A Quarter of a Year and His Own Entourage :)

First Fourth of July at Grandma's House

Three Month Update from Thomas:

Growth

Weight: 12lbs

Length: well over 23 inches :)

Meeting Cousin Sophia Maria

Things I can do: laugh!! in response to people and when tickled. I'm working on extending my schedule. I've been on a three hour feeding schedule except nights since I was two weeks and mom's goal is 4 hour schedule by the time school starts and I have to go to this place called daycare. And as off three months and two days I can roll over!! Mommy says her books and websites say I shouldn't do that till four months but is anyone surprised that I'm ahead of the curve? Really people?

Things that I have 
 changed:
The noises I make have increased. I can do ummms, maas, buus, and blow bubbles!! I'm drooling everywhere and all the time! I'm almost out of my 3 month sleepers and some onesies but not all. I can also hear a lot better!! I love water! I was unsure at first but lately any pool is a good pool. Mommy is excited about this since we live in hot Texas. I got my hearing aid this month and I can tell where noises are coming from and who is making them!

My new Ponto hearing aid

Nicknames: my nicknames keep changing person by person so I thought I would add a category for them. Currently this is my list: mommy - stinker dinker, daddy - the dude (yes he likes white russians too), ompa - slamas, nana - the great one, papo - rocky, my cousins hasen and mcka'an - tommy

Big News!
I had my first vacation to Fredericksburg and visited all my grandparents on my dad's side, cousins, my tia lissa, and my uncle joe and aunt charity in Alpine. I had a great time!! I'm showing signs for teething too! We will have new adventures next month with Mommy going to work. Plus we get to celebrate my grandparents anniversary the day i turn 4 months and mommy's first birthday with me out of her belly the next day! :)

Three Months Old! Bet you wish you had an entourage this aweome!!

Our First Step of Thomas' Journey

Thomas at 2 weeks

    I've been waiting anxiously to blog about Thomas' journey that truly began when he was born but I wanted to wait until we had fully taken the first step. Thomas was born with Stage III Unilateral Microtia and Atresia in his right ear. Microtia means his outer ear was not fully developed and Atresia is the term for the type of conductive hearing loss he has due to his Microtia.
   We found out about Thomas' condition as soon as I gave birth.  He had a meeting with a specialist and audiologist about a month later at Dell where he was given a test to monitor his Brain Stem Responses to hearing and they determined that he has a mild-moderate loss in his right ear and probably has close to 60-70% of his hearing. They also confirmed that his cochlea and auditory nerve are both fine and in tact. The way they explained his hearing to us was that if he had his eyes closed he could not tell you in which direction noise was coming from and if he had background noise he could possibly not be able to distinguish a single person's voice out of it. Microtia affects 1 in 8,000 births and has been linked to genetics. It is simply when the outer ear does not form completely and takes place in the first stages of pregnancy. Often times it does not mean that someone had Microtia in your family it could have been simply hearing loss or skin tags. However, in our case, luckily, someone does. Marco's brother Joe has a slightly more severe case of Microtia and Atresia in his left ear. We are so grateful for him because their family had this condition before and can answer many questions I had and because if Thomas has questions later he will have him to turn to on a personal level. It was something we didn't realize was genetic because no one in their family had a case of it before. But especially because of Joe were not overwhelmed by the diagnosis or condition.

Thomas' Hearing new sounds

   Thomas' first step in his journey is a hearing aid. They advocate for this because of the language and social benefits they have been proven for children in studies over the past 25 years. Although it was once thought that children with one working ear would be fine, these studies have shown that those children often detached themselves from social interactions and lagged in their language skills due to their unique types of hearing loss. That often times they were overwhelmed by too much noise or not being able to differentiate specific voices from the background noise so they avoided those situations. The type of hearing aid needed for his type of Microtia is a Bone Anchored Hearing Aid where an outer source mimics the vibrations an ear drum would receive and transmits these to a bone in the skull to create the conductive hearing. In adults these aids are attached to an anchor that is drilled in the skull as a base. In children under the age of 5 they are attached to a soft headband. This is what we got today. He has done great this morning wearing it. These are his first pictures in it.

Rocking this Hearing Aid

   His next step will be the medpor surgery when he is 4-6. There is some great information on it if you are interested from the doctor we are most interested in at the bottom. We contacted them to get basic information and discovered she can do all pre-op meetings via skype so that the only time you are with her is for the actual surgery which is wonderful for us since she is in California. This step is still years away but we are preparing as much as we can till then.
   For now we are anxiously awaiting our other stylish headbands from BAHA Headbands (https://www.facebook.com/BahaHeadband) and discovering new sounds all around us. I told Marco, if Lebron can rock the headband so can Thomas!! He promptly started calling our son LeJuan James. Let's hope that ends quickly lol!! So excited to share Thomas' journey with you all! Thank you in advance for all the support and love I know we will receive :)

facts about microtia


medpor surgery info

Why History Matters

WARNING!!!: This is a soap box post. If you wish to not listen to a rant in favor of the importance of Social Studies to our country and in our schools do not read any further.

DISCLAIMER: I am a staunch supporter of our troops, every day, period.


   As I watched the news and coverage of the Fourth of July, I felt a frustration with our country. As I stated in my disclaimer I am a supporter of our military and the amazingly courageous men and women who choose to be a part of it. I see the positives it offers to so many and, as a student and teacher of history, the impact it has had on our nation. I think they should be applauded every day and am happy that we honor them on Memorial Day and Veteran's Day. However, the Fourth of July is not about America's military regardless of how neat it is to hear a canon in the 1812 Overture. Oh but Kim, it is about America's freedoms that our brave military has made sure we keep repeatedly and our fight for independence that our military won! No it is not. While both of those things are true and we should all be grateful for them, the Fourth of July is not about that. Granted without a military victory, made up of a very ragtag continental army led by an amazing French strategist and an American hero who never truly had a standout victory and various part-time militias, we wouldn't celebrate it like we do, it is not what the holiday honors. If it were we would celebrate October 19 (last major battle of the Revolution) or September 3 (day Treaty of Paris was signed). I also truly don't believe that that American hero would want it to be about the military because he understood the true focus. Remember, this is the same man who disbanded the army as soon as the war was won and promptly retired from public life (didn't last as we well know).
   The Fourth of July is not about the freedoms. It is not about our victory in the Revolution. It is about a group of fifty six courageous men who committed treason. It is about men who dared to stand against the most powerful nation in the world because it was wrong and oppressive. Men who brazenly declared their leader a tyrant and their obligation to rise up and remove him to the world. They recognized that it was a nation that was restricting their freedoms and that they had lost true representation to have their voices heard. It was about making a decision in which there was no turning back, either they gain independence or die. It was about men who dared to take a chance on a form of government only written about. A type of government that they had no example to go off of and that had never been attempted in the world.  A government that would never have survived had many of these same men not been able to swallow their pride just eleven years later, admit failure, and reorganize the nation through the Constitution. It is about their sacrifices.
   Not all these men signed the Declaration and went on to live happy lives like Adams or Jefferson. Some went on to fight and die in the War for Independence, some had their houses and property destroyed by the British, and some were captured, tortured, and killed for their actions. Fourth of July should be a time in which we reflect on our nation's history, making sure our nation today is something deserving of their risks. We live in a country where more people can name characters in a TV show than can name the Bill of Rights or even the unalienable rights in the Declaration. Instead of the 1812 Overture why isn't the Declaration and Constitution read? Why isn't it a day taken to remember the history of our nation rather than use military men and women to distract the rest of us from realizing what our country has become? Is it because as a country as a people we are so far from what our Founding Fathers hoped we would be? Is it because we wish to ignore that reality through distraction? Are fireworks and military pomp and circumstance a truly appropriate way to commemorate them?
   Social Studies is often seen in our country as expendable in education. After all isn't History just the easy subject the coaches who just want to coach teach? The reality is the Fourth of July is a prime example of why Social Studies is so essential to the future of our nation. The Fourth of July is about history, civics, and government. It is about understanding who those men were, why they did what they did, and why it changed not just our country but the world. To know why they felt they had no other choice but to overthrow their government. It is about what the basis of our nation requires of every citizen to ensure its continued greatness. Instead of dealing with the reality that we are ALL obligated to be informed of our rights and our constitution as American citizens, we focus on those citizens who have chosen the responsibility of protecting our freedoms and country. Honestly, why all the fuss about rights or freedoms the majority of America doesn't even take the time to learn? About a history that most learn once and forget. Why do we as a people tolerate these distractions? Is it because we don't know or just don't care? Is our accepted ignorance a respectful way to memorialize those men and all they did? Is it worth our military sacrifices?

Take a second: Can you name 5 out of 6 of the characters from Friends? Can you name the 5 freedoms protected by the first amendment? Bonus: can you name the 6th Friend? What about naming any of the other 9 amendments in the Bill of Rights other than the 2nd or the 5th? . . .

One Year Ago Today

   Everyone has days that have changed their lives. Some are happy like the day you graduated college, the day you were married, or the day you had your first real job, and some are sad like the day you lost a loved one or had a relationship end. One year ago was one of those days for me.
   I have always known I wanted children. Besides playing make-believe with a wedding, being a mom was about the only thing I pretended growing up. I have always been so close to my mother that wanting a relationship like that seemed very natural to me. I spent years imagining what it would be like or when it would happen. When I got older I daydreamed about what it would be like. As friends and family started having children I started to be excited and also nervous about it but never doubted how much I wanted to be a mother. For my dear husband however it was another story entirely. He was and is very solitary. He never wanted to get married and never wanted to have children. His own experiences weren't always positive or filled with wonderful memories and his encounters with babies as an adult were nonexistent. He also heard different types of horror stories from friends about how their wives, marriages, or lives changed not always for the better. To say he was reluctant in general was an understatement.
   When we got married we agreed children might not be in the picture. I knew I loved him more than anything when I realized I would never want children without him as their father. I also knew with his career having children was a huge risk because I might be alone at any time. When your husband wears a bullet proof vest to work everyday the reality is hard to ignore. There is no time where they are not on duty, if you're at a restaurant or even church and something happens they go into action. There are no days when they are completely safe or away from danger. Knowing we have an "In Case Of" file and seeing other police officers sacrifice their lives in your city makes it hit home even more. It is a difficult reality every Police Wife faces everyday and makes life changing decisions all the more weighted.
   Marco also is ALL about taking time. He has always been against rushing anything. I knew the first time he kissed me that I was going to marry him and would have that very night had he asked me. But he didn't and every time I brought it up for the next year and a half he quickly changed the topic or explained how he didn't want to rush it. Even when he said he knew he took time to save up money, buy the perfect ring, and plan the perfect way. Then as soon as he asked I was ready! We could have gone to Vegas that weekend! But he wanted me to have the wedding of my dreams and I wanted him and his family to have the bride of theirs. So we saved up, paid for nearly everything ourselves, I converted, and we waited over a year before we had a wedding that blew the ones in my dreams out of the water. I will always cherish that day. So when we had friends having children throughout 2011 and 2012, I thought I was ready!! I was past the time growing up I thought I would have kids, I was married to the love of my life, and in 2011 had finally started my real career. But my husband, ever the logical one of the pair, knew we weren't fully ready.
   So what happened a year ago today and why is it such a big deal?!? (I know get to the point already Kim!!) A year ago today over a dinner at our favorite restaurant we decided we WERE ready. We had discussed it for over six months and on that day decided that financially, individually, and in our marriage we were ready to welcome a new member to our teampena. We decided after that month I would stop birth control and we would try for a baby. I had heard that sometimes it can take months after you stop to get pregnant so that gave us a big enough window that even if it took a while I would have all or part of the summer with our baby. Little did we know it would take on the first try, literally lol.
   It was a journey in which neither of us really knew what to expect, even if we thought we did. It tested our relationship and each of us in ways we couldn't imagine. The experiences were magical and amazing as well. I know they say every pregnancy is different but if any others were like my first I would be so lucky. Marco was with me through it all even when it was hard for him. During nearly 30 hours of labor and nearly 4 hours of pushing he never left me. He was by my side with words of encouragement and love just like he has been for over half a decade.
   Reading lots about the postpartum period and the difficulties people can have I knew that this time is one of the tops in which marriages crumble or set the groundwork for crumbling which can make anyone nervous. But being parents is better than we ever imagined and has brought us closer than we've ever been. I really was worried it wouldn't live up to all I had built it to be in my mind but it is so much more. It is like a new part of my heart I never knew existed has been tapped and is endless. I can't imagine how people can choose favorites among their children because even though I only have one that this part of my heart could give love to dozens! (and yes i know we won't have dozens lol) The first time I looked over to see him holding our newborn and watched him truly become a father I fell more in love with him than I already was.
     Over 5 years ago Marco stole my heart, nearly 4 years ago he asked me to spend the rest of my life with him, nearly 3 years ago we had the perfect wedding, exactly 1 year ago he agreed we were ready to embark on a new journey, and nearly 10 weeks ago he gave me the most amazing gift I could have ever wished or hoped for, our little boy. Thank you to my wonderful husband for all the amazing days that have changed my life and myself for the better and all the ones still to come . . .