Our reaction-

Well, to be honest, when we heard the news, we were devastated. Not because of the results, but because we had NO idea how to be the parents of a deaf child! I knew how to sign a couple of letters from the alphabet, but that was it. We didn't know what to do as far as doctors appointments, how would we communicate with her, what would we tell everyone, what about school?! All of these thoughts, and many more, were flooding through our minds all at once.  The drive home from the hospital, we stopped at chili's to eat and talk. But we mostly just sat there and wondered what had happened. I was so afraid that I wasn't capable of being the mom that she needed. I wondered if it was something I had done. Maybe I had rolled too far onto my stomach when I was pregnant, maybe I was walking too much? I didn't have a clue how this had happened!

 

The best way I can describe it looking back, was just complete fear of the unknown. 

The news.

The way hospitals do things now-a-days is they screen every new baby's hearing. (They didn't used to test newborns unless there was an apparent reason to.) So while they rolled our new bundle of joy out of the hospital room to run some tests, Jon and I tried to catch some shut eye. When she came back the nurse let us know she had failed her hearing screen and that it was probably a false reading due to the fluids still in her ears. One more test before we went home came up with the same result, so we were referred to an Audiologist at Utah Valley Hospital.

We weren't all that concerned bringing her home because of what the nurse told us about the fluid in her ears. So my mom, my sister and I took Edyn down to the Audiologist and strangely enough for us, the test that can detect fluid in her ears came back negative.

My heart felt like I had a ton of bricks in it as we were leaving the testing room. All we wanted were answers but, of course, there was more waiting.

We went back to the hospital to have an ABR (Auditory Brainstem Response) done which is a 2 hour test. We hear with our brains, our ears are just the pathway to signal to the brain that we are hearing something. So this test measures her brains response to the sounds coming through the headphones. As you can imagine we were a sack of anxiety waiting in the silent (all except for the squeakiest chair that I happened to be sitting in) room.

 

 

 

The results from this test were not as we had hoped. She has profound hearing loss in her left ear, which means it's not likely she will ever be able to hear out of that ear, and in her right ear she has moderate-severe hearing loss, which means she can't hear our voices, but if a dog were barking right next to her, or if an instrument such as a piano was being played next to her, there's a chance she could hear it.

Welcoming Baby!

On Friday, February 3rd, I started feeling a weird pain! By Saturday morning, I knew it HAD to be contractions! So we waited and waited, my contractions were far enough apart that we assumed it would probably be the next day. My dad and brother had invited my husband up to a poker game that night, and with some hesitation he went. They all joked that I wasn't allowed to go into labor until the game was finished. So Saturday night comes along, and sure enough, my contractions are 3-4 minutes apart! My mom and I rush to the hospital, frantically calling my husband with the classic "It's time!" news. I wasn't dialated far enough when we got there, so of course I had to do the walking around the halls of the hospital in a gown! My husband and sister arrive and we made it into a fun little game while my mom walked behind and snapped some -to say the least- embarrassing photos. (But those will stay locked up tight where no one will see!) :)

Unfortunately, I wasn't dialating fast enough so they SENT ME HOME! I was so sad I wasn't going to meet my little girl that night! I was in agony that night and by Sunday night the contractions had gotten worse! So again, we rush to the hospital, and again...I wasn't dialated! I was scheduled to be induced the next day which was Monday, and I begged the nurse to let me stay because it was only a few hours away! But no budge. So we trucked on home again and waited until the next morning.  
When we got into the hospital room, it all seemed to go by really fast from there. I got in my gown, my family arrived and before I knew it I was getting my epidural. (And you bet your bottom I made sure I had enough time to put some mascara on!) Once the epidural kicked in, man, I was ready to go! But baby wasn't. So we waited for what seemed like ALL DAY. The nurse came in to check if I was dialating any more and within seconds it felt like, she was telling me to push! 

Here she is! On February 6th, 2012. At 8 lbs 9 0z. and 20' long, my sweet little girl was born :)

 Now, for the past 9 months, my husband and I had been trying to figure out a name, and the only thing we knew for sure is her middle name would be "Nancy" after my Grandma, and her last name would be...well, obviously "Twitchell". Other than that we were stuck! I was pushing for Lillian, because I've ALWAYS loved that name, and Jon liked the name Evie. But looking at her, neither of those really fit! My mom and sister had been PESTERING me to name her Edyn, even going as far as buying a lettere "E" to put on her door. So sure enough, on the LAST day we were at the hospital, we decided on Edyn.

Edyn Nancy Twitchell :) Sounds pretty perfect doesn't it?