (hearing loss in the left ear considered severe). She did say there's a possibility of a surgical implant that conducts hearing to the bad ear through the bone. Or something. It's called a BAHA and from the photos online, it looks like a small metal bolt drilled by the ear. A little Frankensteinish. And oh yeah...drilling something into his head! They might as well knock me out with him. It also has a price tag of about 30 thousand dollars. Our insurance company doesn't cover hearing aids so would they cover the cost of that? We don't even know if he'd be eligible and need to obviously discuss it with the ENT doctor to get full details. Luckily the guy is supposed to be the best in the area with admiring nods from our pediatrician and all the hearing people. So I feel good about Collin being under his care.
When Collin woke up from the surgery he was pink faced and mad. He sucked down 4 oz of sugar water but he knew that was the not same as nice warm milk. When we got home, he was a little fussy the rest of the day but happily ate until he was stuffed and slept a full 9 hours that night.
I know they do these things all the time at the Children's Hospital. They're completely competent. Still the thought of Collin being forced to sleep made me slightly anxious (okay or maybe I was pouring through all the worse case scenarios). I guess it doesn't help that my experience with being put under is waking up in a foggy drug-induced haze. Of course we're talking completely different experiences. Collin wasn't being cut open; except for the IV stuck in his foot, he wouldn't have felt any pain.
He couldn't have any solid food or formula 6 hours prior to the test. Thankfully breast milk was okay up to four hours before. Keep in mind the test is at 1230. Collin is a good eater. By the time we got to the hospital he was trying to put everything in his mouth including the thermometer. The anesthesiologist went over questions and assured us Collin would wake up fussy but be just fine. I handed my baby over and they laid him down on the table where at this point he was just pissed that he wasn't getting his food and who the hell were all these people manhandling him? A mask was put over his face to breath in the sleepy meds and I watched his little legs twitch. That was the hardest part. He screamed for about 30 seconds then was out. We were whisked out of the room.
Three and a half long hours later the test was done and Collin was still asleep. The audiologist confirmed what we already knew (hearing loss in the left ear considered severe). She did say there's a possibility of a surgical implant that conducts hearing to the bad ear through the bone. Or something. It's called a BAHA and from the photos online, it looks like a small metal bolt drilled by the ear. A little Frankensteinish. And oh yeah...drilling something into his head! They might as well knock me out with him. It also has a price tag of about 30 thousand dollars. Our insurance company doesn't cover hearing aids so would they cover the cost of that? We don't even know if he'd be eligible and need to obviously discuss it with the ENT doctor to get full details. Luckily the guy is supposed to be the best in the area with admiring nods from our pediatrician and all the hearing people. So I feel good about Collin being under his care.
When Collin woke up from the surgery he was pink faced and mad. He sucked down 4 oz of sugar water but he knew that was the not same as nice warm milk. When we got home, he was a little fussy the rest of the day but happily ate until he was stuffed and slept a full 9 hours that night.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Bleak, bleak, bleak
Turn on the news channels, flip through the paper, surf the Internet, the same messages prevail: Economic crisis; future of the country uncertain; natural disasters; politicians slam each other.
Fear is everywhere.
As a friend recently told me, babies equal hope and optimism. When all of the negative news starts to overwhelm, I look at my son and instantly smile. I can walk down the street with Collin and a crazy thing happens. Instead of the typical stranger response of averting eyes or giving blank stares, random people break out in grins. They stop and talk to me. They're (gasp) friendly!
If only world peace were so simple...
That's all the deep thoughts for today. So turn off the news and enjoy some fluff for a change (our first summer with the new addition):
Fear is everywhere.
As a friend recently told me, babies equal hope and optimism. When all of the negative news starts to overwhelm, I look at my son and instantly smile. I can walk down the street with Collin and a crazy thing happens. Instead of the typical stranger response of averting eyes or giving blank stares, random people break out in grins. They stop and talk to me. They're (gasp) friendly!
If only world peace were so simple...
That's all the deep thoughts for today. So turn off the news and enjoy some fluff for a change (our first summer with the new addition):
Monday, September 1, 2008
No longer a newborn for sure--5 months!
o
People always tell you babies grow up so fast. Poof one minute he's a little bundle that screams and poops, Blink again, he's all smiles and coos; then all of a sudden he's rolling, laughing, and starting to soak in the world.
Collin is still frustrated that he can't crawl but I don't imagine it'll be too much longer before he masters it. He has definitely figured out that his hands can do all this cool stuff like grab, pull and hold. He's also fascinated by his feet and does some yoga moves to play with his toes (and can even suck on them!). He likes gazing at the living room lights, his night light and his frogs that turn a bunch of colors. Sometimes I wonder if he's getting a seizure by the way his eyes get huge like he's in a trance. He also enjoys watching the pets, especially Puma. Murray tries to give him lots of kisses which we discourage as Murray also likes to kiss certain nether parts of the cats...He now opens his mouth to eat and has started to figure out swallowing will actually keep the food down! He has also mastered his Jumperoo (see video below) and is discovering everything via mouth.
And a final update: he started wearing his hearing aid a few days ago. So far we haven't noticed too many changes but apparently it takes the brain a while to make the connection. Hopefully things will become more clear and he'll get to enjoy even more sounds.
I know he's just going to get more interesting and fun as he gets older but it is a little sad knowing that he'll never be this small again.
People always tell you babies grow up so fast. Poof one minute he's a little bundle that screams and poops, Blink again, he's all smiles and coos; then all of a sudden he's rolling, laughing, and starting to soak in the world.
Collin is still frustrated that he can't crawl but I don't imagine it'll be too much longer before he masters it. He has definitely figured out that his hands can do all this cool stuff like grab, pull and hold. He's also fascinated by his feet and does some yoga moves to play with his toes (and can even suck on them!). He likes gazing at the living room lights, his night light and his frogs that turn a bunch of colors. Sometimes I wonder if he's getting a seizure by the way his eyes get huge like he's in a trance. He also enjoys watching the pets, especially Puma. Murray tries to give him lots of kisses which we discourage as Murray also likes to kiss certain nether parts of the cats...He now opens his mouth to eat and has started to figure out swallowing will actually keep the food down! He has also mastered his Jumperoo (see video below) and is discovering everything via mouth.
And a final update: he started wearing his hearing aid a few days ago. So far we haven't noticed too many changes but apparently it takes the brain a while to make the connection. Hopefully things will become more clear and he'll get to enjoy even more sounds.
I know he's just going to get more interesting and fun as he gets older but it is a little sad knowing that he'll never be this small again.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
First solid food (sort of)
Can rice cereal be considered a solid? It's basically flakes mixed with formula to form this goopy paste. Collin didn't seem too impressed by it but he did manage to swallow a little. We'll move on to homemade pureed veggies and fruits in about a week--seems like that'll be much tastier!
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| From Summer 2008 |
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Hearing update
As a grant writer I often get to write about social workers/mentors/teachers who provide services to those in need but didn't really feel the impact until I experienced it firsthand. On Thursday we had a home visit from Multnomah County's Early Intervention and the Columbia Regional Hearing Program. The Early Intervention people provide services for kids from 0-3 (this is all free of charge--well it's tax supported so technically we pay for it). They quickly ruled out any kind of development delay after Collin showed off his skills:
Transfer a rattle from one hand to the other--check.
Roll over from back to tummy and the other way--check
Smiles--check
Coos, babbles, laughs--check
It was apparent that the main services we needed were through the hearing program to ensure that Collin continues to develop speech and language. Carol from the hearing program will accompany us to all Collin's audiology appointments, help us set goals, link us to other help we might need, etc.
Later that day we went to get a hearing mold made for Collin where he got some foamy stuff shot into his ear. He handled everything well and gave lots of smiles to the delight of the three women working there. They snapped pictures and insisted on putting his photo on their bulletin board. We were happy to comply. (Who doesn't want to hear that their baby is damn cute?)
They had lots of funky colors to pick out for the ear mold--I went with the sparkles. When Collin is older he'll get to pick them out himself. The hearing aid unit that attaches to the mold was much smaller than I expected, it looked like a blue tooth and I immediately felt more at ease. I bet kids will barely notice it. Now making sure he stays on his ear and he doesn't stick it in his mouth should be interesting...
We get a loaner aid for four months before we have to pocket up one ourselves ($500 - $1500, most likely somewhere in the middle) which insurance doesn't pay for. Because why would hearing be deemed important for developing ears? (On a side note, apparently there's legislation pending in Oregon to mandate all insurance companies to pay for hearing aids for children!)
Collin has another hearing screen in late September per the recommendation of the Ear,Nose,Throat specialist we're seeing. He said sometimes the hearing will actually improve--nerve endings or something. And Collin will continue to get periodic hearing tests in case anything changes. We'll hope for the best but even if Collin's hearing stays the same we're fortunate that we have services and caring people that provide support!
Transfer a rattle from one hand to the other--check.
Roll over from back to tummy and the other way--check
Smiles--check
Coos, babbles, laughs--check
It was apparent that the main services we needed were through the hearing program to ensure that Collin continues to develop speech and language. Carol from the hearing program will accompany us to all Collin's audiology appointments, help us set goals, link us to other help we might need, etc.
Later that day we went to get a hearing mold made for Collin where he got some foamy stuff shot into his ear. He handled everything well and gave lots of smiles to the delight of the three women working there. They snapped pictures and insisted on putting his photo on their bulletin board. We were happy to comply. (Who doesn't want to hear that their baby is damn cute?)
They had lots of funky colors to pick out for the ear mold--I went with the sparkles. When Collin is older he'll get to pick them out himself. The hearing aid unit that attaches to the mold was much smaller than I expected, it looked like a blue tooth and I immediately felt more at ease. I bet kids will barely notice it. Now making sure he stays on his ear and he doesn't stick it in his mouth should be interesting...
We get a loaner aid for four months before we have to pocket up one ourselves ($500 - $1500, most likely somewhere in the middle) which insurance doesn't pay for. Because why would hearing be deemed important for developing ears? (On a side note, apparently there's legislation pending in Oregon to mandate all insurance companies to pay for hearing aids for children!)
Collin has another hearing screen in late September per the recommendation of the Ear,Nose,Throat specialist we're seeing. He said sometimes the hearing will actually improve--nerve endings or something. And Collin will continue to get periodic hearing tests in case anything changes. We'll hope for the best but even if Collin's hearing stays the same we're fortunate that we have services and caring people that provide support!
Monday, August 4, 2008
Uh leather or flowers or silver?
Four years ago Mike and I were in a little town in the middle-of-nowhere Scotland with some of our closest family and friends to celebrate our marriage. A child was in the back of my mind; way, way, way in the back of my mind. We spent our days in Scotland drinking too much, hiking, and avoiding the dozens of sheep that occupied the sparse roads. I was 23! Without a job, living in a cheap apartment, a year out of college. Mike was about to start his career as a police officer. It seems so long ago yet in the scheme of things, it was really just the other day.
Last night we went out for our four-year wedding anniversary at El Gaucho to dine on some delicious steak. Our friends who are expecting their first babe watched Collin and were shocked to see us return about an hour and a half later. Sad I know. We originally thought we'd see a movie but after dinner we were both exhausted. In our past life we would've gone to a bar, had a couple more drinks, stayed out past midnight without a second thought, but now sleeping in our comfy bed sounded much more appealing (especially when you have a 530am wake-up call who demands food).
I laugh when I hear about people who get pregnant to save their marriage. A baby can be a huge obstacle that's placed between two people whose lives used to only revolve around each other. Thankfully our marriage has stayed strong and we had the chance to go on some baby-free adventures before Collin. I've learned what real love is in my marriage with Mike. It's not some fairy tale where you live happily ever after that's for sure. It's work, but it's worth it to wake up next to the person who helps things make sense in a crazy world. And I couldn't have hoped for a better father to my son.
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