29 weeks, a few days late. Forgive the picture quality...I left my camera at home. I'm midway through my trip to Advanced Bionics headquarters in California and I am having a great time and getting so much out of it...I can't even tell you. We met with the President of the company today, and took a tour of the building where they build each and every implant. We even got to go into their mock OR room where they train surgeons and check out how they teach the surgical technique using actual mastoid bones. Tomorrow we are doing some really exciting break out sessions and focus groups with the engineers of the company.
It has been so cool to be around people with our brand of implants. I mean, kids do great no matter what implant they get, but we're one of the only AB families in our area and it can be hard. It's nice to be able to discuss some little detail that no one would understand if they didn't have Advanced Bionics. I'm so excited about some things that seem to be in the works here.
It has been so cool to be around people with our brand of implants. I mean, kids do great no matter what implant they get, but we're one of the only AB families in our area and it can be hard. It's nice to be able to discuss some little detail that no one would understand if they didn't have Advanced Bionics. I'm so excited about some things that seem to be in the works here.
There are several parents of implant recipients here, and also several adult implant recipients themselves. It is so cool to talk to adults who were deafened post lingually who can actually tell me what things sound like versus what natural hearing sounds like. Everyone is really great, friendly, and feels so passionate about cochlear implants. It's really cool.
It's also amazing to talk to parents of kids who are a little older than Seth and see where there kids are. I think all the kids whose parents I've spoken to are mainstreamed and excelling....on the honor roll and so on. There is one eighteen year old here who is a junior in COLLEGE and studying political science. He wants to be a politician. It is so crazy to see how well he has done. It makes me excited to get home to Seth and work even harder.
Speaking of Seth, I am definitely going through withdrawal from this face:
I mean, I'm seriously missing Ava and Jace, too, but I've at least been able to talk to them on the phone multiple times a day. I'm just not used to being without Seth, who is always with me just about every second. I miss all the kids, a lot. Apparently today they took it upon themselves, completely on their own, to clean the kitchen counters and sweep the floors. When Seth saw what they were doing, he went and got the dustpan and started loading toys onto it. Cleaning! I love it. I hope they keep it up when I get home! My mom said she overheard Ava tell Jace that he should always sweep the floor before he mopped it. Ah, a girl after my own heart. They crack me up.
The baby has decided to try to shove random body parts out of my stomach this week. I don't know what they are, but they're sharp and pointy and at one point, my stomach was insanely lopsided because she was laying in some weird position. She's definitely jumping around like crazy. I forgot how wild their movements get at this point in pregnancy.
My OB appointments this week went pretty well...she's over three pounds now, and measuring in the 63rd percentile for growth. Her stomach is measuring larger, which is normal for babies whose mothers have gestational diabetes, and she has hair! That's awesome. Hair. I totally have to start getting bows and headbands for her. Some really obnoxious ones with humongous flowers. Can't wait.
