New Headbands!

Headband making in full effect!! Ready for some new big girl looks for school!! Yay for a spunky variety!!! One down, 3 to go.

Got a second band added and it looks so much better!!

I was taking pictures of her and big brother swooped in all adorable and stuff ;)

~Whitney

H4H Update

Tessa had a wonderful mapping appointment at Hearts for Hearing today!  Everything seems to be in working order with her Right Cochlear Implant and not impacted by her head trauma from the beginning of the summer.  This was great news considering how much Tessa loves her ears!

Such a fabulous crew at Hearts for Hearing!

So thankful for their continuous support and encouragement!!

Listening is hard work...but she's still grinning

 Tessa was shaking her maraca while she was listening to her beeps :)

Tessa's limited motor control makes it a little more difficult for her to show us effective responses to the sounds she hears.  We are always coming up with new things to try that are motivating for her!  During these videos they are playing tones directly into her Cochlear Implants and we are encouraging her to hit the tambourine when she hears them.  This whole process allows them to make adjustments and program her hearing levels accordingly.

Hearts for Hearing Mapping Appt Video

https://youtu.be/jLp0mqhOHcY

Hearts for Hearing Mapping Video

https://youtu.be/0Yf0eqV6Pfg

H4H Listening to her beeps :) 

https://youtu.be/vPfqy48qKtQ

And for old times sake...here's one of Ms. Tami and Tessa during a therapy session from 10.2.2012 -almost 3 years ago!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzpvp6TUIl0

~Whitney

Exciting Follow Up!

These were from the waiting room before Tessa's follow up appointment with her cochlear implant surgeon.  We were still right-ear-less. But we were hopeful and waiting to see the doctor to show him how much improved our swelling was!!! ‪#‎waitingroomentertainment‬ ‪#‎somanysmiles‬

Amazing stuff right here!!

At today's follow up appointment, Tessa's doctor was as thrilled as we were to see that her swelling is almost completely gone!! There is a very small amount just adjacent to her implant...so we were given the okay to try her processor this evening! Her doctor even said that this has taught him to be more patient...with the healing process. Leave it to Miss Tessa to help teach her doctor a little something ;)  No needles or miserable procedure necessary!

THANK YOU to all who have been praying for Tessa! It's been a very long two weeks and today we are just so thankful and excited!

(some cuteness just before we put her processor on)

This is her first time with her right ear on in over 2 weeks. It is set at a very low volume, but we are just praising the Lord that it WORKS and she is tolerating it so well. She seems pretty excited about it too! :)

These are her 'ready for a walk with both ears on' faces!! 

‪#‎restorationandjoy‬

So thankful for such an exciting update!!

~Whitney

Big-Girl Headband!

I finally got around to making Tessa a big-girl headband and we love it!

It's a lululemon headband similar to this one :) that I sewed process holders on to each side.

We Love her new sporty look!!

It was a little big, so I just folded the sides in before stitching the holder on

these new Wide Stay headbands from Target are the perfect size for good processor retention!

I just cut a piece long enough to wrap around the edges of the headband

folded the headband in at the sides to match the pink headband that fits her currently

and then hand-stitched the small holder piece on

(you'll notice in the picture the glue-strip that is on the inside of the lululemon headband...so far these have helped it stay in place on Tessa's forehead really well)

the greys go perfectly together!

I mean seriously...look at this face.

She knows she's lookin fancy ;)

~Whitney

No CI Surgery in 2013!

Tessa had a mapping appointment at Hearts for Hearing yesterday and we went together as a family.  That isn't a strange or rare occurrence, but what is different, is that for the last two years around this time, we've been preparing for Cochlear Implant surgeries.  

Tessa was implanted on the right on June 3rd in 2011 and on the left on June 5th in 2012.  Tessa has now spent more years of her life hearing, than not hearing.  Waiting in the waiting room yesterday, just watching her play with her daddy and brother, I was incredibly thankful for the gift of sound.  I can't even imagine how different our lives would look today without Tessa embracing life through sound.  Can't imagine it.    

Surgeries were always stressful and change was definitely hard, but the journey has been amazing and I just sit in awe of where we are today.

Life with a 5 and 3 year old is such a blast!  Summer has begun and without an impending surgery...we are making the best of every minute ~ playing, growing and listening!!! :)

~Whitney

Booth Testing Videos

Responding like a champ!!!

Tessa apparently doesn't have a very good poker face! lol

~Whitney

So Impressed!

Miss Tessa never ceases to amaze me.  She had the most wonderful therapy session at Hearts for Hearing yesterday and I am just so proud of her.  The challenge with Tessa sometimes, is keeping her attention; she is so much LESS interested in objects and instructions than she is in people and playful interactions.  Which really, would probably hold true for most 2 year olds ;)

It was very very exciting to see her working so hard and staying so attentive for the entire hour we were at therapy.  We have moved forward with 2-step-commands and she is doing beautifully.  Before, we would simply ask her to pick up or point to the horse, now we are not only asking her to pick it up, but we are also asking her to put it in the bye-bye bucket.  With the way these videos go, you would think she's been following 2-step-commands forever ;)

I didn't get it on video, but my favorite part of therapy today was when Ms. Tami asked Tessa to give me a plate, a cup, and then all the food on her plate.  She picked up each and every item, one by one, first with her right hand, passed them to her left hand and handed them to me.  It was so beautiful.  Each and every time she picked up the appropriate item and shared them all with me.  It was so so great!

In this first video, it took me a minute to realize that Tessa couldn't reach the horse.  It was a little too far back on the table, and yet she was still trying so hard.  She vocalizes at one point and later I wondered if she was trying to ask for us to move it closer so she could get it...

The improvements in Tessa's fine motor skills are drastic from a year ago.  But still to watch how hard she works to perform these tasks is just incredible to me.

I absolutely love the expression she gives when it's time to pick up the lettuce.  This weird, flimsy, rubbery little object is not Tessa's favorite, and I love that she takes the time to show her complete disgust with the instruction she's been given!

....that's my girl! ;)

~Whitney

To Embrace

Psalm 139: 13-16
"13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be."

If hearing aids and cochlear implants were not around, Tessa would absolutely be just as wonderful ~ 'fearfully and wonderfully made'!  We would have journeyed the path of sign language and lip reading just as steadily as we have journeyed the path of hearing and speaking.  I don't feel like I count on things to change Tessa...I want to encourage her in things she finds motivating and I want to minimize her pain...but she is perfect.  When the paths we take open new doors for her, we can't help but feel encouraged.  I am amazed as I watch my 2 year old embrace opportunities.  To witness her sense an understanding of how her life has changed, is breathtaking.  Tessa is definitely sensitive to change...but not always in the ways that one would think.  She surprises me all the time.   The things I might have thought would put her over the edge...she enjoys and anticipates doing again.  Other things I think would be calming and fun for her...actually aren't!  I guess, really, she is as predictably unpredictable as the next!

Two weeks ago tomorrow, Tessa began hearing with two cochlear implants.  I had very little expectation for activation day.  We had been told, sometimes the impact of having two CIs is noticed more over time, than immediately.  We waited a full year between getting her 1st and 2nd CIs to give Tessa a chance to gain better head control.  It was a challenge to keep the right one on when she was first implanted a year ago and we wanted her to be a bit stronger to help us manage the extra 'accessories' on her head. :) The summer time is better for us since Darin is out of school and it is also the season when Tessa tends to be at her healthiest.  We made these decisions based on these different factors in our lives, but I sit here in awe of the One orchestrating it all.  He has allowed us to experience such joy over the last few weeks. The impact of the new left cochlear implant has not gone unnoticed.  The changes were and are profound and really couldn't have been any more immediate.  Tessa loves to hear!  She has embraced this gift in ways that are not only difficult to describe, but in ways that make me stop and consider my own approach to life.


For anyone that knows me, I have always been quite the expectation-kind-of-girl.  Always living in anticipation for the next thing planned.  With Tessa, I am very different.  In this area of my life, God is in complete control.  Since day one, I have turned to Him for peace and wisdom and I have depended on my faith to guide my steps as Tessa's mother.  It's funny how I could really stand to learn a thing or two from this area of my life.  I beat myself up all the time that Tessa's Mother just isn't all of who I am...but it isn't, and I am eager to watch my whole life change.

To Embrace; to seize eagerly; to take up willingly or eagerly.  Something I desperately want to learn from my daughter...to embrace.  All the things that have really mattered in Tessa's life, she has embraced fully.  So much so, I find myself questioning how it is she is capable of this at her age and with the many needs that she has.  There is only one answer and it just can't be anything but God's very purpose for her life.  She is a teacher of things that can hardly be taught.  I am determined to make note of all of the things she is teaching me because I just don't know how else I could ever express how much she has changed my life.

With 2 cochlear implants...Tessa is taking it all in.  I am confident there is no mistake in the timing of all of this for her.  Even though she is only two, she has a passion for life and is quite the little observer of change.  It is as if she knows her brain is being stimulated in ways it never has before.  It is as if she knows she has just gained an opportunity to grow and change and one she will not let pass her by.  It is as if she is embracing 'all the days ordained for [her] written in [His] book'.

I am learning a thing or two from this precious daughter of mine.  And I am ready to embrace the things the Lord has for me in every area of my life.

~Whitney

Activation Day!

Activation Day 1 went great!  It is always so amazing to me to watch Tessa work so hard and be so patient! It never hurts when the world is revolving around her for the moment either ;)

One thing that is super different that I hadn't even thought about:  before, when Tessa's right CI would fall off or she would take it off...she would have no access to sound.  The most challenging moments of this were when she would pull her CI off and start chewing on it...our initial reaction is still to say "Tessa Rayne, no ma'am!" ...and of course she hears nothing..and our verbal discipline turns quickly into an "Ugh!" and then most of the time...laughter.  I can see her utilizing this Ears-Off-Can't-Hear-You tactic well into her future ;).  But anyway, for reasons other than her just hearing our verbal reprimands...it is very cool now, that even if one of her CIs is off, there is likely at least one in tact and so she barely misses a beat!  And you can already tell how much more she is taking in!

The coolest moment of my evening:  Tessa took a good nap on the way home after Activation and we took her ears off and let her sleep a bit more once we got home ~ she was pooped!  When she woke up I put her ears back on and carried her in her room to change her diaper.  She was so calm and grinning from ear to ear.  I was just talking to her and laid her down on her changing table and she started the sweetest bunch of soft little giggles to every word I said.  I would say a few words and she would giggle...almost right at her turn in the conversation.  I just stood there for a good 5 minutes, just talking to her and watching her smiling and listening to her precious sweet little giggles to every word I said.  I'll never forget it.  It was so clear that her world was already sounding very different to her...and last night, she was loving it!

Most of the videos we got were from when Tessa's new CI on the left was hooked up to detect tones being played to her.  As she responds to the tones, they are able to map her new processor.  It was incredible to see her responses to this new sound for the very first time!

  

A huge thanks to the greatest of people at Hearts for Hearing!  We have been through a lot over the last 2 years...and we are so blessed to have had them so involved in our journey!

~Whitney

Recovery/Bandage Off

I just realized I never posted anything about Tessa's recovery or when we took her bandage off.  More important to me and my timeline of memories of course, but never-the-less...

Such a little trooper

patiently waiting for the removal the huge weight wrapped around her head ;)

immediately spunky and playful once it came off!

 sorry it's a little gruesome, last year I remembered to get one after it had healed a bit...

this year I only took one just right after the bandage came off

(I was so sad to see where they shaved her head...luckily it's hair and it will grow back!)

 this made my day...she was SO happy to finally get a good bath!!

and then, here we have, little miss pretty...fresh after her bath & bandage free!

It cracked me up when I went back and looked at last year's "Bandage is off" post (http://bynumfourblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/bandage-is-off.html)....we got almost the exact same shots this year, too funny.  Some things haven't changed very much...but other things have...and Little Miss Tessa definitely has! We have a big girl on our hands now...man what a difference a year makes!

~Whitney

Activation Day!

It's activation day today and we are really excited!  Tessa has healed up very nicely from surgery and we are ready to get her left CI turned on today and start helping Tessa get adjusted to life with 2 CIs.

It's silly, but I must admit, I have moments where I would love to be done with headbands...but since it is the most realistic solution for Tessa to be able to function with her CIs on...I learn to deal ;)  The sweet girl we found on Etsy last year, came through for us again this year!  We got Tessa's package of 18 headbands, with left and right CI holders sewn on!  Since they are an essential accessory...we are thankful for the fun fashion element too!

We're hoping to get lots of pictures and videos to help capture today.  There is no way to know exactly how the left activation will affect Miss Tessa, but more than anything, we pray that she feels secure and comfortable with the way life will begin to change for her.

It's been really fun over the last few weeks as people have been asking how Tessa's surgery went and how she's been doing.  Several times in those conversations I've had moments where I just stop and think, 'it's kind of a miracle, that she is deaf...but she hears now'!  So much of our lives is about adjusting, constantly finding a new normal, and rolling with the punches...I wouldn't trade those moments where I can stop and realize God's constant provision for Tessa and our family.  I pray that I am always reminded of these miracles along the way...and that I always take the time to stop and praise the Lord for all the ways He shows Himself sovereign in our lives!

So, here's to witnessing another miracle today!  It's a good day :)

~Whitney

Surgery Update

Waiting for surgery... 

Cutest little patient ever

We can always count on Daddy for some good entertainment!

We were at the hospital by 6 a.m....and all sleepy!  

Was glad Little Miss was relaxed enough to take a little pre-surgery nap

 All is well ~ wrapped around Daddy's finger

Almost 3 hours later...

 They were super strict this time around and would only let one of us go back right after surgery...so, I had to take a pic to send to Daddy in the waiting room to let him know she was good! (awake & not screaming!!)

I could not wait to get her in my arms!  

All was right with the world (that is relief and exhaustion on my face ;)

Daddy was relieved too, but he always leans more towards cool, calm and collected ;)

Tessa and Daddy are hilarious.  She was still pretty medicated at this point...but leave it to Daddy to get some adorable giggles out of her!

 After almost 8 hours at the hospital, we finally made it home!  Tessa handled the hospital recovery time so well this time around.  Yesterday evening was a little rough because she needed more than just Tylenol, but once we got her prescription filled, she started doing much better. 

~Whitney