Deaf Santa!

What a fun day.  Sophie got to visit Deaf Santa at Pearl Ridge Mall.  She was mesmerized by all of the kids and adults performing.  I'm amazed she had such a good attention span.  Here are a few pics:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dad and the girls eating chocolate fondue

This year we had a non-traditional thanksgiving on the beach with some lovely friends. I'm thinking it may be a new tradition for us. No stress and lots of relaxing fun.  The girls swam and dug in the sand for 8 hours with only the shortest breaks for food and drinks.  The food was wonderful and we did still get our turkey with all the fixings.

Sophie is just about 20 months old now. My how time flies. She's turning into quite a feisty kid. Here's a clip of her eating ice cream:

Sophie Eating Ice Cream

Lots of folks are encouraging us to stop signing to get Sophie to speak more. Signing, aside from the cultural value, has been really beneficial in allowing us to know what Sophie can hear.  In the video above I'm not signing and she's probably not reading lips.  She answers my questions perfectly in sign and once by speaking.  Without the signing, I'd have to guess what she can understand all the time.  I'm pretty sure she wouldn't get the credit she's due as we can hardly believe her progress even with the signing as proof.  It seems crazy to take away any means of communication as we enter the terrible 2s so we re staying the course.

This Thanksgiving we are adding to the list our thanks for the wonders of cochlear implant technology and the phenomenal support network we have found this last year.  Sophie is light years beyond all of our expectations.  We talk to her like a hearing kid and she responds like a hearing kid. She also signs like a champ with a huge vocabulary, grammar, and expression! 

We are amazed at how normal life seems these days.  There's still a long road ahead but we are rolling along at a wonderful pace, with wonder and optimism, and with in the company of some really lovely people.  Not too shabby.  Such a difference from the uncertain/stressful place we were in last year!

Sometimes modern miracles comes in the form of microchips and computer software, surgeons, audiologists, speech therapists, family and friends.  We are thankful for all of you.  Happy Thanksgiving!
  

Quick Update

Planking with sisters


Catching some Zs with Daddy





Asserting herself with the family:
Sophie says Stop It



This little panda is sure growing up fast!

My little chatter box!

Sorry, family!  Its been ages since we've updated you on Sophie's progress.
Life has been hectic in the best of ways. Big sisters are doing sports and Sophie
has 2 new playgroups that are filled with lovely mommies and their babies and toddlers. 

Sophie has had a real burst of language lately.  Her ASL is as sharp as ever but most
notably she's really become attuned to speech and has become a wonderful mimic.  She is also
vocalizing (often intelligibly) more often on her own. Here's a sample:

These are from a month ago:

Please Ball Down


Ball Please


Sophie loves puzzles



This is from today:
 Bubble Pop
 Mama Please


Sophie amazes and delights us with her progress each and every day.  We are loving life
and soaking up the last of her baby years as she's growing far too quickly!

Wyoming Summer Vacation 2013

We are sad to say that vacation is over and we're back to the old grind.

Check out some videos:

Here's Sophie playing peek-a-boo

Here's Sophie checking out her first frog. 

Baby Beethoven?

More fruit!

Daredevil Sophie on the Swing (Arent you proud of Mommy for not stepping in on the outrageously wild swinging action provided by Daddy!)

Sophie loves her animals!

Sophie is getting pretty good at distinguishing animal sounds. Here's a quick video:

http://youtu.be/58VIQi2nKNI

Ling sound toys

Sophie has been doing well with her therapy sessions. To make ling sounds more fun, we switched from cards to toys. Imagine my surprise when this snake turned out to be anaconda sized instead of just a beanie baby, lol. 

Sophie Sounds Off

Sophie's ears are 1 and 2 months old today and she's already making lots of progress.

We've been focusing on basic sounds and pairing them with various toys. We got this from
our SLP who found this on AuditoryVerbalTherapy.com.  There is a handout by Ellen Rhoades
called "Sound-Object Associations" that covers this and more.

Here's some video of Sophie's progress:

The Car gets a "BRRRR" sound

The Fire Truck gets an "Oooooo" sound

The Bus gets a "BUH-BUH-BUH" sound

Sophie also does Ahhhh for Airplane but I cant seem to get that one on
video.  

What is exciting is that the minute we put Sophie's ears on, she starts to chatter away.  She'll also still signing up a storm and learning new words each week in ASL.

And just for fun, here's Sophie trying to get a rise out of mommy by pretending to eat dog food...

Lots of Babbling

Sophie's weekly mapping sessions have increased sound to both of her ears very slowly over the past few months.  Progress is slow going but we have noticed that she is vocalizing a lot more than before.  Here's a clip of Sophie watching her sisters through a window.  I think she's trying to tell us that she wants to be out there with them instead of stuck in the house with Mom and Dad:

http://youtu.be/ydUAjkiG96U

I've got 2 ears!

We're behind on our updates.  So here the recap:



Ear number two was a much easier recovery than the first one.  The incision was a lot less red and healed super fast.

So as not to deprive Sophie of her beloved baths, we used a shower cap while she recovered this time



Sophie got her left ear activated today, so she got 2 ears going! That means the pilot cap is back on until she adjusts to having two spots on her head. Nothing different this time around, but it is exciting to see how she develops with both ears going.

Sophie also decided today would be a good day to learn to ride her lion bike forward instead of backwards.  Rawr!

Oh, and we got a cat for Sophie to celebrate her new ears.  Whoopie!

Sophie's ASL Lesson with Daddy

Sophie's signing has really taken off this month.  I know, I've been saying that every months for the last 6 months, but she really is signing up a storm.

Here's some video of sign language lessons with Daddy today:


     MORE CRACKER:  http://youtu.be/qX2uZDWggDk

     DOG BATH:   http://youtu.be/kWUZ6yFgAxI

100%

I'm keeping the SOPHIE SIGNS up to date, but I thought these were too fancy not to share in a post as well :)

Surgery #2 Complete!

Another big day for Sophie!   Today we took Sophie in for her second cochlear implant.  Left ear this time.  Doc said it took a bit longer but everything went perfectly.  Two very nice Cochlear reps and our favorite audiologist were all in the operating room and were wonderful support.  We had a lovely nurse from Kona who cared for Sophie in post-anesthesia care.   I'm glad she only has two ears as I really couldn't take another one of these.

This kid is really something special.  After all of this medical stuff, hardly a fuss. Here are some pics:

Taking my vitals

Sticking close to Mom

Playing in the toy room

Waving hi to new friends

Mom needs to get me one of these!

Dad in his marshmallow suit just before surgery.

All done! Heading home :)

I love the remote!

I have to eat my words. After a week, I'm hooked on this remote. It beeps to tells me when coils fall off and batteries are low and I can watch the mic activity without seeing the processor. I also feel more interactive. We were given 4 programs to work through and got through 3 of them. It's nice to be able to set our own pace with Sophie's CIs.

So after a 9 month battle with hearing aids, keeping these things on Sophie's head is super hard as well.  We have a 4 component solution:

• Long coil cable (2 day shipping via fedex)
• Cochlear Litewear...just the clip
• Bebopshop (the cupcake clip on the pink tether from etsy) CI holder to ensure the processor stays on if gets pulled out of the litewear clip (happens a lot)
• Pilot's cap

Tomorrow is a huge day for us...Second mapping appointment, pre-op pediatrician visit, and Cochlear America is in town and doing a parent seminar on the Nucleus 5.  Second Surgery is Thursday so we have a very exciting week ahead!

Sophie's Activation Day!

What a big day for us.  We waited 3 weeks after Sophie's surgery to get her activated and start her mapping.  It felt like forever but it was worth the wait.

The mapping process was pretty quick.  The audiologist started with tones from a computer program and later turned on her microphones so we could talk to Sophie while she adjusted the maps.
Our CI comes with a remote so we were sent home with 4 programs to run through over the next couple of weeks.  Each program gets progressively louder and we can up the volume at will.  Pretty nifty!

We spent most of our time getting oriented to the new technology.  We'll get that wired over the next week or so.  Our big issue now is getting Sophie to keep her coil (round headpiece) on.  We've been experimenting with hats and headbands already and we may even try some toupee tape.

So much to learn and just one more week until Sophie's second surgery!

Here's the activation video.

10 days after surgery and feeling fine.  Happy Birthday Sophie.  Time flies!

Surgery Day Update and Photos

What a big day!  Everything went well and Sophie seems to be resting very comfortably.  Here's a photo recap:

 What a big day.  We started off in the pre-op room for a quick outfit change and some stats.

Next it was off to the playroom to wait for surgery.  That took a while but at least they had a nice selection o toys.

Surgery only lasted an hour and a half. Mom and Sophie were reunited within 15 minutes.  We stayed in recovery for a good 3 hours with 2 amazing nurses.  And what do you think about the bandage?  You gotta love a surgeon with fashion sense.  Note the bow at the temple.

The very nice Cochlear representative delivered this little guy.  He's Casey the Koala and He's an N5 user :)

Tomorrow is the big day!

Wow, time did not fly.  We've had a 20 day delay since our initial planned surgery and have been feeling every minute of it.  Sophie wasn't able to get an AM as her surgeon only offers this once a month for longer cases.  She otherwise puts the long cases at the end of her day so delays don't cause a ripple effect on the rest of the patients.  Understandable, but tough for a baby.

My main anxiety is the 8 hour no food prohibition before surgery.  We learned that we can do breast milk up to 4 hours prior so that helps a lot.  We also can do apple juice and Pedialyte up to 2 hours prior to surgery.  I'm making beef stew in the crock pot to serve up at 4:00 AM to make sure Sophie has a good meal in her tummy to last the AM.  She's teething so we expect a lot of crying and wailing once the milk shuts off...Poor kid!

We are blessed with lovely friends and wonderful family who have showered us with thoughtful gifts and yummy goodies to help us get through the waiting.  Thank you!  We love you!

I've saved the hospital bag packing for the morning to give me something to do with my nervous energy.  Off to bed.

Setback

Well, little Sophie bonked her head and threw up last night. We kept a close eye on her then called our pediatrician and surgeon. We had to postpone and are conferring on dates. We all agreed that its better to be safe than sorry.

Definitely a disappointment as we were ramped up and ready to go for tomorrow. We're hopefully on track for another March date. Stay tuned.

We Finally Chose a Brand!

After many months of deliberation, we have finally settled on Cochlear America for Sophie's implants.  We think that all of the big 3 (Cochlear, Advanced Bionics, and Med-el) offer wonderful features but for us it came down to the electrode.  We figure that Sophie may need to be re-implanted at some point in her life so we want to do as much as we can to preserve the physical structures of her ears.  This means choosing a brand with an atraumatic electrode that can be inserted via the round window vs. a cochleostomy.  This left us with Cochlear America and Med-el.  AB is about to release theirs but we opted not to wait for FDA approval as that timeline was uncertain.  From there, Cochlear won out based on their share of the market which meant company stability for us.

Sophie's big day is just a week away so its nice to bring brand choice to a close!