"EH?"

At the end of March I took Brynley to her 15 month check up. Of course she's growing like a weed, but the doctor was concerned about her not saying a single solitary word yet. So he sent me to a ENT specialist to check her hearing.

The specialist saw fluid in both her ears. Apparently this is something that only really specialists know how to see. And they did the neato baby hearing test with speakers and toys on two sides of the room. He came back with the results that she's hearing 1,000 times less than she should be. The number should have been 5, hers was 30. Not that this means too much to me. All in all, what it means is that she can hear sounds but not clearly enough to hear distinct words, hence the lack of learning to talk. Now that I know what is going on, it's also become very noticeable to me that she really doesn't understand a word we say, but understanding our hand gestures. So, since the fluid has been there long enough to stop her speech development, it's pretty clear it probably isn't going away anytime soon.

The answer, tubes. Her surgery is scheduled for April 22nd. It should take about two weeks to totally drain and for her to hear clearly. I'm so eager for her to be able to communicate! She's so sweet and I can't wait to hear what she has to say! Along with this news, I should also add that the cost of this surgery, will push back any trip to Utah we were hoping to plan. We were hoping to try and make it back the summer of 2011, but that's looking pretty undo-able now. Rest assured we are doing the best we can!!

Please keep Brynley in your prayers!