Another Dimension!!

Taylor had her cochlear implants activated on September 9 and 10, 2009. Age 15 months.

Day 1:

Impossible for all of us to imagine, but Taylor never knew sound existed until Wednesday, September 9, 2009. For this little 15-month old, who thought she had the world pretty well figured out, it was a mind-blowing experience. The best word that I can think of to describe her reaction was terrified, at first anyway... The video is only 2 minutes long but will give you an idea of what it was like. She cried a lot that first afternoon, but after about an hour or so, she calmed down and started playing as usual.

Day 2: We were warned that the most difficult part of transitioning to wearing a CI is putting it on each morning, to go from complete silence to the loud world of sound. I put the CI on her when she first woke up on Thursday morning, and she cried and fussed for about 30 minutes before settling into wearing it. She wasn't trying to take it off; I think she was freaked out by those "sounds" being there again... like maybe the day before was some weird dream.

I have been buying random headbands, hats and even a shirt (http://www.hearingpocket.com/) that I thought we might be able to use for keeping the CI's on her head. I bought a set of four women's Goody elastic headbands at my local grocery store, and they seem to be working well. The fact that she is leaving the CI's and headbands on really says it all. We can't even get her to hold still for a diaper change. Changing her clothes is like wrestling a greased pig. But with all that, she is keeping the headband on. All day long. It really only came off when she was playing or wrestling with Derek.

We could see the exhaustion on her face as the day wore on. By 11 a.m., she was napping and slept about 90 minutes. We had the activation for the right side on Thursday afternoon. During this activation, Taylor got a little upset when the device was being tested, but other than that, she was great. We went home with two little CI's on her head. :) She slept almost 2 hours in the car driving back to Kansas. Learning to listen is a lot of work.

Day 3 - First Day with Two Ears Again this morning Taylor went through a short time of being upset when we first got the CI's turned on. She left them alone, but wanted to be held and comforted by me for a while. She started showing signs of a lot of excitement today. The look on her face was like "I am in a whole new world and I like it!" She had a good nap, but was still getting mentally exhausted by early evening. Her brain is working so hard to figure it all out -- wind, crickets, lawnmowers, Derek saying "mine" and "No, Taylor", etc. He says "No, Taylor" so often that I am afraid she will think that is her name.

Days 4 and 5 Taylor is having fun with this. She looks up right away when I say her name or just speak in general. She has figured out that our cat meows and thinks it is hilarious. She knows that our dog's bark is really loud and thinks this too is so funny. I have enjoyed playing old games with her, now that she can appreciate the sound portion as well. We played Peek-a-boo, and she made me laugh by covering her face/eyes when I did and then uncovering them when I said Peek-a-boo. She was waiting to hear me, before she would move her hands. So cool. Our family has learned several signs in the past few months, and now I am using those in conjunction with speaking the world in the hopes that it will help her recognize words. It is going to be fun to see how she picks it all up. We are so thankful that cochlear implants exist.

BLING! We have been having fun decorating her "Ears." Today she had pink and purple headbands, with pink "ears". The right one was accesorized with a purple cover, to coordinate (serving a dual-purpose as we have to keep right and left sides separate.)