June 5th!

Zeke is scheduled and ready to go for June 5th. He is getting his cochlear implant and we are so excited. Our insurance approved and gave authorization for his implant. We are thrilled they are covering it. After he gets it we will see if our insurance will cover the second one. We talked to a family who has our same insurance and they said they would cover 2. We are crossing our fingers!

I don't really have any funny or cute recent pictures to post, but while I was looking through pictures I came across this one. When we first moved into our house the floors upstairs weren't done so our bed and Zeke's crib were all in the family room. One morning I was extremely tired and Zeke woke up so I told Brandon to watch him for a little while and to change his stinky bum. Brandon said he would but he didn't want to put a diaper back on him. While Zeke wandered into the kitchen I told Brandon that I hope he would pee somewhere. The dishwasher was a little bit open so Zeke decided to open it all the way and stand on it. He loves the dishwasher! Well it turns out that he did pee and it was while he was standing on the dishwasher. Zeke thought it was pretty funny, so did I. Brandon was the lucky winner and got to clean up the mess!

I can't believe it's been a year!

It's been just over a year since we found out the degree of Zeke's hearing loss. It was on my birthday last year that we had an appointment with Zeke's ENT and Audiologist for them to go over Zeke's ABR test with us. I remember them telling me that he had Severe to Profound hearing loss but closer to Profound hearing loss, I just wanted to go and hide somewhere and cry my eyes out. I remember thinking why Zeke, why did this happen to us. Why was he deaf? It was very hard to understand all of this and be told my child is deaf. I had no idea what we were going to do. No one in our family had hearing loss.

I thought to myself over and over that I couldn't handle something like this. I was a brand new mom and thought everything would be perfect with my little angel, just like my friends and their babies. Looking back to last year I have realized that I am able to handle something like this even though it is extremely hard. The Lord wouldn't give me something that I couldn't handle and overcome. Having a deaf child is not easy, it is very hard. It was especially hard when I would see other babies who were Zeke's age and they were saying mamama and dadada. I remember thinking and being so sad that he wouldn't be able to say mom and babble like other little babies. It made me sad to think that he wouldn't be able to hear me sing him to sleep.

I am so excited for him to be able to get his implant, but I am so nervous and scared. I know that with his Implant he will be able to hear and say things, but not without a lot of work and speech therapy and learning to listen exercises. I am excited for him and I am excited to see his face when he hears for the first time. I am so amazed at the techonology there is to give deaf children the opportunity to hear. What a blessing.

I was sad when we found out about Zeke's hearing, but I have realized that I cannot be sad about it. Being sad makes it so much worse. I couldn't have stopped this from happening, this is how Zeke came to our family and he was given to us for us to help him. I am so happy! I am happy that I have a healthy boy and I am happy that he is such a happy little guy. I am happy that I am able to teach him ASL and that he learns quickly. I am happy to be his mom and to know that the Lord trusts me to be Zeke's mom.

We had the opportunity this past weekend to go to PIP deaf camp for Zeke. It was so wonderful. Zeke got to play all day while Brandon and I and some of my family members listened to different perspectives of people who were deaf or hard of hearing. Justin Osmond spoke first and he did such a beautiful job. He is Merril Osmond's son and he is hard of hearing. He has 7 or 8 other family members who are deaf or hard of hearing but he is the only one in the second generation. He plays the violin and plays it beautifully, he is very succesful with work. He works for a company called Starkey...something can't remember...they go around the world giving hearing aids to children and adults who have never had the opportunity to hear. We also got to listen to a panel of people who are deaf or hard of hearing and could ask them questions. It was very neat and informative.

I really enjoyed everything about PIP camp and can't wait to go next year. It was such an emotional day for me because it brought back so many memories from a year ago.

I loved being able to talk to other mothers about their story with hearing loss in their children. I was able to ask them questions about things I was maybe unsure about. I also was able to make friends with mom's at the camp and I am excited to have play dates with them and their children.

I better stop before this post becomes a novel. Here are some fun, cute pictures I took of Zeke last week. Next to my mom and dad's lot there is an empty lot with grass everywhere. I thought it would be fun to take some fun pictures of my little guy. He is so photogenic and cute! Enjoy!

This is his "UH-OH" or "OH-NO" face!
Peek-a-boo!

He is signing drink. I guess he was thirsty and he thought he could get water out of the old spicket.

He loved sliding down the big hill of grass.

Smelling the flowers...uh, weeds.

I am a bad blogger!

We have been pretty busy here at the Butterfield household. I am going to try and update more regularly about what is going on in our little corner of the world. I just feel like blogging is the last thing I have time for in our busy lives. I also know I still need to post pictures of our house, but to be honest we are not all settled and unpacked. I just got Zeke's room all done so I will take pictures soon. Unpacking is not my favorite thing right now!

Anyway, Zeke got his tubes in his ears about 3 weeks ago and he did really well with the surgery and has recovered just great. It did not however change his hearing. Maybe a tiny bit, but not enough to matter.

So...we ordered his Cochlear Implant and all the colors for the implant and we are now just waiting on our insurance. If things go as planned, Zeke will be getting the implant on June 5! I am so extremely nervous, excited and scared, but this is what we want for Zeke. We want to let him have the opportunity to hear and be able to get speech so he can communicate with all our family and friends. I am so amazed with the technology we have these days, it is absolutely amazing.

I know that once he gets the implant he won't hear right away and be able to speak right away, there is a lot of work involved. We will be very busy helping Zeke learn to listen and identify different sounds.

I am excited to take this new journey with Zeke and teach him more and work with him constantly, he is so smart. He already makes it very easy for me to teach him ASL. He picks up on things very quickly, I mean, he already knows over 40 signs and uses them and understands all the signs he knows. He always tells me what he wants, whether he wants something to eat, what he wants to eat like ice cream or candy, if he wants to go outside, go in the car and even go in general. In church on Sunday during Sunday school we were out in the hall and he kept signing 'go' and walking towards the door. He had enough church for the day and was ready for his nap. He tells me when he is all done, when he wants a bath, when he gets hurt, when he wants to watch signing time and even when he wants to color. I feel like he throws less tantrums because he can tell me what he needs or wants. I will definitely teach all of my children to sign even if they are not deaf.

Here is a picture of what Zeke will have once he gets activated with the implant. This is the bodyworn processor, he will only wear this one for a little while until Advanced Bionics gets their new Behind the Ear processor approved from the FDA. The new one that they are coming out with is more kid friendly and smaller to go behind Zeke's little ear and I am so excited for it to get approved. The black round thing is the magnet headpiece that will attach to his head where the implant is located.

When Zeke is a little bit older and his ears are a little bit bigger, he will wear a Behind the Ear processor like this. We actually ordered this color, blue and green. It comes with purple but I don't think he will ever wear the purple! If you want more information on the Advanced Bionics Harmony Implant you can check out their website at this website: http://www.bionicear.com/?langid=1