Enjoying Each Small Step

I'm not a very patient person when it comes to some things. I hate admitting it, but when I want something, I want it or want it to happen NOW.

This journey is not one with instantaneous, you water it and it grows type of results; it's one that takes a lot of nurturing, a lot of repetition, and therefore, a lot of patience waiting to see results. People believe, as we did in the beginning, that the implants are on, surgery is done, and BAM, the child can hear, amen, everything's great. Not true. There is a lot of work involved with teaching a deaf child to hear. Very small steps, with milestones popping up here and there; sometimes you see something new everyday, sometimes not. I constantly remind myself of what some of the CI mom gurus have said on CiCircle, "This journey is not a sprint, it's a marathon." And that it is.

Aiden is six weeks post activation of his right ear, and just today, I turned him up to his last program, P3 (program 3), on his left ear. I have to say, that I wanted to see results day 1 with the first activation, and we did, but by day 7 post activation, they were still the same results, and I wanted more.

Baby steps and lots of repetition. It's what it takes.

Practice the lings.
Point out every little sound.
"I heard that!"
Talk.
Sing.
Talk a lot more.
Sing a lot more.
Lings.
Silence.

Let him take it all in.
Then wait. and wait. and wait.

Patience.

I've prayed many years for patience. I finally quit praying for it, because God kept giving me situations to test my patience. I guess this is the biggest one. I think I'm getting it.

I'm learning a lot of ways to work with Aiden and teach him to listen; I'm learning what signs to look for that he's hearing something, and constantly looking for those "aha moments" from him. But what I'm learning more than anything, in these short six weeks, is to sit back and cherish every little baby step that Aiden is making; cherish the moment that we're in - cherish the NOW. Because before I know it, I'm going to wish he was this small again. Before I know it, I'll be complaining about how all Aiden says is, "No!"; before I know it, I'll be writing about how my deaf child will not QUIT talking; before I know it, I won't have to continuously say, "I heard that!" and point to my ear, because he'll just get it. And I'll miss it all.

Take it all in.
One baby step at a time.
It's a lovely journey.

And here's where we're at in Our Journey, six weeks post activation.

Just SIMPLY AMAZED.

(Make sure to turn off the music on the right before playing video).
Please note that I have tried and tried to caption this through overstream ... and it's just keeps shutting down my computer (Vista issue maybe?). Any suggestions, you can contact me offline!


Note: The airplane is used to represent the /ah/ sound (which is one of the Ling Six sounds used to test Aiden's CIs everyday). You can see how airplane is signed here. Aiden just uses his pointer finger to sign it. By him signing it, shows us he is hearing the /ah/ sound and associating it to the airplane!

Six Weeks Post Activation on Right Ear - Update on Left Ear

I've been horrible at keeping up this blog and so much has been happening! I SO want to make a video, but I am SO busy what seems like ALL the time! I'm toting my older two kids to and from school everyday, which turns out to be over an hour trip two times a day, then there's AV therapy or Infants & Toddlers (Aiden's TOD and PT) or audiology or lately, back to see the surgeon. Then Aiden is such a busy, busy one year old that does not like to play by himself. I think with all the "play therapy" I've done taught him he only likes to play if mom or dad is sitting on the floor playing with him. UGH! Gotta break this habit and fast! So anyway ... here's a quick recap of what's been going on:

Aiden's left implant looks GREAT! After surgery, he had a bout with fluid build up and had to rewrap this ear. We finally got the left CI back on this past Monday (10 days after surgery) and our baby's bilateral again! Whew! He did great with reactivation and has barely tried to pull it off since! We're back to P1 (program 1) with this ear, but have two additional programs to move up to over the next two weeks. Then after these two weeks we'll go back to the sound booth to check both ears, and readjust, if needed, from there.

Aiden was also tested in the sound booth Monday. My baby is hearing at 15-20 db across all frequencies with his right CI!!! To me, this is unfreakinbelievable! 15 to 20 db!!! This is the same boy who just a year ago couldn't hear anything at all at 110db and now he's hearing at 15-20db! Are there truly any words to describe this?!?

Some very fun, amazing, just out of this world, I thought I'd never experience with him things he's doing include:

• Whenever I do the /ah/ sound - he signs airplane (well, with his pointer finger flying around) - without anything from me except the sound /ah/! No joke.



• He is turning more and more to his name! I called his name all day today and almost each time I said it, he turned, looked at me, and smiled!



• When he's in his booster seat in the kitchen and someone comes in the very squeaky front door (which he cannot see), he turns to look who's coming in!



• When he went to dump the cat water bowl today, as always I said, "Aiden, no-no", which he typically never hears and continues to dump the water all over, but today he stopped! STOPPED, looked at me, went to do it again, I repeated myself, signed no, said it again, and he crawled away! I tried it again later as he tried to rip apart an arrangement ... and he STOPPED again, looked at me and smiled, very slowly put his hand up towards it again, I repeated myself (without sign this time), and he crawled away! I almost wanted to put him in situations so I could say "no" to him just to watch him respond! I've never been so happy telling a child no before!



• He's starting to babble ... a little bit. This is my biggest concern, but like his audiologist said - he's only six weeks hearing with one CI. True. And we are finally getting some "ah's, da's, and ma's" and today I even heard a couple times of him just gibber-gabbing like a hearing baby does, but still not like he did with his aids. We'll get there though.



• Sometimes, when we say "bird" or "tweet-tweet" he will look out the window at the bird feeder and then sign bird (which he does backwards and with his full hand). And sometimes when I say "cat" he will look around for one of the cats.

I need to get some of these things on video, but again, it's been so nonstop with all three kids. I can't be more pleased with how far my little man has come this past six weeks. I hate all that he's endured, but we know the end result is worth it. He's a tough little thing with an amazing disposition. He looked at me tonight, with those big blue eyes, and as I looked back at him, he just smiled at me. Smiled a big ol' smile. And he melted his mommy's heart just one more time today.