Well, we survived the 3rd birthday party. No meltdowns…from any of us! Including me! I think I officially held my breath for 2 straight days. My anxiety for the actual party had really been building beforehand. I was scared that Cooper wouldn’t care about any of it. Or even worse, hit himself in the head. Sometimes, when he gets really stressed out, he will smack his head. It breaks my heart every time he does it. And he knows he will get a reaction so he will do it again.…
Read MoreThis is a hard post to write but I need to do it. I need to know there are other moms out there who feel like I do. I love my son. I love every single thing about him. He is my life. But there are moments when I would give anything for him to change. Having a child who doesn’t talk is really, really lonely. There are no ‘mama’s or I love you’s.’ There are no ‘why’s or ‘I do its.’ The car ride home from daycare is the…
Read MoreOnce the hearing debacle was over we were back at square one. I actually thought we were worse off. I’m not a debbie downer but we still had no good reason as to why Cooper wasn’t talking. I would like to call this phase our ‘do it all’ phase. Cooper was receiving speech therapy services 2 times a week at our local hospital and also receiving a visit once a week from the school district. During this time I felt really paralyzed about what to do. I didn’t know who to talk…
Read MoreI took Cooper alone to meet with the School Audiologist. I didn’t want Sawyer or my husband with us. I wanted it to be quick and painless. I wanted it to be easy. For the millionth time I prayed that life with Cooper could be easier. Why did it always have to be so hard? The School Audiologist met us at the Scottish Rite Clinic. This place is amazing. They specialize in working with children that have speech and language disorders. It was calm. I liked calm. I think angels…
Read MoreHearing aids are expensive. I will add that at the time we had really good insurance and hearing aids are still expensive. We had to bring a check for $1600 when we picked them up. That is a lot of money to us. So we were pretty stressed out putting the hearing aids on our wild toddler with sensory issues. How the hell is this going to work? I want to add a little info here about the hearing aids themselves. While we waited to get the hearing aids I googled…
Read MoreDuring the two-week wait for the hearing aids our lives got turned upside down. I call this the beginning of the end. The school district came to our house and introduced us to a deaf teacher. This person would help Cooper. She was very, very nice. I actually really like her. We also met a woman from Minnesota Hands and Voices. Also, very nice. But as this progressed we started hearing weird things. Here were the worst two: You may want to stop speaking to Cooper and switch completely to…
Read MoreHaving a baby changes your whole life. Time changes. The days are long. I used to say, “Cooper gets us up at the crack of dawn and doesn’t quit until he collapses at bedtime.” Before we had Cooper, our marriage was very strong. We wanted a baby so badly and got pregnant easily. When you are pregnant, and even before, you picture what life with this baby is going to be like. My husband went to college on a baseball scholarship and I played sports as well so I pictured…
Read MoreI remember the day that Cooper got his hearing aids so well. I felt sick to my stomach. I want to try and put into words how I felt. First, I didn’t believe that he needed them. I just couldn’t see it. And trust me, I tried. I tried because a hearing loss would explain why he wasn’t talking. Simple, right. He can’t hear so he can’t talk. Get the hearing aids and he will start talking. Since I am obsessed with research and information, I started googling. I scoured…
Read MoreAround the time that Cooper was diagnosed with his hearing loss, many of his ‘behaviors’ came on strong. I would like to add that we didn’t know any different. Meaning, we knew that Cooper was A LOT of work but we didn’t know how much work he was compared to other kids. All of my friends have little girls. Fast talking, sweet, sociable, easy little girls. Their kids do art projects and activities and my son was so different. But I held onto the fact that they were girls and…
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