A Dino Hatches!

Our handsome Mr. Greyson!

Our handsome little boy, Greyson Elliot, was born on March 4, 2016 at 10:45 p.m.  His birth was very eventful as he had turned breech and his cord was between his feet.  Needless to say we were rushed to the OR and about 30 min after discovering he was breech, he was born.  He was only 35 weeks so he spent the first 14 hours of his life in the NICU on a CPAP to help support his breathing.  I did get to see him for about 5 min before I was wheeled into my room for the evening.  I will never forget when they brought him into my room to see me at 2 p.m. the following day.  I was having a really hard time staying awake or keeping anything down.  As soon as they brought him into my room everyone said I perked up and looked better.  I was even able to eat for the first time in 24 hours!

Greyson on CPAP the night he was born

The following day they came to test Greyson's hearing and by this time we already suspected he was deaf like his sister Lily.  Several things had happened that he didn't respond to.  The main one was the drawers on his bassinet would slam shut and he wouldn't flinch or wake up.  The first test was kind of amazing because the lady that tested him was very social and talked to us the whole time letting us know what was going on.  It took something like 16 min to tell us he referred.  She was very polite and said someone would come in the next day to test him again and it may just be fluid, as he was a c-section baby.  The next day another lady came in to test Greyson and we told her we figure he will refer again and not to be too worried.  This day it was quite awkward for Bobby and me.  The lady was adamant he was going to pass and kept moving the earphones and holding things just so.  After about 15 minutes she finally said "well guys I'm sorry, but he is referring on both sides, I tried."  We kept reassuring her it was fine we already have one deaf child and we kind of hoped Greyson would be deaf as well.  We were scheduled for one more hearing test after we left the hospital.  That happened when Greyson was about a week old.  This lady was amazing and explained the whole test to us and didn't tell us she was sorry when he referred for the third time.  I know I'm sorry is what they feel like parents want to hear, but really all Bobby and I wanted was to not feel like our child being deaf was a bad thing.  I mean come on we have an amazing deaf daughter and now she had a deaf little brother to follow in her amazing footsteps!

Greyson's hearing testing in the hospital

Greyson was officially diagnosed with a profound hearing loss bilaterally when he was 4 weeks old.  We didn't have to sedate him like we did Lily because he was younger and slept right through the whole ABR.  This time around it was way more comfortable for Bobby and me.  A big plus is we already knew so much from having Lily.  At 2 months of age Greyson got his hearing aids.  We didn't see much reaction at all at home, but by the time he was 6 months old he was showing some awareness to sound in the testing booth.  It wasn't enough to make him ineligible for cochlear implants, but it was something.  It also made our decision to do cochlear implants much harder.  The decision to implant him to begin with was difficult.  We had been through so much with Lily being overstimulated and not wanting to use her implants.  It was just a lot for us to process.  I will say Bobby and I sat on opposite sides with Greyson.  I was more on the "let's raise him with ASL only" side and he was more on the "Let's implant him and give him everything" side.  Eventually we did meet in the middle and I agreed to implant him on one condition.  That condition being that everyone in our household had to focus more on signing and becoming more fluent.  ASL is very important when my kiddos don't have a working device or choose not to wear their devices.  So everyone agreed and we proceeded with the cochlear implant track.

Greyson's awesome blue hearing aids!

What Greyson thought about his hearing aids

We had made the decision to implant and then it seemed like everything went pretty quickly.  That is until our surgeon, who also did Lily's surgery, decided he wouldn't do the surgery at Phoenix Children's.  We wanted this facility for several reasons and we weren't willing to change our plans.  So we had a bit of a setback and I cried and wanted to just give up on implanting Greyson.  After checking with some friends and seeing which other surgeons may be suitable for our family, we settled on a new surgeon.  This one was quite amazing!  He has the best bedside manner and was kind and understanding of our families choices.  With our old surgeon I always felt like I was being called to the principles office because we sign and he was against us signing with our implanted children.  So, with the new surgeon things went very quickly again and we had set a surgery date for May 3, 2017.  We had ordered all of Greyson's implant components and just had to await the day of surgery.

With Greyson we went with Advanced Bionics as well.  We chose to go with their newer processor the Naida Q90 in petrol blue (the same color as his hearing aids).  It's an amazing color!  I swear ordering these devices is such a headache though because there are so many choices and we wanted to choose the stuff now that insurance won't cover later.  So we ended up ordering the roger FM system for Greyson and we managed to get insurance approval for 1 aqua case so he can go swimming and still hear.

The AB Naida Processors and colors

May 3, 2017 finally came and I was a nervous wreck!  Was I really ready for all of this again?  It was such a different experience this time though.  We weren't stuck in a waiting room by ourselves with Greyson.  They had toys he could play with and different people came in to see us and make sure we were all comfortable.  They gave Greyson some Versed to relax him so he wouldn't have the anxiety Lily had when we had to hand him over to the doctor.  That was a little bit funny though because Greyson became super giggly.  Shortly after that the anesthesiologist came and took Greyson back to the OR.  We walked to the waiting room and I sat and cried and posted some pictures on Facebook.  Because we chose a different facility with Greyson everything was different.  We had a number to look on the monitor and tell us where Greyson was at in the surgical procedure.  This made life so much better as we didn't have to sit and wonder and worry.  We were able to go get some breakfast in the cafeteria and then head back to the waiting room.  Half way through the surgery our audiologist came out and let us know Greyson was doing well and he had beautiful wavelengths.  When the surgery was all done and Greyson was in recovery we were taken to a private room to chat with the surgeon and the audiologist joined us as well.  I am so glad our experience with Greyson was so different from Lily's.  I needed that to be able to survive the whole process this time around.

Greyson playing the morning of surgery

Shape sorting while we wait

On Versed and though it was hilarious for mommy to eat his finger

Post op snuggles with mommy

We had several follow up appointments with the surgeon so he could check the incisions and placement.  He was cleared at his one week post op for activation in 3 weeks.  We scheduled Greyson's activation about 6 weeks out as we wanted the same activation day for him as Lily. Lily's was 4 years before on June 12, 2013 and Greyson's would be June 12, 2017.  We anxiously awaited this appointment as we wondered if he would cry like Lily did or be more calm and mellow as he tends to be naturally.

Now you know the story that led up to Greyson's Dino Steps!  We can't wait to see where this adventure takes our little guy as he navigates both the hearing and the deaf worlds!  Please stay tuned for Greyson's activation story and video!