Chasing Butterflies Daily

So a few months ago we went to get Elis' hearing checked after getting his grommets in. His hearing in his left ear had returned to pre grommets and wasn't good at all, the audiologist couldn't see any trace of the grommet so we concluded that it had fallen out soon after the operation in November. Elis has since worn a hearing aid in his left ear.  Recently he has made comments about not hearing at times and I assumed the other grommet may have fallen out. I did try to get him to wear his right aid but he wasn't keen after a few days so I decided to leave it as I knew we had an audiology appointment coming up. Well today we went and the audiologist started by looking in his ears and she could see the grommet in his left ear clear as day! She couldn't see the right one though - I genuinely thought I was going crazy. But looking at her records she could confirm that his hearing had been down on the left ear. She explained that the ...

My favourite dude turns 4 in a few days time. As two of his sister's have just had their birthdays he is VERY excited to have cake for breakfast. As those who follow this page for Elis updates know, he is a very determined & cheerful soul. He is always trying to figure out ways to keep up with his siblings & peers despite his shorter stature & delayed speech. We have been blissfully safe in his own self awareness so far as he's not grasped what makes him different. But we are hitting that point now as two days ago he made it abundantly clear that he thinks he's going to wake up tall like his nursery friends on his birthday. I have spent time trying to explain that that won't happen as his bones grow differently from most people's, but he's not having it. Yesterday at nursery was the first time he couldn't do what the average height children doing. They were using little stilts & he had for the first time ever gotten frustrated ...

It's about 3 months since Elis had grommets put in to rectify his glue ear. We have noticed a huge improvement in his speech development since having the operation. He also had his tonsils and adenoids removed ( you can read more about the hospital stay and recovery HERE ) and the combination has meant he's taken leaps forward on the speech side. I imagine he's managing to explore more sounds with his tongue now they have been dealt with the tonsils and adenoids and the grommets allow him to hear better all the time. We had a bit of a palaver getting there as Elis threw up in the car. Thankfully I was prepared for him being car sick so I had a change of clothes and had allowed time for a clean up we made it with zero seconds to spare. Our last audiology appointment was in the summer so I was looking forward to this one as we enjoy working with his team but I was also sure we'd get a good report back and hopefully not have to be back too soon. Eli...

At the beginning of October 2021 we had a long overdue face to face appointment with ENT. It was nearly a year later than originally planned due to covid restrictions and consequent patient backlogs.  Elis' sleep studies in 2020 showed that he had sleep apnoea and there had been no changes to his hearing loss in the last two years. ENT wanted to do a physical examination in person before confirming whether or not we should discuss operating. His appointment went much as expected, his tonsils were enlarged and we agreed that it would help his breathing both at night and during the day (he is normally a mouth breather and struggles to breathe out of his nose at all) to have a tonsillectomy. While operating they would make the decision about his adenoids but it most likely he would have an adenoidectomy during surgery. We also agreed to give grommets in his ears one go - they are little tubes that are inserted into the ear drums to help drain the fluid that has been blocki...

I post this as Juno celebrates her first birthday - we opened her presents where she was born. Some of this was written a year ago and other bits only now so excuse the jumps in tenses and it being a bit muddled. I've not had time to edit it like I normally would either so I'm sure there are spelling mistakes and other possible errors but if I don't post this now it may not happen and I want to treasure this memory before it slips away more than it has . I found reading other women's birth stories so helpful while preparing for this birth. The positive ones filled me with hope of what could be and inspired me lots. The ones where plans changed where still so helpful as it made me think about different situations and what I might or might not want to do myself. I'll also found these inspiring as so much strength came out of them, regardless of whether the woman felt happy or not with the experience it was useful to learn from (although also terrifying how often most ...