Little Straws: Happy 3 Week Birthday Elliot!

I apologize that there has been a lack of updates on my part, but our life is wonderfully boring. I'll recap the last week for you all...We change diapers, love on Elliot, sleep, eat and Repeat. Yep, that's it!

Yesterday we did take a trip to the audiologist to have Elliot's hearing testing, since hearing loss can often run concurrent with Hydrocephalus and he did not receive the newborn hearing screens when he was born due to the anesthesia he had for his surgery. Well, he had a tympanogram done which showed no fluid in his ears (yea!), and the otoacoustic emissions testing was completed and showed that his inner hair follicles were doing what they should be doing (yea!) and then he had to have an auditory brain stem response test completed. For this test they had little baby electrodes connected to his ears and his forehead and then mini earphones inserted in each ear...lucky for us he fell asleep during most of this testing, it took around 40 minutes to complete. It test his brains response to a variety of tones and frequency and drum roll please........HE PASSED! (yea!)

To imagine all the odds this little man has beat in just 3 weeks is unreal and so exciting. Byron and I prepare ourselves so much for all these test to come back with some not so good news and we so far have been proven wrong each time, and we are not complaining!

Over the weekend Elliot also survived his first photoshoot. A friend, neighbor and colleague of mine, Heather, came by and took some wonderful photos of Elliot. We have gotten a sneak peak of some of them and I am in love with them all. I don't want to share them yet because then that would spoil the birth announcement, but I will eventually.

I also would like to thank so many of you for the wonderful donations to the Hydrocephalus Association in honor of Elliot. Byron and I have never done a fundraiser before let alone a WALK and we are so excited for how much support we have received. We have actually exceeded our fundraising goal, which blows my mind. We are very much so looking forward to next weekend and the WALK, my sister Kendall is flying in from Cincinnati, my brother and sister-in-law Chris and Marissa are driving up from Flagstaff and my sister Blair who is here in Ft. Collins with us are joining us all in Steamboat for the WALK. There will be an Updike invasion in Steamboat! Byron and I have also been in communication with the family that is organizing and running the event and they so generously let us know of a vacation rental in Steamboat that a family that had a daughter with Hydrocephalus donated to us for the weekend. So many things have fallen into place for that weekend and we are so looking forward to networking with other families and having Elliot spend his first vacation with some of his Aunts and Uncles.

The Friday that we head up to Steamboat will be a whirlwind of a day. We have to start the day down at Children's for an MRI and an appointment with his neurosurgeon and then we will drive the four hours to Steamboat from Denver. I am hoping that Elliot LOVES the car that day and is a trooper for our travels.

While re-reading this post before publishing I realize that this post is just not as funny as the others...my mom has reminded me that all of my previous post were written while on Percocet! So while I'm excited I am healing and not taking a handful of medication, I miss my ol' Percocet self. With my mom in town I am getting naps and actually getting things done! Thanks again to everyone for your out-pouring of love and support!

Here are some photos of Elliot, sorry they all are very similar but we just can't help ourselves.