The Hearing Aid and 20 Minutes in the Life of Blair

After my exams today, I took Blair to get her hearing aid. The appointment went well. She actually "performed" a little for the audiologist, which is strange, because she's not much into doing stuff for strangers. I was glad that her audiologist saw some of the language that Blair has -- in that she understands A LOT of what we tell her to do. I gave the audiologist the list of words and phrases that Blair understands and what she says, and she said that the amount of language Blair has is promising. We will still have to watch her speech though. Through the auditory neuropathy online group, I have read about a family with a child like Blair, lots of hearing and receptive language at 14 months, but they ended up having to do a cochlear implant for speech to develop. I pray that we won't have to do that, but I'm not marking that option off of our list. As a mom, I want to be optimistic about Blair's being in that very small percentage that doesn't have to have interventions for her auditory neuropathy. I want to be realistic at the same time though and remember that most kids have aids or implants. Blair's audiologist did say that they would probably not be willing to implant her with the amount of hearing she has. But if Blair can't put what she hears into words, what happens? It's one of those wait and see things that I'm not good at.
Back to the hearing aid... it is a loaner from Oticon, a Vigo. It's a low gain aid set for a mild hearing loss. It's not supposed to damage the hearing she does have. We have it for three months. If we lose it, we have to pay for it... all $1200 for an aid the size of a mandarin orange slice. In less than an hour Blair probably removed that hearing aid 65 times. That will be a battle that will hopefully pass after a few days. I waited until I was on break to take her to get it so that I could have her at home with me, see how she acts with it, and make sure it stays put in her ear. To help us keep up with it, we have a pediatric clip to help us keep it attached to her clothes. (I'm going to have to work on this, because it's yellow-orange and doesn't match anything she has to wear!)
So we'll see how it goes! Here's Miss Busy too preoccupied to even mess with the hearing aid.

7:53am Plays with the musical table.


Hey mommy.


7:55 Intrigued, as usual, by the Pulmicort package.


7:57 A new favorite -- blanket peekaboo.


7:58 Checks on the diapers.


7:59 Climbs into her drawer.


Gets mad because it's taking too long (still 7:59).


Throws things out and looks at them on the floor.


8:00 Gets out of the drawer.


8:02 Maybe the blue book?


Nah, the orange one is better.


Brings it to the right spot.


Reads.

8:03 Here Mommy. You take it. (Pulmicort in hand.)

8:04 Book number 2 -- it's a big heavy one.


Reads book number 2.


8:06 Goes and gets a puzzle and comes back to book number 2.


8:08 Still book number 2? Yes, it's a long-time favorite.




8:11 Book number 3.


Upside down.


And uses her little thumbs to turn pages.


After almost two hours of that, it was just about time for a nap!