Big News

When we were in Virginia Beach last May, Liz surprised my friends and myself by announcing that she wanted two Mommys. Her explanation was quite simple - She wanted me as her main mommy to play with her, and the other mommy to take care of a baby if we had one.

Well, now we're having another baby, but no, we're not getting another mommy. I'm almost 18 weeks pregnant so well into the 4th month of pregnancy.

All has been going well. I've just been really tired, but everyone says that's normal for a second pregnancy. The docs are a bit more cautious with this pregnancy and we've had a few ultrasounds and Baby Hedge looks quite great. The baby is due at the end of August and likely will come right around when Liz starts Kindergarten. They'll be five years apart.

Liz is very excited to be a big sister. She's even said to me, "I can't wait for the baby to come to help me clean up my toys." She's going to have to wait for that for a long time.

As most of you know, it's very rare for an average-height couple to have two children with achondroplasia but with that said, we're still at a higher risk of having another baby with achondroplasia. Though, the percentages are low.

We'll probably do a couple more ultrasounds when Baby Hedge is bigger and we might even find out if it's a boy or girl!

Successful surgery

We rose early this morning and headed to one of the Children's Memorial hospitals for the 7:45 a.m. surgery. Liz was excellent. We'd talked to her a lot about how they would put a mask on her to help her sleep and then she'd have the surgery so she could hear better.

There were plenty of toys for her to play with, but when the little boy's surgery before her ended up going longer, she got bored. She kept saying: "When am I going to have surgery?"

Her doctor reported that she had a great deal of thick fluid, which was obviously causing the hearing loss. This was her third surgery and she was a pro - though she had her first when she was less than a year old and her second when she was only two. So, this will probably be the first one she'll remember.

They had suggested giving her some drugs before the anesthesia, but since she's older and was prepared for it, we turned them down. Turns out she was excellent. I went back with her while they helped put her to sleep with the mask and she didn't even cry at all.

Seventeen minutes later when we went back to see her, she was happily sucking on a Popsicle. Of course, she did get some of the side effects of the anesthesia - the grumpiness. We're all a bit tired, but she's been fabulous.

She's still said, "I can't hear you," a few times. It just might take a day or two for all of her hearing to resume. But on the bright side, she did remark to me, "Mommy, things sound very different." I'm hopeful that means things are louder. There have been times I've spoken softly to her just to see if she can hear me, and I think she can.

Here's a picture of her before the surgery. She's getting a bit impatient waiting for it to happen. But still in pretty good spirits.



This was a photo from a few weeks ago after we had her hearing tests and appointment with her doctor. We always try to do something fun after medical appointments. She was eating a most delicious double-chocolate cupcake across from Children's Memorial's main hospital campus. This time, we had to take it easy on food - just in case she might get sick, but if she's feeling fine, we'll get something special for her tomorrow.

Mommy, I can't hear you!

It became quite apparent to us in the last month that Liz simply can't hear us. At first, I thought it was "selective" hearing loss.

For instance, I might say, "Liz, I need you to clean up your room." Her response: "Mommy, I can't hear you."

Sure, you can't hear me, I thought. Of course you can hear me.

Well, it became very obvious that in fact she can't hear me because no matter what I say, she can't hear me most of the time. A lot of times, she doesn't even respond to me simply because she can't even hear me talking.

It also became clear at school. Often times, we'd be walking into her school and a friend behind us, would say hello. She wouldn't even respond because she couldn't hear them. Her teacher even commented about this to me.

So, we took her to Children's Memorial in Chicago two weeks ago to see her Ear Nose Throat doctor and got her hearing tested. It was confirmed that she has moderate hearing loss on the left side and severe loss on the right side. They also said that with her hearing loss it would be a huge safety issue in the summer because her hearing is so bad she won't be able to hear vehicles behind her.

The doctor believes the culprit is a huge amount of fluid in her ears from an ear infection in January. So, we're going to do the surgery for tubes early tomorrow morning and are anticipating her hearing should return to normal again.

I'm a bit worried because she has a cough and we all know how strict the doctors are about not doing surgery on kids if they even have a sniffle. However, her pediatrician is convinced the cough is being caused by the fluid and the cough won't go away until the ear fluid goes away.

She's had tubes before - and all has gone well - so we're hopeful that the same will be true this time.

And most importantly, I'm looking forward to her hearing again so we don't have to practically shout around the house.