parenting is never dull

I cant believe we are already three months into this journey with Marae. Sometimes it feels it's gone quickly, other times it feels like so much has happened in those short three months. Life with three kids 3 and under is totally CRAZY! This week has been no exception. There are many times Luke and I look across the room at each other, all three kids screaming, and we give each other "the look". This look is not the "look at our beautiful sweet children, we are such lucky parents" look. There IS a look for that, but this look is the "Dear God, what have we done!" or "can I scream too?" cause that is really all you can do in those moments. Seriously our neighbors have to think at times that we are running a mad house full of running elephants and screaming hyenas. One would think Marae's hearing loss would be our struggle right now, but no, it's the terrible 3's. Who ever said 2 was the terrible year, hadn't met a 3 year old. Kay has displayed some of the loudest and most theatrical temper tantrums we have ever seen. Sometimes all we can do is shut her in her room and start laughing as soon as the door is closed. Other times, it's just the icing on the cake and I close the door to cry. What ever the case, parenting is hard and when you have 3, it's hard times 3.

Temper tantrums were not all the excitement we had this week. Noah gave us a real scare Tuesday night. We were at our community group from Church and THANK GOD it was Luke and my turn to watch the kiddos upstairs. We passed out the kids normal snack of goldfish crackers, everyone's favorite. Literally seconds after Noah began to consume his crackers, his upper lip began to swell and his face became red and blotchy. I quickly ushered Luke and Noah out the door and called Swedish medical center to let them know they were on the way and Noah was having an anaphylactic reaction. The idiot that I sometimes can be, I did not have his epi pen with us. Honestly Noah has seemed to out grow his milk and eggs allergy so I just really didnt see the need to keep a needle in my purse that the kids could have access to. I was pretty puzzled as to why fish crackers was giving him this scary reaction. He had eaten them hundreds of times before. And milk NEVER gave him this kind of reaction. After some thought and conversing, we figured out that the bag used for the snack, had contained peanut butter filled pretzels earlier in the day and Luke saw Noah eat one left over in the bag. So Noah was having a reaction to peanuts. We were told to stay away from nuts since he tested allergic to almonds, but we had no clue he was going to be one of those kids. You know, the kids who have to stay a mile away from anything that has remotely come in contact with nuts. The good news is they made it to the hospital quickly and Noah got the drugs he needed to bring the swelling down and return his breathing to normal. He did however get to spend the night in the pediatric ward. This marks 4 nights Luke has spent on an uncomfortable window bed this year. 2 of those being (Noah's lips at the hospital)

with the kids. I remember my mom once said that having kids was like having your heart walk around outside your body. Wow, did she ever know what she was talking about! Noah is home now and I have to say, the boy's little adventure allowed the girls and I some nice time together.
(The girls smiling and playing together on the floor gym)


(Marae all hooked up for her BAER hearing test)

Marae also had her repeat BAER test this week. I thought it was to be an aided test this time, but it was unaided (without her hearing aids). Last time she took the test she had no responses to the equipments max (95 decibels). This time we actually got some responses from 85, 90, and 95 decibels. This is great news because it is just more confirmation that her auditory (8th) nerve is present. She hears lower pitches better than higher pitches and she seems to have "islands of hearing" along the spectrum. Because money is now no object, they ordered her the best pediatric hearing aids on the market and those will be fitted to her on Monday. Just another one of the many blessings arising from this whole thing. We also had her psychosocial evaluation with the cochlear implant clinic. Believe me it sounds far scarier than it actually is. The psychologist just shared with us the history of the deaf movement, what role implants has taken in the deaf culture, and the entire process of the implantation right down to what we pack for her over night hospital stay. It was pretty interesting learning a bit about the deaf community. It is rapidly changing with a new generation of "hearing deaf". I also learned that for whatever reason, babies who receive implants hear better than adults who receive implants. It has to do with how quickly the infant brain is learning and soaking up new things verses an adult who learns at a much slower pace.

Finally our week ended with taking Marae into the Childrens hospital ER for a high fever. Since she is so young they wanted to examine her in case she had an infection. I'm not sure that I have completely recovered from being up all night on Thursday. They did a cath to test her urine, an IV to give her fluids and test her blood, and a mucus test to see if she had a respiratory virus. All were negative and Marae managed to smile in between tests. They sent us home with the idea this was just a virus and she would heal herself. After the fever was done she broke out with the typical roseola rash. That would explain why there were no other symptoms.

We thank you for your continued prayers, and know we covet them. I think Luke and I have come to learn that when you become a parent you truly surrender yourself to the will of God. There is so much we cannot control. We have to role with the punches and pray hard. Every child has their ups and downs, their proud moments and frustrating ones, and though you can never be sure of what tomorrow brings, you CAN be sure that there will NEVER be a dull moment.