How did you know? PART TWO

After a horrible pregnancy & an early delivery, I was soooooo glad to be going home WITH my baby. However, when we got home, Ethan & I both were still recovering. Two days after we were home, we took Ethan for this first pediatric appointment. After a couple of tests, we discovered that Ethan had jaundice. So, we had to get him all set up with a billy rubin blanket. During all of that, my swelling still hadn't gone away like that said it would with delivery. So, I had several OBGYN visits during the same time Ethan was going for his appointments & tests. Not only were we overwhelmed with a new baby, but throw in a bunch of doctor visits (forcing me to leave my baby after only one day!), tests & unknowns. After a week of going in for "check-ups", they FINALLY gave me water pills...realizing that my water retention wasn't going away on it's own. After another week, Ethan & I were back to "normal"....well....the new normal.

Everything from there on out was pretty typical parenthood stuff....until he was about one year old. When he was one, that's when people started making comments to me & Corey. "Why isn't he talking? Do you read to him? Do you talk to him? Why isn't he walking? Do you work on that with him?" OF COURSE I DO!!!! But I tried to ignored their comments. I just figured he would do it all in his time. A month later, he started walking. And he would babble...none of it made sense to me, but it was a sign of growth. When he was 18 months, Ethan still wasn't where he "should" be with his talking. So, my sister gave me the information for an Ear, Nose & Throat Doctor. She thought we should have his hearing tested. GOOD IDEA! This will give me some ammo when people make comments to me about Ethan not talking! I'll show them!!!!

So, we had Ethan's hearing tested, and he responded to sounds & his name. However, one of the tests showed that Ethan had fluid behind both ear drums. This meant that he was hearing but not clearly. This meant Ethan was about to have tubes put in his ears. Well, that meant I had no ammo for my negative community, but Ethan was going to be helped & could hear!!! YEAH! We were so excited to have an answer.

This is Ethan with Daddy on the day of his surgery. He still has those socks...he loves them! After his surgery, we were anticipating words to be springing forth in the next couple of days. Well...that didn't happen, but I did notice something. When he & I would play our "What's a Cow Say?" game, he would laugh at the sounds. For example, when I asked him what a cow would say before the tubes, he would say, "boo". Well, after the surgery, when I would say, "moo"....he would CRACK up laughing! So, this told me that there was already a difference in his hearing. He would be making progress in his speech in no time!!! And he did....sort of....