I can't believe my baby will be 5 on Monday. It feels like just yesterday that we were preparing for "her" arrival (remember...we were told we were having a girl) and when all of the pushing and agony was over we were pleasantly surprised that we had a boy! Allison Elizabeth quickly turned into Thomas John. Fast forward to our discharge day. It was close to 9am and the nurse hadn't brought Thomas in to nurse (he was usually in our room by 6am...and would spend no more than 2hrs in the nursery during the night). My concern was relieved when they rolled him in but as the nurse walked out I noticed a little card in his bassinet. Little did I know how much that card would change our lives.
To say I was devastated in learning that Thomas had a profound hearing loss would be an understatement. No one in our family was deaf, I knew nothing about cochlear implants, we didn't know ASL. How would we communicate? He will never get to enjoy music or singing and dancing! How would he interact with friends? Where would he go to school? questions and questions and more questions would flood my brain...and than the crying would start. For the 1st few months I couldn't say the words "profound hearing loss" without crying. Looking back I feel bad for all of our family and friends that wanted to know how Thomas was doing but had to deal with my tears during the explanation!
What a journey this has been! Thinking back on all of the Dr. appointments, audiology, speech therapy, testing, surgery, activation and mapping ~ it was all SOOOOO worth it. To see Thomas now makes me feel silly for feeling how I did 5yrs ago. All the crying and sadness ~ but it was part of my process. It's how I dealt with things. Thomas is doing phenomenal. I am one of the luckiest women in the world to have been blessed with two of the most amazingly wonderful boys.
Believe me, we have our struggles and stresses but it's all part of our journey! A journey I am thankful to be on!!! Happy 5th Birthday to my little man, Thomas. You amaze me everyday and make me so proud to be your Mom!
