Lucas and his fancy Hearing Aids!


Thursday, July 22, 2010

Early Child and Family Services

Our Case manager, Tobin, from ECFS came out last week. She works at Baxter School for the Deaf, and will be our contact for implementing and receiving services. She was really nice, and had a lot of information for us.

She basically told us about all the different options that were available to us, and that we were in charge of how often we wanted to receive them. I told her we wanted to be as proactive as possible, so would probably be taking advantage of everything they had to offer! There is a Parent/Infant program at Baxter twice a week in the fall that we will be attending. On tuesdays the babies (and Noah as well!) go downstairs to their preschool and hang out with some of the teachers. The parents go upstairs and have discussions on many different topics relating to hearing loss/education etc. Then on Thursdays there is a signing class for the Parents and their children. I'm really looking forward to it. I think it will be GREAT for both Lucas and Noah, and also for us because we will be able to meet and talk to families that are going through the same thing.

I also asked her about any ASL classes that the rest of our family could take. My parents and sisters, and most of the rest of my extended family have all expressed interest in learning to sign. I have to say that means SO SO much to us. Tobin told us that if we wanted, we could have someone come out to our house just to help us learn ASL, for anyone that wants to attend! I am so excited about that! That will be in the fall as well, because as they are a school, most people are off for the summer. I will definitely let everyone know once we start scheduling those sessions. We'll probably make it fun and have pizza parties or something on those nights as well!

She left us with a large three ring binder FULL of information about hearing loss and all that it entails. I've been reading it and have found it incredibly helpful. I'm really excited to get started with everything they offer us!

CDS Evaluation

Child Development Services stopped by yesterday and evaluated Lucas. He automatically qualifies for services due to his hearing, but the evaluate to determine what his plan will be and make sure there is nothing else he will need.

They were two very nice ladies, and they were great at explaining everything. They started out by picking Lucas up and testing his neck/trunk/leg strength. That is one area I am NOT concerned with. Just like his big brother, he is very strong, and they were really impressed with him. They put him on his tummy and he immediately started doing the "superman", lifting his head and his legs at the same time. Very cute, and just what he should be doing!

Next they shined a little light at him and tried to get him to track it. He didn't do it- he was WAY too busy smiling and flirting with the lady that had the light. This is one area that I had/have concerns. If he is looking at your face and interacting with you, it's really hard to get him to look at something else. However, I came to the conclusion, and the CDS ladies agreed, that because he can't hear faces are *very* interesting to him, and give him the most input and pleasure. Babies love to look at faces anyway, but Lucas seems to really love it! They were able to get him to track an object and look left and right, so they weren't worried. I feel much better about it, but will probably still ask his Pedi Dr. Miller to make sure everything is looking good with his eyes at his next appointment- just for extra reassurance.

The one thing he didn't do much of was grab at the toys they held for him. He did bring his hands to midline and kind of reach for a lego, but he wasn't that interested. They weren't too concerned, just said to keep an eye on it. Of course after they left I was thinking about that, and realized that I don't hang a lot of toys in front of him. I'm always interacting with him face to face, and signing to him. He hasn't had much opportunity to explore with toys like that (bad mommy!). I hung a bunch of toys on his playmat, and he started grabbing at them and kicking them within a few minutes. Sometimes I can be a little slow to catch on! ;)

He was SO smiley and happy and talkative the whole time they were there. They said he obviously is a very social little guy, and they didn't have any worries about his cognitive or gross/fine motor skills. It was such a relief to hear that, even though I know he's doing great.

My mind tends to go to places it shouldn't and I get really worried about little things that I *know* I shouldn't be worrying about. I'm still nervous about the genetic testing, but hopefully once we get answers (either way) I'll relax a bit. I'm really really really crossing my fingers that he doesn't have anything else going on besides the hearing loss.

I didn't realize this, but CDS actually provides monetary help. They will be reimbursing us 22 cents a mile for every trip to the audiologist/ENT, and will be helping with the cost of any hearing aids and even the Signing Times DVDs. That was a pleasant surprise! They will be a supplement to the Early Child and Family Services people, and will fill any gaps, or pay for any programs they don't cover. I am so pleased that we have so many resources available to us. Our tax dollars hard at work!

It was a great appointment, and I was really happy with the outcome. Noah was present for it, and although he was a little bit of a distraction (he's Mister social, and was trying to get the ladies to play with him the whole time!) I think it was good for him to be part of it because it's something that will be a part of our lives now.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Signing Savvy

I've been using this great website to learn signs for Lucas. It has thousands of signs, all shown in little video clips. You can look up words, or phrases. I've found it to be SO helpful while we are waiting for the Early Intervention services to start up. It's actually been pretty fun to learn the signs, and use them when talking to Lucas. I always talk to him while I am signing. It's really important that we continue to communicate with him verbally even as we sign to him.

I've started teaching Noah some signs too. He is picking it up SO quickly. His little brain is like a sponge. He doesn't do them all 100% correctly, but he is trying, and seems really into it, which is exciting. It makes me happy to know that Noah will probably pick this up quicker then the rest of us, and will also be able to communicate with his brother. I've been talking to Noah about what is going on with Lucas, but I'm sure he doesn't really get it yet. I've told him the Lucas' ears don't work right now and he can't hear us when we talk to him, and that's why we need to learn to talk to him with our hands. This website makes learning how to talk with his hands fun for him because he can watch the videos and try to mimic it. He loves stuff like that.

I've been compiling a list of words, names and phrases that we use often around Lucas. Every day I add more, and I am sure it will be a work in progress for a long time. You can create quizzes off the word list, which I have found very helpful. I'm sharing the link so that anyone that is interested can use it, and if anyone has any words, names or phrases they would like to see on it, just let me know and I'll add them!

http://www.signingsavvy.com/browse.php?list=9425&submit=View+List

I'm so glad there are resources like this out there for us. It is important to me that we get started on being able to communicate with him as soon as possible. He's only 10 weeks old, but I'm all about being proactive as possible, it can only help.

A peek into a different future...

We went camping with the Boys and my Dad this weekend (I was very outnumbered!). It was a total blast. Noah was a little tornado, but had tons of fun, and Lucas did great!

The bathrooms had been closed all day, and finally around 8pm they reopened them. I went to go take a shower, and of course there was a line since everyone else had the same idea. While I was waiting, I watched two Mom's that were bathing their babies in the sinks. They were probably around one and 18 months old. I watched and listened as they talked to their cute little girls, and their girls responded. Their hands were pretty full trying to contain slippery baby and clean them at the same time. I had a moment where I flashed to the future and put myselves in their places. I thought of how, even if Lucas had hearing aids or a cochlear implant at that point, he wouldn't be wearing them for a bath. I thought about how it would probably be hard to sign to him, while I was trying to keep him from falling over in the sink and clean him at the same time. Of course, neither of these things are devestating, but it did make me a little sad for the future instances like that where I wouldn't be able to really have a conversation with him while I was bathing him. It was the first time I had really been around other babies (other then my neice, but she's younger, so it's different) and thought of how different it will be for us sometimes.

I didn't let myself have a pity party over it, but I wont lie and say it didn't make me a little sad. I have been reminding myself that the things I REALLY want for him are for him to not have any other problems, and something like not being able to talk to him sometimes in situations like that really isn't the end of the world. But still, I have my moments when things get me a little bummed out. I'm sure there will be more instances like this in the future, and I think it's ok to be a little sad, as long as I don't dwell on it.

He is such an incredibly happy baby. He smiles all the time, and will stare at you forever and have little conversations with you, puncuated with happy grins, and little giggles. He also loves it when I sign to him. There are plenty of positives that outweight the bad. One silver lining is that when my 28 month old is being loud of having a holy fit and Lucas is sleeping, he generally won't wake up! :)