Thursday 23 June 2011

Apologies

Hi all....

I have been a very bad blogger..... very bad, its been nearly a month!!!! eek...

We have had a busy few weeks in our household. Jose had end of semester exams and assesments, I went into preterm labor and Aaliyah had many of her 6 monthly appointments.

All of Aaliyah's appointments went well. The only glitch was that she had a blockage in her eustation tube (between her nose and ear) on her good side so they were unable to do her hearing test properly. We have another appointment August 8 to be retested. Most likely it was blocked due to a recent cold. If it is still blocked at this next appointment they will do further investigations to ensure that there is nothing more sinister going on. We fully expect it to be unblocked as we have never had this issue before in her many many hearing test.

Her appointment with her ENT went well, he will continue to review her every six months until its time for her CT scan (approx 3 years old) when we will then be able to make more definitive plans re:surgery. If the bones in her ear are too misshapen she will not be eligible for the canalplasty. She will still be able to have the outer ear (Medpor) reconstruction but would not be able to have a canal made which will impact on her hearing. Please pray with us as we believe that the bones and nerves will be normal enough for her to be able to have the surgery.

Another appointment we had just a few days ago was with the developmental pediatrician. She is a specialist that looks at how well children with different disablitities (hearing, sight, autism etc) are going developmentally in comparison to "normal" children. This appointment could not have gone better. She could not stop raving on about how alert Aaliyah is, how social she is and how gorgeous she is (now we think she is gorgeous, but its always nice to hear people outside the family comment!!!). She asked if Aaliyah was saying 10-20 words (apparently that is the standard for 18 months. She is saying HUNDREDS of words. She really is a little parrot. The girl does not stop talking!!!! Takes after her mumma!!!! She was so impressed that we do not need to see her for 12 months instead of the usual 6 months. She gave us the number of her assistant to call should we wish to make an appointment sooner but I really dont think we will need to.

For my own documentation these are a few of the things that Aaliyah is doing at 18 months:

Stringing 2-3 words together, including the very funny "I sit" that comes out as "I S@#t"
Knows pretty much all her body parts, eyes, nose, mouth, head, hair, chin, cheeks, hands, ears fingers, toes, shoulders, tongue, eyebrows, belly. She can also say most of these also We are working on wrists, ankles, eyelashes, shin, thigh etc.

She can count to 5 in english and 3 in spanish (although she has no idea that it is counting). It also helps that she LOVES hi5 and Dora!!!

She has mastered the art of manipulating what she wants to watch (she will tell us "dorethy, hi5, dora). We are strict with the amount of tv she watches so usually she gets a no.. we generally allow for 20-30 mins in the morning and about the same in the evening. She likes giggle and hoot (she calls it hoot hoot), so she will sometimes watch the goodnight song before going to bed.

She is sleeping 12-13 hours overnight!!! goes to bed between 6:45-7pm and wakes between 7am and 8:30 depending on how warm she is, how dark it is and if there are any noises outside, for a kid that can only hear out of one ear that ear sure is amazing. She is an EXTREMELY light sleeper... Im really not sure how she will go once the baby is hear.

She can say every single extended family (grandparents and aunts/uncles) names, and knows exactly who is who, she also knows all the dogs names!!!

She is a show of.... big time!!!!! she will "dance" if we ask her to or sing a song for her, and will march if we sing the marching song. Her favourite song for us to sing is "the wheels on the bus" and will do all the actions. She also makes sure that EVERYONE in the room is doing the actions and will death stare anyone that doesnt join in!!!!

We finally got rid of her dummy!!!! She started chewing holes so it was getting dangerous. I wasnt strong enough just to throw them out so I just didnt buy any new ones, as each one broke I threw it away until we had none left. It took one day for her to stop asking for it and 3 nights for her not to cry when going to sleep (first night she cried for 5 mins, next night 30 seconds next night nothing). I am grateful to be rid of it before the baby comes.

In other news we found out that the hospital has falsely documented Aaliyah's birth details. From how long I was in labor to when I go my epidural to Aaliyah's condition at time of delivery are all recorded inaccurately. The ob had the nerve to tell me at my last appointment that according to their paperwork that I had a textbook labor and delivery. It really hasnt given me much faith and has left me a little apprehensive about this delivery. BUT we have a plan. I will be extremly vocal about what I want. Mum and Jose will be documenting EVERYTHING that goes on whilst I am in hospital, names of the staff, times, EVERYTHING. We will then get it put as a stat dec. so if anything happens in the future we will have proof. I also recommend anyone having a baby to do the same. It is not the first time I have heard of hospitals not recording details properly. And working in health care myself I know that if its not documented it didnt happen. Its really sad that it has come to that but as a mum I will do anything to protect my baby.

In between all of Aaliyahs appointments I have been resting. Not doing any housework, not picking up Aaliyah, no driving. I have also been babysat when Jose has had uni/work. Our families have been amazing in picking up the pieces. I have literally not been left alone since our little scare! I am comforted and so grateful to their sacrifices.

. The night I started having contractions, Jose was at work and Aaliyah was still up. I had had pain the day before but nothing like I was getting. I knew I needed help when I had a contraction I couldnt do ANYTHING. Aaliyah pooped and then fell over and banged her head but because I was having a bad contraction I couldnt do anything.. I just cried feeling like the worst parent in the world. I made 3 phone calls, one to the hospital ( that told me to come straight in, as i was only 33 weeks), one to Joses mum, and one to my mum. My sister answered at my parents and she called Jose and told him to come home, Joses mum and sister came to watch Aaliyah and Mum and Jose took me to the hospital. I look back and laugh now because it was all so quick and almost comical. They all arrived at once. And me being me, decided that before we were going anywhere I was having a shower!!! haha!!! My contractions were lasting one and a half minuts with about a 2 min break in between. Initially the hospital didnt believe i was having contractions, saying that the babys head was just probably bopping up and down on my pelvis. Made me a bit mad considering I have had a baby before and know what contractions feel like. once they hooked me up they realised that i really was contracting. They contacted the doctor to do an exam (before term it has to be a doctor not a midwife, I wasnt impressed I have a general dislike for obs as it is). They also did an ultrasound to make sure everything was in the right spot should I have the baby that night. I asked the doctor to check that I was still having a girl, and he was very confused saying that I might be having a baby preterm and I was worried whether she was a girl still. The way I saw it was if I was going to have her there was nothing I could do about it but if she turned out to be a he I could call someone to go buy some boys clothes!!! I wasnt dialiting so they sent me home, with pain killers to rest. Well the pain killers didnt kill the pain but they did make me feel like I was either extremly drunk or hungover. And rest is overrated when you have a very busy 18 month old to run around after.

This poor baby, I am soooo disorganised for her arrival. Mum has washed all of her new clothes for me, I still have to dig out Aaliyahs old clothes and see what I might use as well as set up the swing, sort out her change table, hang up her clothes etc. I have an army of volunteers coming to help me sort everything out on monday so I would like the little princess to stay put until I have sorted a few things out. I am also yet to pack my bag for hospital, although I have thrown a few things into a pile and borrowed a suitcase from my parents, that has to count for something!

I am 36 weeks today, would like to make it to 37 weeks and then she can come!!!! We joke that with all this rest that she will probably be late haha!!!! (I sincererly hope not!).

SO if you dont hear much on the blog or on Aaliyahs page, its not that i have forgotten everything, I am jsut a little distracted right now. Once everything settles down (haha) I will get back into the swing of things. I am looking forward to getting back into routine, and life back to some degree of normal!!!

Any questions just ask

amy