Savannah's ears

When babies are born and in the hospital the nurses check their ears to see if they work. One out of every three babies fail this test. When Savannah failed her first test we didn't think anything of it. We assumed she still had so gunk in her ears from being in the womb. Two weeks when we went in to get her rescreened we began to worry a little because she wasn't starting to loud noises and she failed the screening again. We were sent home with a referal to an audiologist and really no hope. The nurse that screened Savannah the second time basically told me she would never hear. Which was kind of devastating to hear to a hormonal mother of a newborn. Daniel and I went home not sure how to feel and with a referal to an audiologist in the area. We were worried. After a couple weeks of waiting we had our appointment with the audiologist. If anyone in Cedar City is in need of an audiologist Dr. Witaker is your guy. He calmed our nerves before we ran another screening of her ears and if she failed that then we would wait another month for her ears to develop and we would run a test on her brain to see if there is a connection between the ear and the brain.

She failed again.

The next month was agonizing for me. Daniel was a wonderful support and beacon of hope. He made me feel so calm and at peace with whatever was about to happen. Although Daniel helped me feel calm and at peace that month was really hard. I had multiple breakdowns. I couldn't imagine the thought of my daughter not hearing me sing to her before bed, or hear Daniel and I say we love her. I couldn't imagine her not hearing us soothe her when she was in her car seat in the car. I could go on and on about all the things that made me worry. We told our family what was going on and that Savannah's ears might not be working properly. When we did this the support from our family came flooding in. We felt so grateful for our family and that we had more people to talk to about how we were feeling and cry to. Overall we didn't tell a lot of people what is going on because we weren't totally sure what was going on. Our questions weren't answered so how were we supposed to answer other peoples questions.

The night before Savannah's appointment we all got blessings and started a family fast. We knew that we weren't going to make it through whatever was about to happen without Our Heavenly Father on our side. I'm not going to go into detail about it but we felt the peace and comfort we needed and we knew our Heavenly Father was on our side and there for us. I didn't sleep very well that night for obvious reasons but as I laid in bed in the dark I felt my Heavenly Father with me and I knew no matter the outcome everything was going to be okay.

For a successful test it's easier for the baby to be asleep during it. So we got to the doctors office a half hour early so we could feed her and get her comfortable so she would sleep through the test. Savannah did not let us down. She slept through the entire test! We couldn't have asked for anything more from her. With all of the stickers and sensors they put on her and things shoved in her ears I was shocked that she slept through everything. When the test was over we heard the words that we were hoping to avoid.

Savannah is profoundly Deaf.

There was absolutly no reaction in the brain to sound. My heart sank. My tiny sweet girl hasn't heard my voice at all. Thankfully Daniel was there to ask all of the necessary questions. Although we loved working with Dr. Witaker he said that he was going to send us up to Primary Children's Hospital up in Salt Lake City. There is a world renowned children's audiologist that we will work with from now on. We have a lot of things that we still need to figure out and questions to be answered but we are very grateful that we finally have an answer and that Savannah will get the best.

As a mother I never expected in a million years that I would have a deaf child and the emotions that come along with that are not at all what I expected or even know how to explain. I can't help but cry whenever I try and talk about it but I know that Hevenly Father has a plan for Savannah. Through out the last two months I've never felt closer to my savior or felt more comfortable with his plan for me and my little family. He knows what he's doing sending Savannah to our family and I know that he knows that I as her mom can handle whatever is to come. We've been blessed with a wonderful support system with our family and neighbors. We have felt so much love from those around us and we seriously couldn't be more grateful for that.

We love our Savannah and we can't imagine our life without her. Even though her ears aren't working properly she is absolutely perfect and created exactly how she is supposed to be. We know the next little bit is going to be really hard as we try and fit into our new roles as parents of a deaf child and as we try and find our new normal but we're going to make it and everything is going to be okay.