The Hearing Aids are On

Today was Aiden's FIRST hearing birthday! He was up at 5:30 am to eat and was all smiles after that! He knew it was his big day and that I needed those smiles to help me through the morning! Our appt. was at 8, so after getting Ryan & Kailyn out the door, Mike and I headed to the audiologist. The appt. went great - they gave us Hearing Aid 101 class (how to clean them, the parts, how to turn them on/off etc) then showed us how to put them on Aiden, which he didn't like one bit! His ears may not work, but his lungs sure do! They fit perfect though! He didn't have much of a reaction, but like the audiologist said, it's like his new "ears" are just being born and are only one minute old. Just like a newborn won't know his spoken name, neither will a baby just hearing for the first time. Again, they don't know yet if he's just getting vibrations or if he may be hearing even a little bit. We're going to go with option 2 and believe that he is hearing, even if it's just a little bit! Even if he's not, we're all going to continue on like he does! He needs to wear them all waking hours, which right now, depends on what day of the week it is!


He took a great nap for me today, so I didn't get the hearing aids back on him until after his bath tonight. Everyone was gone, so it was my time to check them out on him. They're so small and I hate pushing the earmold into his ear, but the snugger you get it to fit, the less feedback (buzzing noise) the hearing aid lets off. Look at how cute he looks!


He was fussing after his bath (probably because I was trying to stick some foreign object in his ear for the first time!), but once I finally got them on he calmed down and then him and I just sat and chatted. He was smiling and cooing back with me, which he usually did before the hearing aids, so I performed the "binky test" to see if he'd stop sucking on it when I talked to him and he did ... multiple times! I barely have a voice right now, thanks to Texas' lovely allergy season, so my voice is real deep and it's hard to talk ... but I didn't give up! I even tried to sing him a few songs - no tune what-so-ever! He didn't like my singing very much!But, when I stopped singing, he got to be all smiles again. That's okay ... I wouldn't want to hear me sing right now either! Here are a couple more of my binky baby ...

So, the day was great and Aiden started it by teaching me a lesson - baby smiles cure all! I had all those worries for nothing. I really thought the sight of the hearing aids on him would make it real and get me down. Well, fact of the matter is, this is real, my son is deaf - no denying it. And the hearing aids, well, they make me realize we are on our way to a miracle. This is our first big step in our pursuit to let Aiden speak and listen. I'm already so proud of him! We have many steps to go and we're ready for the hike, but for now, we're all in step for our journey with hearing aids!