Azlan at 15.5mths

Well a few things have happened since I last wrote...

Azlan is going to be a big brother...:) A baby girl is on the way...due May 5. Everything is going really well and so far, she looks healthy.

As Azlan grows older we are seeing some things ...

-he can't seem to localize hearing. We seen this now for a few wks. If I'm behind him...only by a few feet, and call his name, he hears me but looks everywhere in front of him... can't seem to tell which direction I'm coming from. We mentioned this over the 'holidays' to Dr. McCammon in Winnipeg and he said thats what happens when you don't have 'binaural hearing' (hearing in both ears) so he said its a strong indication of either deafness in one ear or partial deafness in one ear. In the latter case he said he would strongly push for a hearing aid to help develop the brain while he's so young, that there are long term effects of waiting. That should be an interesting conversation at the next Seattle appt since the ENT (ear nose throat doc) said she sees no point in worrying about that ear til he is 3,4 even 5yrs old. When I told Dr. McCammon that he shook his head and said no...it needs to be addressed ... now.

-looking at his teeth coming in...we have some work ahead of us there :) his front tooth is half in the cleft...so its quite crooked and is possibly going to make the other front tooth crooked...but what I saw tonight is quite a definate 'underbite'. We just really hope all of this is easily correctable...he is such a precious little boy to us and it does make us sad to think of the things he may have to go through. As Dr. McCammon said (who has a son that was born with a cleft) "its so hard as a parent to watch your child be made fun of"...

-his speech. He is almost 16mths old and while sure many babies may say little they can say SOMETHING. Azlan says MAMA. And not always, and not always in direct connection with me though when he is upset he says it...so I do think he's referring to me. However...no "hi" "baby" "dada" "blankie" "bye" "milk" NOTHING NOTHING else at all, not even an attempt...and I try. Many times I sit him down and practice words but he doesn't even seem to try. What he does say is quite nasally...so we feel quite confident we have speech therapy coming our way. When I do sit and wave at a toy with him and keep saying 'bye bye' he finally waves and says something that doesn't resemble 'bye' at all but its a very nasal sound.

Sooo we do have to remake an appt in Seattle to get several of these issues addressed. As parents we don't want to wait too long and have a longer road ahead of him than necessary. While I'm not for pushing things at all...I think we're seeing a need here on a few fronts. Most cleft babies get their palates repaired between 12-15mths...Azlan was done very early at 10.5mths...at my request for timing in the year. So I would have thought he would have a head start with sounds.

His eating is great, totally on straws, sippy cups, full table food. Loves to eat :)

He adores Tirzah and Zion and is real climber...everything is to be scaled in his mind :)