Hearing aids and other updates

Her hearing aid

She's smiling! She must like 'Iowa State'

Merry Christmas!!!!

Her and her bumbo!

Here is a fast update. I will update more once we get the surgery date and once we have gotten home from the doc on Jan 8th.

She got her hearing aid in November and she is doing great! She got these huge wide eyes when they put them on her. IT was like, "Whoa, I can hear you mommy.'

Jan 7th, we go to see how her development stage is, compared to what it is supposed to be at this age. They are wanting to see how and if her encephlocele affected her brain. Then on Jan 8th, we have 2 doc appts. One with the cranialfacial doc and the other one with the ENT. They will tell us on Jan 8th as to when her surgery date is for her 1st of many surgeries for her cleft lip and partial palate is. The surgery for the cleft is to take 4-5 hrs but the ENT has decided to join Dr Franks in the surgery room and put tubes in and do a few other things after they are done with her lip. So, we are not sure how long the surgery will actually take. She will have to be in the hospital for 2-4 days after surgery. She will be fed by a syringe for 3 wks and will also have to wear arm braces because they do not want her hands to touch her face. (That is going to be a problem as she has had her hands on her face since, well, it was that way in every ultrasound and still is that way!)The reason she has to be fed by a syringe for 3 wks is because they do not want her to suck on anything for 3 wks as it could ruin everything the surgery did. They said it is a very trying 3 wks for parents. We are sure it will ALL be worth it though. Her surgery will be at Mercy. They want Khloe to be 4 months old before they do the surgery so we are thinking it will be middle to end of Feb.

She goes back to her heart doc on Jan 29th. They will do another EKG and another ultrasound to see how everything is going.

A few wks after her lip surgery, Khloe will have another BEAR test at Methodist for her hearing. They will sedate her for 2 hours and check her hearing to see if it got worse or better. They have asked us to learn some sign language and we have been learning some.

We are so used to her cleft lp and palate that we do not even think about it until we are in public and we get stares or hear people talk about it. The young kids are so cute as they will ask 'Why does she have an ouchie?" When we explain, they are always so sweet. They usually say something like, 'that is so sad' or ' Does it hurt her?" They are so sweet. Older people on the other hand are a little rude at times. But we do not care. We ARE NOT ashamed of her and carry her around proudly. She is an angel.

We want to thank everyone for all their prayers, cards, gifts, e-mails and posts that past 7 months. God heard ALL of your prayers. He gave us a true miracle!!!! THANK YOU!!! We know some of you are pregnant now and we pray for a healthy pregnancy and delivery. Others of you are going through rough times or have had losses. We PRAY FOR YOU ALL!!!!! We want to thank you for everything! You were and still are a blessing to us! It is your prayers that God heard as well as ours. You all have walked this journey with us and we thank you! We have some hills ahead of us, but God is with us and we have all you to support us in prayers, letters of encouragement and many other ways. THANK YOU!!!!!

We will FOR SURE post pics of her while she is in the hospital. They said she will be red for months after surgery but that we wll be amazing at the change. We are excited but yet, we will miss her cleft as it is a part of her.