Lucas and his fancy Hearing Aids!


Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Noah Signing!

I'll post a blog soon about how things are going with the hearing aids soon, but havn't had time to sit down and do it yet!


I just had to share this video I took of Noah showing me some of the signs he's learned so far! I am so impressed with how quickly he has picked it all up, and most of all, how much he seems to enjoy it! We've been watching the signing times DVDS, and though I do sign with him, a lot of these he has been(and me too!) picking up from the DVDs. He knows that we are learning to sign so we can talk to Lucas, and will talk about that to people. He is even starting to use the signs if I am talking about something and he knows the sign for it- unprompted! I am just so amazed at him, they are such little sponges at this age, but I didn't know if it would be something that interested him, so I'm thrilled that it is!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeK6LEG6R_o

Friday, September 10, 2010

Hearing Aids!!

I'm a very bad blogger!! Life has been so busy lately, I just havn't had time to sit down and update this!! Here's a GREAT update for you all!!

I think I left off telling you all that we are done with the old ENT office Head and Neck Surgical. I am SO SO glad that we made that decision. I am thrilled that we are back at Northeast Hearing and Speech, and we LOVE our Audiologist Cindy! I feel like she actually listens to me and doesn't discount what I tell her, and doesn't make me feel like I'm just some desperate mother trying to convince herself she's seeing reactions. Our first audiologist was very nice, but I never felt like she took me seriously.

When I first went back to Cindy, she was telling me that she was surprised at the lack of hearing Lucas' ABR showed, based on the behavioural responses we saw at the follow up testing when he was two weeks old. At that time she was of the opinion that he had at least some hearing. I agreed with that based off all the reactions we have continued to see, but the tests said that he wasn't hearing anything. Lately he has actually startled when Noah shrieks, he wakes up when our alarms go off, he wakes up sometimes if we start being loud around him. I have a huge list of times he's woken up, or at least stirred in reaction to the sound, and there hasn't been anything else going on, like Noah jumping nearby or us touching him. I *finally* got good video of him the other day of us waking him up from a very sound sleep just by being loud.

Because of all of these reactions, and the video, Cindy decided to set his hearing aids conservatively. She doesn't want to do damage to any of his hearing if it turns out he has a milder loss. That is FINE with me! I would much rather be safe then sorry. We can always bump it up if he needs more. I would hate to discover that he didn't really have a profound loss, but he does now because we had his hearing aids set too high!

He finally got his hearing aids yesterday, 9/9/10! They are so teeny tiny and so cute! I got him a blue mold and a green mold, to make it fun! I want this to be something he can be proud of! We went over all the different parts, and the care for them. It's pretty straight forward, the hardest part is putting them in. It's not really that difficult, but right now I can't do it very well unless he's sitting in a bebepod seat. I'm sure within a short period of time I'll be able to put these things on upside down with my eyes closed! He is SUCH a good baby, and doesn't fuss at all while we are messing with his ears and putting them in. I am so lucky with him! I'm having a little bit of trouble with feedback and whistling, but I think it may partly be user error. Like I said, I'm not great at putting them in yet, so hopefully in the next couple of days I'll be able to get the fit better. Either that or we may need to get new molds made. He is a very fast growing little guy, and his molds were made a few weeks ago! I'll call monday if I'm still having problems.

It has been SO awesome to see him responding to sound! I can't even explain it! I have been on cloud nine, and just giddy with happiness for him!! When we first put them in he was looking around a lot more. Usually he finds something to look at that interests him and will stare at it for a while, but he has been really checking things out when people are talking. After we put them on in the office yesterday Cindy was holding him and he was looking down chewing on his hands. I said "Hi Lucas" and he looked right up at me and smiled! Man, what a feeling!! When I got home he was passed out in the car, the kind of sleep where their mouths are hanging open and they are just OUT. I started talking to him in a normal voice and his little eyes opened right up, and you could see in them that he was wondering what *was* that that had just woken him up! Of course I was so excited I forgot to take video of that! We're not going to see him turn to sound right off the bat most of the time. He's pretty much a newborn in terms of hearing right now, and it takes a few months for babies to start to turn to sound and their names. Right now we are looking for signs that he notices sounds, like widening of the eyes, stopping sucking or whatever he's doing when he hears a sound, startling etc. It's so obvious to me that he IS hearing things with his hearing aids on. It doesn't mean that he wont still need an implant. It all depends on how *much* he's able to hear, and if he's able to hear the speech sounds. If he can't hear the speech sounds, he wont learn to speak and listen properly. However, getting access to sound is SO important because it keeps the auditory centers in his brain stimulated, and will make it that much easier on him if he *does* need an implant.

I got a little bit of video tonight of him waking up in his car seat when I'm talking to him. I started to watch the video on my phone and that woke him up completely and boy was he upset with me! Wish I had gotten that on camera too! Hopefully I'll have lots more video of him hearing to post soon, and I wont have to be waking him up every time to get it! :D I'll have videos posted on facebook, so if you're not already my friend add me: Tonya Ng

I want to thank EVERYONE that has been so supportive, and have had such kind words for us. We are not alone in this journey with all of you behind us. Lucas is a very very lucky child to have so many people that love him and are cheering for him. You all have helped be our strength when things were/are going rough, and have been our cheerleaders when things are going well. I can't thank you enough for that.