8wks into her hearing journey...

On the 8th December 4wks after her surgery Faith was switched on. I went in with low expectations as I remember how gutted I felt when she got her hearing aids as it was nothing like all those videos that you see on social media of the amazing reactions children have.in experiencing sound for the first time. I'm so glad I was better prepared this time round as her switch on was not the huge reaction everyone seems to have...she gave very little subtle signs that she was hearing, she just sat there with her eyes looking very suspicious as you can see in the video clip below.

We were told not to worry and that over the coming weeks we should see more positive reactions.

We went home and the challenge that faced us was getting her to keep them on! Like with her hearing aids she removed them the first chance she got! A week passed and we hadn't notice anything so went for her second mapping and the volume was adjusted to louder and the following weeks we saw her start to react to Pepper barking, very loud clapping & yelling but again not huge reactions that we were hoping for. You had to really watch her as it was so subtle the reaction like a small look to the side or blink...sometimes when the next time the sound was made she never reacted so it made you question yourself on whether she did hear it the first time.

Every time she removed them (her CIs) we put them back on...some days it was up to 40 times which is quite frustrating at times but I bought various headbands from different places to find which one worked for us best..she now has a lovely collection as I cant stop buying different colours/designs!

One positive thing that is happening since she was switched on is that she is becoming vocal and even amazed us by saying Dada again after losing it a few months ago! 

At her 4wk mapping they struggled to get reactions out of her...she sure likes to make them work for it! They were unable to adjust much as they said that it was quite difficult , that they felt she wasn't ready to move up and needed longer to adjust. They said that they would wait a bit longer than normal before doing another map as they felt she was "immature" in understanding the hearing tests. I was also told that she needed to wear them more often during the day but its impossible as she still naps and they can last 2hrs or more. I understand she is losing a chunk of her day time of wearing the CIs but at the end of the day she is only 20mths old , I think sometimes the team forget that. As long as she is wearing them during her waking hours then that's important. Thankfully her other professionals agree that she is still quite young and still needs her naps for now.

Since then in the last 2wks its almost like a switch has come on, her vocalising is amazing, her TOD commented on how noisy she was becoming and how wonderful it was. She is starting to turn to loud calling of her name, she tries to say "woof" & it comes out as "oo oo"! First time she did it I was jumping in happiness telling her how clever she is & she thought I was hilarious!!

She has a long way to go, lots of therapy but I truly believe she will eventually talk and learn to use her CIs more.. She is following her own path in her own time, she may be slower than the other kiddos on the same journey but that doesn't matter as from everything I've been.through with Roo we have learnt to  celebrate all the inch stones no matter how long it takes for them to get there.