Sound Appreciation Saturday

7th March 2015

Hmmm.... Did she hear that? Did you see her turn to that sound? I'm pretty sure I did, but now I can't get her to do it again. Maybe I was hoping to hard, maybe it was coincidence, did I imagine it, maybe she did hear it?

That scenario happened several times today.

Being a hearing parent to a deaf child, who has recently had her cochlear implants activated, is a strange & surreal experience.

Princess has never heard a sound before, not one decibel, not one door slam or me shouting to her brothers or loud car engines or workmen drilling and hammering or the deep bass in music. We have relied on BSL since her diagnosis at 6 weeks old and now we are trying to introduce sound. It's weird teaching her to hear considering it was something we just took for granted with our first three boys.

Every morning when we put her CIs on, we clap our hands out behind her to see if she responds, she does. Hurray, that means the devices are working and my baby's magic ears are ready to help her hear. During this fortnight we have to increase the volume every four days by 12%, and our emotions are very much involved - at any stage she could reach the point where she is able to hear our voices, but we don't know when. It's a difficult limbo situation - wanting to see a positive reaction and increasing responses to environmental noises, but also keeping that parental cautiousness that ensures that if she doesn't respond, I won't be devastated.

So far, she hasn't disappointed, her reactions have changed a little each time we have increased the volume. We turned her up again yesterday and it now seems she can her me shouting at her brothers (they were being particularly mischievous today, so there were a few shouting episodes!), maybe something from the tv (she seemed more interested today than she has been before) and even repetitive sound tests eg ba ba ba ba ba ba.

It all feels pretty overwhelming, of course I want her to respond to sound & learn about the whole part of her life she hasn't noticed before, but I also don't want to rush her or inundate her with so much information that other aspects of her development suffer. Princess shows a very clever little nature, she only needs to be shown something once and she will try to copy it, I know she will cope well with learning, but as a protective mummy I want to make sure that she has loads of fun and doesn't feel like she is always working.

In the midst of hearing new sounds and impressing everyone she meets with her responses, she is also managing to show off her new signing skills. This morning she signed for her breakfast and of course, as any baby does, she repeatedly signs to get the lights switched on and off, she also ate loads this afternoon and managed to keep pointing to what she wanted and signed for more and give me that. What is even better is that she is trying to copy her brothers when then sign at her, which is giving them a real boost too!

Tomorrow is another new day, which will probably contain many more of the same emotions and hopefully some new surprises, so I guess I better go get some rest to prepare for it.

Goodnight all,
Sara xx