mark your calendars

last week we officially booked oliver's surgery! january 22nd this little boy goes in and gets his ears. and judah isn't officially booked yet since we are still waiting for his MRI/CT, but they've blocked out the 29th for him. so it should be an interesting few weeks dealing with two post-op babies.

here's what life will look like once we get close to surgery:

a month before we meet with the surgeon (who is so sweet and everyone speaks so highly of) and then again a week before. the morning of surgery we show up at 6:30, and at 8:30 it's go time. the surgery should take 4-5 hours for both ears and the poor little babies will have a big bandage wrapped around their heads for a few days. a week after we go back to the surgeon, and then again a month after.

now for the exciting/scary/nerve wracking/praying so hard part... the activation. three weeks after surgery they will get "turned on". we are hoping-along with the whole CI team- that we'll be able to activate the boys at the same time. they've become serious celebrities over there so everyone wants to see them start this journey together. this could go one of many ways. i'm preparing myself for the worst, lots of crying and scariness. i know i'll be an emotional wreck no matter how it goes. anyways, when they first turn their devices on it's at a pretty low level so the boys don't get completely bombarded with sound and freak out. we'll go back a week later and they'll make adjustments. and then at the one month mark, three month mark, six month mark, nine month mark and one year mark. and from there i think it's only an annual visit.

the other side of being activated is the beginning of speech therapy. as soon as they're on they start once a week for the entire first year of having implants. again, we are hoping they can go together! our speech therapist said she would love to have them both come at the same time and as long as they don't go in opposite paths and need serious one-on-one attention it should be no problem. and really it should benefit them, watching each other and playing and interacting in a learning environment.

it's starting to feel real now that we've come to the end of the evaluation process and our next step is the actual surgery. of course i'm so nervous about the procedure and i am dreading that morning- times two. but i'm excited and hopeful that these boys will finally hear us say their names.