Genetics Appointment

We made another trip to Birmingham today for the appointment with the geneticist. We had some of our questions answered and realized this is going to be a longer process than we originally thought! When we got to downtown B-ham, we had to take little detours as we looked for the correct parking deck due to road work. When we finally found the parking deck, we had to walk about a block to our building.We ended up coming out differently than we came in and got lost! We ended up walking about two blocks to find our building! I would love to see how we would do w/ a map in NYC since we got lost in B-ham! Once we got into the genetics clinic, my hair was everywhere, Caroline was crying, and I felt very disorganized!

This is what we came out of the appointment knowing:
* They do NOT have a genetic disorder that is also related to a physical deformity.
* There are more genetic disorders that have been discovered that isn't Connexin 26 (SC has already been cleared for that).
* They are going to order a CT scan for Sara Catherine because there is a genetics disorder where the inner ear is not properly formed.
* Any future child has a 1 in 4 chance in having hearing loss.
* The probability doesn't change if it were a boy.
* If they can figure out what genetic disorder they have, we will know more about their future as far as if it will get any worse.

So, for now, we will wait on the CT scan and review the girls' audiograms. If the CT scan and auidograms do not reveal anything, then they will probably do more blood work.

Something funny about this appointment: The nurse asked Ronnie and me if we were blood related! She said they have to ask all of their patients that question. Of course, I was laughing and said NO!! Then the doctor came in and asked if we were from the same small town because way down the line we may have had the same kin folks! About that time, I start laughing and about to say No, and Caroline "toots" so loud as I'm holding her. I thought great this doctor thinks I just passed gas and that's why I'm laughing!

Something Creepy about this trip: We stopped at a gas station on the Bass Pro Prattville exit on the way home so I could feed Caroline. While I was feeding her, Ronnie ran in the store to get us something to drink. I noticed a man walk passed the door to the store and turn around and went in. I thought something about that was really odd. Well, about a minute later Ronnie walks out and the man is right behind him. We had parked away from the gas pumps (still in good sight), and no other cars were around. It was very obvious he was walking up to Ronnie. I am looking at Ronnie and pointing behind him telling him to TURN AROUND!!! When Ronnie turns around, he seemed kind of startled. The man apologized for walking up on him and went into some long spill about how he needed some money because a truck pulling a trailer was across the street at the hotel and he and his father-in-law needed to get it to Greenville but it was broke down. He kept rambling, and his story made no sense! I couldn't hear everything he was saying because we were in the car with the doors locked! I did hear Ronnie tell him that he didn't have any money! We never carry cash (not that Ronnie would have given it to him)! Ronnie waited for him to get in a car with a man and drive off before getting in the car. We watched them drive down the road to another gas station and then further down the road. We decided to see if there was a truck w/a trailer at the hotel across the street...and there was not! We talked about the fact that he probably wanted drug money, but what if it he was an angel, and God was testing us? We came to the conclusion that God knows we do not carry cash, and something about this guy was shady!

So, that was our day in a nutshell! Oh, the Easter Bunny was also able to do a little shopping for these two sweet girls:

Wild Thing!

I attached this toy to her car seat, and she loved it!

2 Months

Caroline is 2 months old today! I can't believe it has already been 2 months since she was born! She is such a sweet baby and a blessing for sure! She has her 2 month dr. appointment tomorrow and will have to get shots :( I will make sure to have the Tylenol in the diaper bag!! At this moment in her life she:
* Weighs between 10 and 11 pounds
* Wakes up 2 (sometimes 3) times a night to eat
* Smiles and Coos
* grunts all the time
* Loves to be held but also likes to be put down to go to sleep
(I guess it depends on what mood she is in)
* Still has dark hair

She loves her paci!

Happy Girl!

She loves for big sister to play with her!

Caroline's favorite toy!

She loves to sleep and still sleeps very well in her car seat!

3's of Me

Three names I go by:
1. Ashton
2. Mrs. Sansom
3. Mommy

Three Jobs I have had in my life:
1. Babysitter (My summer job in high school!)
2. Retail assistant at Bella Bloom
3. Daycare Teacher

Three places I have lived:
1. Andalusia, AL
2. Springville, AL
3. Opp, AL

Three Favorite Drinks:
1. Sweet Tea
2. Cherry Dr. Pepper from Sonic
3. Powerade or Gatorade (any flavor)

Three TV shows I watch:
1. 19 Kids and Counting
2. That 70's Show
3. The Today Show

Three places I have been:
1. Bimini
2. Key West
3. Disney World

Three of my favorite foods:
1. Sushi
2. Fettuccine Alfredo with grilled chicken (has to be homemade...not from a jar!)
3. Fajitas

Three cars I have owned:
1. Nissan Pathfinder
2. Nissan Altima
3. Mercedes (In high school and it was an 1989 model)

Three things I hate doing:
1. Laundry
2. Getting the girls out of the car and going into the Post Office just to get stamps
3. Taking SC or Caroline to get shots :(

Three places to find me on the weekend:
1. My house
2. Meredith's house
3. Mom's house

Three movies I have seen in the theaters recently:
1. Remember Me
2. Princess and The Frog
3. New Moon

Three places I would like to visit:
1. New York City
2. Hawaii
3. Australia

Three people I tag to complete the 3's of me:
1. Meredith Ramer
2. Toyia Colquett
3. Beth Coleman

Lily Pie

This weekend was like most of our weekends...very busy!! We enjoyed every bit of the sunshine, and it has been so hard to do anything inside because it's so nice outside! Friday, we took SC to get fitted for new hearing aid molds. She picked out a mixture of green, pink, and purple for her new ones! I can't wait to see how this looks. Right now her molds are light pink with sparkles! We have been told by other parents of children with hearing loss to let her pick out the color of her molds so she will feel like she is a part of the process and like wearing her hearing aids. Well, I must say she seems pretty excited about getting these new ones! They also tested her hearing again. They haven't tested her since November, so we were anxious to see if her hearing had gotten any worse, and it has NOT!! Yay! That was an answered prayer! That doesn't mean that it will never get worse, but for right now is hasn't! After her appointment, we met some friends at the park and enjoyed the sunshine! On Saturday, we loaded up and went to our cousin, Lily's first birthday party in Montgomery! We felt horrible because we left early enough to do a little shopping. Well, we went into a few stores and was only using Mom's clock in her Tahoe for the time. In our last store, Ronnie looked down at the clock on his cell phone and it said 2:20. We didn't think it was right, so we called my brother and asked the time. That is when we realized we were going by Mom's clock that was an hour behind and were late for the party!! We ended up being about 30 minutes late! The party was too cute, and all the children had a blast playing outside!The birthday girl sporting the tutu Christin made! She's so pretty!

Lily Pie loved her cake!

Caroline slept for most of the party!

Enjoying the sunshine!

SC and Ava are always so sweet together! Christin made these adorable tutus for them, and they loved them!

On the way there and home, we watched Hannah Montana the movie (that is one of the movies SC picked out when Ronnie took her to the movie store). I now know all of the words to Hoedown Throwdown, some of the moves, and had to sing The Climb over and over! I'm not a good singer by any stretch of the imagination, but for some reason, SC thinks I sing that song good and wanted me to keep singing!

Amanda, SC loved the cookies! The one in the picture was her favorite! I think all of the cookies were eaten before we made it home! You did a great job!

After church today, we had a Sunday School social and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. We had planned to let our children hunt Easter eggs outside, but it was too wet. We ended up hiding them inside the RAC! Spring Break is over, and Ronnie has to go back to work. We have had such a good week spending it together as a family. It makes me excited to think the summer is just around the corner and all the adventures we will have!

Attempting to take a group shot of the kiddos!

Showing off their eggs!

Sleeping Beauty!

Anna Kate and SC loved their goody buckets!

I'm going to end this blog with something that happened on the way to Montgomery. We passed a field and instantly the car was filled with an AWFUL smell. It had obviously just been fertilized with chicken manure. Sara Catherine said "Something stinks" and started holding her nose. She then looks at me and asked, "Mommy did you brush your teeth this morning?" We were all laughing so hard that I couldn't answer her, so she innocently said, "Mama your breath stinks!" We laughed so hard that we cried. That would be some pretty RANK breath to smell like chicken manure! When we passed that same spot on the way home, Mom and Ronnie were snickering, luckily SC didn't say anything about it!

Girls' Night

Mom, Christin, and I decided to have a girls' night last night! We went to eat dinner at CJ's and then went to the movies to see Remember Me. Christin and I would totally recommend the movie. Mom said she would not! The ending is such a surprise!! I think all three of our jaws hit the floor at the ending! We felt like it definitely had depth to it, and I left the movie thinking about it my whole drive home and when I went to bed! Mom said she didn't like it because it isn't one of those movies that you leave feeling all nice and bubbly inside! Christin and I felt like sometimes it's nice to see a deep, meaningful movie...not just a romantic comedy!! I even left the movie asking if it was based on a true story!!
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Okay, the next part of this blog is so gross!! When we got to the movie theater in Andalusia we were sitting in our seats, and I made the comment that I wished I had my camera because I would take some pictures of the theater and blog about it!! If you have been to the theater you know exactly what I am talking about. If you have only been to a Rave, you are in for a rude awakening. The theaters in Andalusia are beyond disgusting!! Christin had her camera, so of course, we took pictures!! We were the only ones watching the movie so we could talk or laugh as loud as we wanted. We kept making jokes that we were afraid to sit our popcorn down because the rats would come get it!! I would not sit my popcorn down until I knew that I was completely through eating it!! I know for the convenience factor (especially on a work night) it is much easier to go to the theater in Andalusia, but I try my hardest to avoid this theater because it is so gross!! I have so many friends that have told me that they do not go to the theater because of how nasty it is! I just don't understand why they don't give it a make over!!

This is the backs of the seats.

This is the floor! We couldn't tell how nasty it was because it was dark in the movies, but the flash from the camera showed us more than we could see!

Look really closely at the top of the picture. That is missing roof tiles. There were at least four missing!

The back of the seat in front of Christin...yuck!

Mom and me in the theater all by our lonesome! Check out the seat in front of me and the stains on it!

To end this blog on a good note...this is the sweet scene I came home to last night. Ronnie took both girls to the Mexican restaurant all by himself and then went to the movie store to let SC pick out a movie. They were all three snug in her bed with Shark Tales playing! There is nothing like seeing the love of a father with his daughter(s)!

Caroline's Diagnostic Test and B-ham fun!

We took Caroline back to Birmingham for her ABR Diagnostic test today. She has moderate hearing loss and will need hearing aids in both ears. Sara Catherine has moderate to severe hearing loss in both ears. So, Caroline's is a little better than Sara Catherine's. However, they will monitor both of them to see if it progresses. We have an appointment with the geneticist on March 29th. The audiologist said that since we do not know of any hearing loss on either sides of our families that we both probably carry a recessive gene and that is why both girls have hearing loss. He also made it very clear that he isn't a geneticist, he is just speculating and the geneticist will be able to answer more of our questions!! The good news is that since Caroline was diagnosed so early she should not be behind her peers in any way! She has an appointment on April 1st with Dr. Shirley to get the clearance on the hearing aids and then she will go for an appointment to get fitted for the aids. Hopefully she will have them by May! Ronnie and I are doing good! The news could have definitely been worse, and we know God is in control! We feel so blessed to have our two beautiful daughters and wouldn't trade them for the world! Someone made the comment that if God would have came to us before we had children and said that there are 2 girls with hearing loss that can be yours, but if you do not pick them then they are going to go to a home that does not help them and makes fun of them because of their hearing loss...or you can have to girls who are perfectly normal, which ones do you choose? They said that they knew Ronnie and I would have chosen the 2 with hearing loss without questioning it because we both have a heart of gold. I thought that was a super sweet compliment and am proud to have a husband that also has a compassionate heart! And I agree that we would have chosen the 2 with hearing loss :)

SC loved the wagon ride to get us back to the parking garage at Children's!

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We actually went to Birmingham yesterday because her appointment was at 8:45 this morning! We thought we would make this trip a mini vacation! When we got there we check into our hotel, or as Sara Catherine calls it a "Rotel"!! She can say hotel but chooses to call it a rotel! Then we drove about thirty minutes east and visited my Nanner! She isn't my biological grandmother, but I definitely claim her as one! She is dear to my family's heart, and I am so glad we were able to visit with her and her family!

When we left their home, we went and ate at the Cheesecake Factory! It was so yummy!! We normally are too stuffed to get dessert, but who goes to the Cheesecake Factory and doesn't get dessert?? We got the dolce de leche caramel cheesecake to go! It was delicious, and I would recommend it! For our entrees I got the chicken marsala and Ronnie got the jambalaya pasta dish. We could have split one because the portions were huge, and we couldn't eat it all!


The next picture is of my two sweet girls this morning in the "rotel". It cracks me up how excited kids are to stay in a hotel! SC always loves it when we stay in one and doesn't want to leave!

After we left Caroline's appointment, we went to the Birmingham zoo!

On our way to the zoo, she kept telling us she wanted to see the lions!

This is how she rode around the whole zoo!!

Group shot! Caroline slept the whole time bundled up all nice and snug in her stroller!

Sara Catherine took this picture!

It looks like he wants to eat her!!

Sara Catherine was so sweet and behaved so well at Caroline's appointment. The appointment lasted over two hours, and she sat in the chair and colored! She whispered when she talked (which was only a few times) and didn't complain once! Since she behaved so well, we wanted to treat her, so we told her she could pick out anything in the zoo gift shop that she wanted. What did she pick? An alligator that is as tall as she is! I know it will end up in the bottom of her closet, but we told her that she could pick anything she wanted, so she did!

Last, we want to thank everyone for the prayers, concerns, calls, and texts! We are blessed to have such great family, friends, and church family!

Happy Birthday Granny McKathan!

After church on Sunday afternoon, we celebrated my grandmother's 82nd birthday! Since she is in the nursing home, Mom had the sun room reserved for us to have some cake and to fellowship. It was a nice visit with family!

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How about this warm weather??!! Yesterday, Caroline and I took the Eco-friendly way to the post office! It was so pretty and I thought it would be a great day for a stroll instead of a drive! She fell asleep on the way home, and so I grabbed my devotional and sat outside for about an hour enjoying the warmth and the birds singing! It was so very peaceful! When Ronnie and SC got home, SC and I jumped on the trampoline and stayed outside for about 2 hours! This was my first time jumping since Santa brought it, and I must say it is a good work out! Meredith and I also went walking last night and ran stairs! Hopefully, the weather will continue to stay warm for us! However, I think the next couple of days are supposed to be rainy! We may have to break out the work out videos! Ha!

Check out her hair!! The static was making her hair stand straight up! Also, the little play dress she has on is her absolute favorite. She wears it 24/7 when we are home! Yes, she has it on right now! I won't let her wear it in public! It is 2 sizes too small! She has even made Mom bring her home because she wanted her "flower dress" and has slept with it like a blankie! She is so attached to this dress! I have had people ask me what am I going to do when she can't fit into it anymore or she wears it out? Well, Meredith is trying to find another one just like it online, and Aunt Christin suggested we go to Singer and let SC pick out the fabric, and she would make her a new dress!

Not the news we were expecting

Yesterday, we took Caroline to Birmingham to have her hearing tested. She did not pass her newborn screening and since SC has hearing loss, they wanted us to go to B-ham with Caroline. It isn't all that uncommon to fail a newborn screening, especially if it was a c-section baby. So, Ronnie, Caroline, and I headed to Birmingham yesterday morning. Ronnie and I were both in good spirits. We stopped and ate in Prattville and enjoyed each others company. We even talked about how when we made the same trip with Sara Catherine we knew that something was wrong and wanted to see how to move forward! With Caroline, we agreed that we thought she could hear, would get good news, and would be completely shocked if she didn't pass. Ronnie even made the comment that it would feel like a punch in the stomach if she didn't pass. She startles when something loud happens and looks at you when you talk to her. It seems like she is more alert than SC ever was! When we got to Children's we signed in and went right on back! The audiologist was sooo sweet! She did the test to check her ear drum which test for fluid in the ear. Everything looked great! So then she preformed an ABR test. She stuck probes on Caroline's forehead and behind both ears and then stuck the tester in her ear. She failed in both ears. Then she tested her cochlea, but told us that since she failed the one test she would most likely fail that one...and she did! I teared up and was trying SO hard not to cry every time she would tell us that she failed, but I still had hope that she was ok. At first when I would ask questions to see if Caroline could hear normally, and she was still so little that when tested in the future she would pass, the audiologist would not give me an answer. I felt like she skirted around it but wouldn't answer me! So, she then made an appointment for the 15th for Caroline to go back and have an ABR diagnostic test preformed. This test is more in depth and will tell if she has mild, moderate, severe, or profound hearing loss. I asked could she pass that one even though she failed the first one? She said yes, and they would rule the first one as not valid. So, I still had hope she had normal hearing! Right before we left, I told her that when we got home, everyone would want to know how are appointment went and what should we tell them? That is when she FINALLY told us that she probably does have some sort of hearing loss and now we need to find out the degree. I broke down and started crying! She even teared up! She was very encouraging and told us that unlike Sara Catherine, Caroline will get help now and should have no type of "catch up" like speech. Of course, we said "but the genetics test came back normal, how can it not be genetics if both daughters have hearing loss?" They only tested Sara Catherine for one factor that they know is linked to genetics. She said that there may be something that may be out there that is unkown or hasn't been named yet. She gave us the number to their geneticist who will do a complete evaluation and try to determine if it is genetics and other factors. One of the things that it hitting us really hard is that if it is genetics, we will probably not have anymore children of our own. I wanted around 4 children, and don't feel like I am through having kids, so it upsets me to think I am! Also, we want to know if our girls are likely to have children with hearing loss. So, with all of that being said how are we doing? At first of course we were emotional! It was a hard pill to swallow. I think it even shocked our friends and family because when they called to check on Caroline and we told them she failed, they all said are you serious or you're joking??!! We would tell them that we were serious and would not joke about that! Nobody could believe it! We know God has a plan and is going to use our family and girls through this! That is almost a little exciting to think that God chose Ronnie and me to meet, marry, and have two daughters with hearing loss and knew that together we could handle that and will strive to better His kingdom through this. And for our babies, he has such BIG plans for them! As far as no more children, we often have our own plans, but God's are completely different. We don't know what the future holds with that, but we have to have faith that God has plans for us, plans for welfare, not disaster, to give us a future and a hope! Jeremiah 29:11!! We also know that miracles happen everyday and that we can go to Birmingham on the 15th and Caroline be perfectly fine! If that is God's will, that will be awesome!!! But if it is not His will, we are prepared to face the road ahead, even the uncertainty of if their hearing loss will one day get worse.

It won't be like this for long....

When I am feeding Caroline in the middle of the night this song always pops in my head. When we first brought her home, and I was SO emotional, I would cry every time I thought about this song! I think with Sara Catherine I didn't realize how fast they grow up and how these few and precious months fly by! Before I know it, Caroline will be Sara Catherine's age! When Ronnie was sick and we were staying with Mom, she would wake up with me every time Caroline woke up to feed and asked me the next morning how I was managing to keep my eyes open. I think that new moms have super powers to have the energy to make it each day!! I also told her that it doesn't bother me getting up to feed Caroline because I know that in a few short months she will be sleeping through the night and "It won't be like this for long!" My cousin called me to check on me and the baby, and I told her how I think of that song and it helps me get through those sleepless night. She told me that it makes her cry every time she hears it too because they grow up so fast! Another song that I'm diggin' right now is Then by Brad Paisley. I think that through every stage of life you grow closer to your spouse and your love grows deeper. Again when Caroline was born and my hormones were crazy, I would look at Ronnie and cry. He would ask me what was wrong, and I would say "I just love you so much!" That went with my girls too, I couldn't look at them for a long time without crying because I loved them so much! A lot of my friends told me that they did the same thing! So, as I am typing this Ronnie came home and was looking over my shoulder reading what I was writing...he then told me to call his phone and said he had changed his ring tone for when I called about three days ago, and it is Then by Brad Paisley!! How neat is that!! If you haven't ever heard these two songs, I added them to my play list at the bottom of my blog!

Wow, what a weekend!

We had the busiest weekend we have had in a long time! Of course, every weekend seems to fly by, but we were only home long enough to lay our heads on our pillow! To start the weekend, we went to Gantt and had dinner with our friends Gregg, Meredith, and Kaidi. We enjoyed a great time of fellowship and a game of Mad Gab! We couldn't stay out too late because we had to have our beauty rest for Saturday! We had family/newborn portraits made with Vicki Popwell at ten Saturday morning. We started getting ready at 7 and were rushing to be out the door by 9:30! It takes at least 2 hours for all four of us to get ready now! I think the pictures went great! I'm excited to get our proofs back! She told Ronnie he had a very pretty smile and knows why I fell in love with him :) I thought that was a sweet comment! After leaving there, we grabbed lunch and went to Mom's to get ready for Cookies with Characters. If you have a little one, I highly recommend you take your child to Cookies. It is for a great cause and it is so magical for little ones. You can visit www.meredithsmiracles.org to find out more about this awesome organization that puts on Cookies with Characters.


SC's favorite character....Dorothy!!!

Ronnie, SC, and Ava watching the characters perform!

When we left there, we went back to Mom's and had a mini birthday party for Ava! We weren't able to make her party this year because of the snow and the birth of Caroline! So, we decided to have her a little cake and presents the next time she visited!



After the "party", SC took a nap, and then we got ready and went to the Rodeo! I thought she would love to see the horses, cows, and cowboys...but she said it was stinky and she wanted to go back to the princesses! She had a blast dancing and playing with Ava...instead of watching the rodeo! I don't think we got home til eleven!

Amber, Bo, Draper, Amanda, and Lily


YeeHaw!!

When Sunday rolled around, Ronnie and SC went to church (I didn't give enough time to get everyone ready...so Caroline and I didn't make it). When they got home, Ronnie went quail hunting, and the girls and I went to a wedding shower at Mom's. Oh, and I finally braved Wal-Mart with both girls! It was a breeze! My advice (for any new mom) is to park close to the buggies!! It just makes everything easier! When the shower was over, SC and I spent the rest of the afternoon outside playing and went to the Japanese restaurant for sushi....my favorite!! When we finally got home and settled in, Sara Catherine said she was ready to watch a movie and go to bed! For her to say that, I know she was exhausted! I love weekends that are full of fun activities that expose Sara Catherine to all sorts of learning experiences, but I don't think I could have weekends like the past one all of the time, or I would be a walking zombie! Hope everyone has a great week!






On a side note, we are taking little miss Amy Caroline to Birmingham on Friday to have her hearing tested. Please pray that everything is normal and she passes! We did hear back from the genetics testing on Sara Catherine, and it came back normal...which means that it is not genetics! That is good news for Caroline and any future children! However, I will naturally be nervous for Caroline until the doctors tell me everything is normal!