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Hearing Aids Are Here! (sung to the tune of Christmas time is here)


Can't see them very well in these pics
best picture I was able to get for now
sitting in boppy
Maddy's ornament for her first Christmas
Aaron's first Christmas ornament his mom made him.

Well we did it. We got Maddy hearing aids for Christmas. :) When we were at Grandma and Grandpa's we were all talking about how much the average family spends on Christmas presents. Aaron looked it up and it turns out that the average American spends over $400 PER PERSON on Christmas presents. Yikes! So we decided we'd count Maddy's hearing aids as a Christmas present so we could brag about how much we spend on her for Christmas. haha!
So we went to the Callier at 8:30 this morning and waited about 30 minutes in the waiting room. I think our doctor is just slow because while he was working with us a nurse or someone knocked on the door and it sounded like he was supposed to have been with somebody at 9:30 and it was about 15 after ten. That is okay. Getting hearing aids is a big change and while it's not learning a medical procedure that could be life or death it is nice that he is willing to just take his time with each family and make sure that they understand everything about how to use them, take them in and out, and answer any questions. He said that from looking at the ABR it seems from what we know right now, Maddy's hearing loss falls entirely in the moderate range and her hearing loss is flat. What this means is that she hears all sounds equally so consonants and vowels are at the same level of hearing for her. I guess some people have hearing loss where either consonants or vowels are easier for them to hear. She go the smallest hearing aids possible so that was good. If she would have had to have the larger size we would have had to tape them on her head but thank goodness that didn't happen! He showed us how to fit the ear mold pieces into her ears and let us practice taking them in and out a couple of times. She will wear them at all times except for bath and going to bed at night. If they bother her and she can't sleep during nap time we can take them out then but I don't think that is going to be an issue. She fell asleep fine with them in this afternoon. As soon as he put the first hearing aid in you could tell that she was hearing something different. She got really quite and just looked and looked at the doctor while he was talking. Then she started talking pretty loud. He said that is normal and a lot of kids will get a lot louder for a while because they can actually hear themselves and think it sounds cool. We did not do any tests or adjustments on the hearing aids today. He said he put them at a pretty conservative setting as far as volume goes. The goal right now is to get her used to having them in her ears and hearing more sound and to get us used to helping her keep them in and use them. We go back in January and they will do some behavioral tests to try to determine how everything is working then. He said if they try to do those tests right away they just don't work as well because the kid has had no time to get used to what they are hearing or had any time to learn how to process the new sounds they are hearing. So Maddy looks super cute with her hearing aids. They are not nearly as noticeable as I imagined they would be. She looks like she has headphones and is rocking out to her favorite tunes. It is very cute. She was really going for the camera and moving around a lot when I was trying to take pictures of her so most of them are blurry. I will try to get better ones soon. I think they have made her feel a little insecure because as you can see she had to have her paci to be okay about posing for the camera. She was a little upset when I put her on the couch. Plus the one on the left side is hard to get in and it falls out super easy right now cause I can't get it in right so I had put it back in a couple of times and it makes her really mad when you put them in. We'll see how it goes. I'm praying we figure out a knack to putting that one in and making it stay soon.
Other things that have been going on since I fell off the face of the blogging world a couple of weeks ago:
  • I got all my papers done for my classes. I finished on Saturday. Yipee! Huge weight off my shoulders.
  • We put up our Christmas decoration and the Christmas tree
  • Maddy decided that she could play on her tummy for a few minutes without getting mad
  • We had Aaron's freshman biology class over for dinner on Saturday. Eleven people signed up to come and one showed up so we had a lot of leftovers and a very irritated professors wife. No more freshmen!
  • We had our first freeze Friday night.
  • We went to West Texas for Thanksgiving and had a great time visiting family on both sides (of my family that is).
Next Friday we will be headed to Colorado for Christmas. The Christmas season is zooming by. God has blessed us greatly this year and we are super thankful to finally have Maddy's hearing aids!

Comments

Brittany said…
She DOES look super cute! What a rockstar! Can't wait to see you guys this weekend.
December 8, 2009 at 7:33 PM
the libbys said…
ah! look how cute you are, miss maddie!!!! she's getting so big!
December 8, 2009 at 9:05 PM
Brandon said…
Glad the hearing aids are working out fairly easy. I am sure you were dreading it.
December 9, 2009 at 4:02 PM
Anonymous said…
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December 14, 2009 at 10:44 AM
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