Got to love 3 day weekends - we sure need more of them! We had quite a busy weekend filled with errands, a wedding, and visits with family, but I had plenty of quality time to spend with Sophie. :) It was nice having a long weekend because I feel like I haven’t had much time to spend with her since activation because of work.
Sophie still seems to be doing great with her CIs. She is keeping them on and is tolerating sound well. Our audiologist gave us access to four programs to progressively work through last week and Sophie is now on program #3. I’m sure she will be on #4 by the time we go back on Wednesday.
Sophie appears to be even more social since activation (if that’s possible). She is incredibly smiley and seems to laugh more often. She is still mesmerized by her noisy toys and I’ve noticed that she really takes an interest when we talk to her. I’m sure speech still sounds very funny to her, but I know her brain is constantly processing all of this new information. I’ve been trying to talk to Sophie at all times and label EVERYTHING I see or do to her.
I also let her watch a DVD today: Baby Einstein – Baby’s First Sounds. We received this as a gift while we were pregnant with Sophie and I could never bring myself to open it (or even look at it) before last week. Well, she loved it! Not only was she in a trance while watching, but she also babbled and yelled at the TV! She has never done that before. So cool!
Here she is, frozen and LISTENING!
Also, thanks to inspiration from Lily’s Mom, I have found a better way to wear her CIs:
By sewing elastic on the headband, we are able to connect the full battery to the processor. This way, we do not have to clip the battery pack to Sophie’s clothing AND the elastic keeps the weight of the processor from bending her poor little ears. Genius! No more cords! I have only made one of these headbands so far, but I’m quite proud of it. You see, I’m pretty much the opposite of crafty. In fact, it’s safe to say that my husband is the seamstress of the family. It may have taken some time and troubleshooting, but it is functional! I will probably make a few more and get some cute flower clippies to jazz them up. J
Lastly, I will say this – Sophie sure does attract a lot of attention with her new head gear. We went grocery shopping and to Target over the weekend and everyone was staring at her. And I mean stop dead in their tracks, mouth dropping, head turning as we pass by - STARING. I guess it is because most people have no idea what a CI is. When Sophie had her hearing aids, it was a little different. We received plenty of questions and looks, but everyone pretty much knew that the weird things in her ears were hearing aids. This is a completely new concept to most people and the device looks funny. The stares didn’t bother me, though. At all. I felt proud of her. I AM proud of her. She’s a very special girl.
Love the update! You do have so much to be proud of. The stares still get to me a bit, although it's getting easier. I came up with a solution though... search "the lucas card" on my blog. It has helped. Great idea about the headband. We ditched the babyworn setup pretty quickly too. Take care! You're doing great!
ReplyDeleteshe is very cute. The headbands worked well for us for quite a while too. We stopped using them when Matilda's hair stopped growing in that area. Sounds like Sophie is doing really well.
ReplyDeleteShe looks adorable in her headband. We didn't have any problems with hair not growing, but everyone is different. We still use the headbands a lot. However, if we are just staying around the house I put the compact batteries on and she wears the BTE without the headbands. We've also used wig tape which works well if you want to try that. Good luck and happy hearing Sophie!
ReplyDeleteThanks, ladies! So far the headbands are working. I hope she doesn't start to lose her hair! I guess we will cross that bridge when we come to it. :)
ReplyDeleteHey Emily!
ReplyDeleteI had to come over and say hi when I saw that Sophia just got CIs! She's adorable. I know the fun of having to modify devices to fit babies well...Seth was 8 months old when he was implanted and we had to be very creative when it came to keeping them on his head! The CI manufacturers have made great strides in pediatric wearing options just in the past two years, but it's still tough. Also, the stares get better, too. I'm not sure why, but people rarely stare outright at Seth anymore, and when they do ask, they think it's pretty awesome.
Best of luck in this crazy, exciting journey!
oh goodness, she's cute! the headband is great-we've always used wigtape since we got rid of the bodyworn configuration. it's worked great.
ReplyDeletethis march will be 2 years will sound and since m heard ME narrate everything? now SHE narrates EVERYTHING. some days i swear i am telling my deaf child to stop talking. ;)