Implant Update

Yesterday, as K walked down the hospital corridor, one hand in mine, one hand in his Speech Therapist's hand, we ran into his surgeon.  Such a caring man who smiled to see little K.  He was happy to hear that K is saying "Oh, oh" and practicing other words.  He squatted his whole 6 ft, 6 in (?) frame down to check on K's scars and to make sure the magnets on the back of his head are not too strong.  I love that man!  We continued down the hallway.  All eyes on K, as he flirted and giggled along the way.

I cannot believe it has only been two months since his surgery.  He has adapted so well to his new gear.  And it is a bit of gear for a little guy.  He will grow into it more and be able to wear the whole apparatus around his ears and not attached to his shirt as you see in the pictures.  This morning, as I got him up from his crib, he immediately pointed at his ears for me to put his receivers on.  He loves to hear.  He loves to make noise.  I often forget he is deaf.  It really is a miracle.  He cannot wear his gear though, when he sleeps, when he takes a bath, goes to the beach, or has anything to do with water.

So he wears this gear all of the time when he is not in one of the above situations.  He hears ZERO without them.  People ask the funniest questions (just to add to the ridiculous adoption questions we get asked).

Will he eventually be able to hear without them?  Umm... no.
What are those sensors on his head?  Sensors?  No, he is not a bug.
Is that a blue-tooth?  Hello????  Yes, my baby is in a special unit of the CIA. He is talking to his superior right now. You better be careful what you say.

I'm reporting you for asking stupid questions!  See my face?  You don't want to mess with me!

The gear is amazing.   It all came in two suitcases.  Yes, we have two suitcases of gear. We have two sets of everything just in case (so he never has to lose hearing for any large amount of time) ... and there are TONS of accessories- not bling, just different size cables and connectors and magnets and tools and holders and on and on.  There is always a back-up of everything.  It is complicated - though for us, it has become second nature pretty quickly. For a baby, everything falls off all of the time.  The magnets come off easily (or they would cause sores underneath), the receivers fall off and the gear is just big for his little ears.  At night, we take the gear apart.  The batteries, which are now worn on his clothing, get put into chargers to charge overnight.  The rest of the gear is put into an electronic drying device overnight.  We call everything his ears, since they are his ears.  We put our baby to bed and then we have to put his ears to bed separately.

I mentioned we were at the hospital.  We go there once every week for Speech Therapy.  Though his therapist is super nice, cute and sweet, K can't stand her.  He will stand her (or anybody) if they hold his hand to walk, but that is it.  Every single session we've had, he's thrown a temper tantrum.  My boy can yell ... remember those early days when we didn't know why he yelled?  Well, now we do and he still yells.  He yells, arches his back, throws down some major crocodile tears and has a pity party.  She still smiles at him every time.  God bless her.

At home, we continue to work on sounds and words and I try to talk to him as much as possible.  We have a box full of ooo-ooo's, choo-choo's, ssss-ssss, brrr-brrrr, aaah, ahhhs, pt-pts, moo-moo's, meows, etc, as these sounds are assigned to specific little toys to help him produce those sounds.  Just like his big brother, his favorite sound is the brrr-brrr and he does that as he pushes his little cars around.  He is learning to say "hi", "bye" and "up" at the moment.  Very, very cute.

Now, let me search my hundreds upon hundreds of pictures (had to get an external hard drive) to see if I find some pictures of K and his gear for your viewing pleasure.

Not walking yet doesn't stop K from riding this up and down the park.

K running away at our photo shoot

My baby is bionic.  And I love it!