I haven't wrote a blog post since before Owen was born! I decided that needed to change... mostly for me. I love going back and reading since it is the only journal I will probably ever write. Instead of trying to play years of catch up... I will just recap where we are at in life at the moment. We still own a ranch out on the desert between Idaho Falls and Arco. Though we shut down our trucking company and bought out two of our partners so now it is just Matt and his dad. This year we doing a feed lot as well as our pairs. It has definitely kept Matt and Jud busy. Owen is 2 1/2 and definitely keeps me busy. So on to our December..... I'll start with the bad so I can end with the good :)
Matt and I started December very excited for what the next year would bring but we didn't know in a matter of minutes that excitement would be replaced with a lot of fear and worry. *Rewind a month or two* We decided that Owen still wasn't making much progress with his speech so we started to have a speech therapist start working with him. He was advanced in his motor skills but was behind in speech in his evaluation. Before the therapist started even working with Owen she suggested we see an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist just to make sure he didn't have fluid in his ears. I did as she suggested and made an appointment first part of December. It happened to fall later on the day that I was scheduled to have an ultrasound. Yep you read that right, I'm expecting the 4th of July! The baby looked great and overall the appointment was perfect. What I didn't expect was to receive the horrible news later at Owen's appointment. Going in, I thought worse case scenario we would have to remove tonsils and adenoids or put tubes in his ears. At the appointment of course Owen didn't want to cooperate so he could look in his mouth or ears. It was a fight and it took Matt and I both to hold him down. (Thank goodness Matt was with me because he had gone with me to my ultrasound right before) The Dr. looked at Owens hearing test he had done at 9 months. Then he asked if Owen had been wearing hearing aids. That took me off guard but what really took me off guard was what he said next. "Owen showed moderate hearing loss at 9 months old" The hearing center hadn't told me anything like that, they said everything looked fine for now and that we would need to recheck at 2 to make sure he didn't have late onset hearing loss. (We had to have his hearing tested because of the antibiotic he was given in the NICU) I was in shock so I really didn't know what to say and what I did ask was probably stupid. I asked, "Well how long will he need to wear hearing aids?" I was in denial until he said he would need them for the rest of his life. That hit me like a rock! My son would need hearing aids for the rest of his life and I wondered how normal of a life he could lead. The sad part is it wasn't even the worst part of the day. Matt asked the E.N.T. whether this hearing loss had anything to do with Owens two different colored eyes. He threw out a syndrome that it could be but didn't know. Well of course we had to look it up and I still to this day kind of wish I could have brushed it off and not looked. When Matt and I looked it up it scared us to death. Owen fit some of the symptoms and if he had it, it meant that I had it or was a carrier. There was a 50% chance that I would pass it along and of course I was pregnant. I was now worried for both of my babies. I tried looking at the positive- that the worst symptom was hearing loss. I wasn't finding it all that comforting at the time. I cried for days, no matter what I did. I tried keeping myself busy but instead I found myself bawling as I swept the floor or in the middle of Walmart. Luckily through many talks with my Heavenly Father, he gave me the comfort I needed to get through. It was always in the back of my mind but I just knew somehow it was going to be okay. Matt and I started getting a referral to get genetic testing done at Primary Children in Salt Lake. Unfortunately, Matt and I were going to be gone the whole next week and so we had to wait over a week before we could get his hearing tested. It was crazy trying to get everything done and ready to go to Las Vegas for the NFR and I never got an appointment made before I left to go to Primary Childrens. I decided to wait until we got the results from the audiologist on his hearing test.
The picture we sent to announce to our siblings that we were expecting! We will find out if we are having a boy/girl in less than 3 weeks. :)
Matt and I were actually able to relax a little bit and enjoyed the NFR so much! We will hopefully be back next year. We missed Owen dearly but knew that he was having a blast with Grandpa & Grandma Patterson back home. Unfortunately Owen was starting to get a cold when we left and still was fighting it when we got back. So we ended up having to push his hearing test back as we didn't want it to effect his results. In the meantime I requested his hearing test results at 9 months and showed it to Owens speech therapist. She looked at it and saw nowhere in it that showed moderate hearing loss. That gave me a lot of hope but I also didn't want to get them up too much. I wasn't thrilled that his hearing test was so close to Christmas but didn't want to push it back anymore. Matt was able to come with me for support if needed but I'm happy to say I didn't need any. Owen passed his hearing test down to 5 decibels and the audiologist thought he could do zero if he would be more cooperative. They weren't able to do the frequencies because Owen wouldn't sit still and not scream and pull out the ear buds. However the audiologist was not concerned with Owens hearing on a speech level. As long as Owen is making progress with the speech therapist (which he is!) I also showed him the results from his last hearing test. He didn't see anything wrong at his last hearing test either. So at this time we don't need to do anything with his hearing. Now you are probably thinking well why did the E.N.T. say he had hearing loss. Well we will find out on Tuesday when he goes back in for a follow up. He has a lot of explaining to do for the scare he put us through! Though I just feel blessed. I know many people kept us in their prayers and put Owen's name in the temple. I couldn't be more grateful for our wonderful support of our families and ward family. As for the syndrome, hearing loss was the most major thing. Without it Owens only sure symptom was his different colored eyes. I have heard of many people that have two different colored of eyes and don't have it. Who knows whether we have it or not but at this point we will wait and see. It doesn't change really anything and at this point not worth paying a lot of money to get tested.
Now that's behind us! I just couldn't help but feel so overjoyed at Christmas. We have a wonderful two year old that LOVED everything about Christmas. He was so cute! After I put up the tree on many occasions, usually first thing in the morning, I would find him laying on the floor with his hands behind his head in front of the tree. He loved the Christmas lights! On Christmas eve we went to Carey and had a great time making gingerbread houses and celebrating "Christmas in China." Kelly is going to China in February for 4 months and I'm going to miss her dearly but I'm excited for her. It was kind of bittersweet that we got 8 inches of snow on Christmas. It was so beautiful but we were sad because it meant Derrick had to leave earlier so he could get back for work the next day. Owen loved playing with his toys and we were all spoiled like usual. Unfortunately it was back to reality way too fast. I can't wait to see what the New Year will bring us!
Matt's house
Derricks (sorry kel I don't know what happened to my picture of yours)
My wonderful parents who are AMAZING
It was fun to spend time with Derrick even if it was too short!
We ate our Chinese food on the floor and attempted chop sticks :)
