Soundbooth Check

A few weeks ago Lily went for a soundbooth check at 6 months post activation. She responded to speech at 20 dB in her left ear and 15 dB in her right ear. She seems to be doing great. Her newest word is "ball." Cochlear implants are truly a miracle.

Here are some pictures of Lily and mommy and Lily and grandmommy with the snow princess Lily's daddy and our friend, Jason built.

The School Baby

Cute story. . .Lily is with me at the elementary school where I teach quite a bit. Therefore, many of the kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders see her often. A few days ago someone asked who the baby was. One of the second graders responded, "Oh that's Lily, the school baby." My sweet Lily, you are loved by many.

Lily's New Words

Lily keeps adding new words to her list of spoken vocabulary. Of course the words aren't perfect...probably only those close to her would understand, but she is definitely talking to us. Her new words are baby, thank you, belly, eye, book, duck, kitty cat. Yay Lily!

Lily is Talking

I can't believe my deaf baby girl is actually talking. Four months after her CI activation, Lily is saying 4 words pretty clearly. She can say meow, more, moo, and ho ho ho. She approximates several other words as well. When we ask her what the bunny does, she says "h h h" for hop hop hop; she says "uh uh uh" for up up up when she wants out of her car seat or out of her highchair or she wants me to pick her up.

Her receptive language is growing also. I think she understands a lot more than we give her credit for (I think hearing babies do too). We know that she understands "all done" because she signs it when we say it or when she sees that something is all gone. She waves when we say "bye bye," she gives us a mean look when we say "no," she gives kisses when we ask for them, she runs in the kitchen when we ask her if she wants to eat.

We got some video of her saying "more" and dancing on Christmas morning. Enjoy! Sorry for the poor quality on the dancing video.

Lily is Babbling!

Just 3 short months after her CIs were activated, Lily has started babbling. Of course I thought this day would never come, but here it is. So far she is just saying "yah, yah, yah" and "mah, mah, mah." It seems to be just random babbling with no meaning at this point. However, at Thanksgiving dinner my aunt asked if she was talking. I told her that Lily was babbling a little. So my aunt starting saying "mah, mah, mah" to her and Lily looked at me. She did that twice. So maybe that shows comprehension of that sound also. It is so amazing, the little things that make me jump for joy. If Lily had been a hearing baby I'm sure I would have taken for granted the first time she babbled. So much to be thankful for.

We Love Headbands

We are now using headbands that we found out about here from Taylor's mom. We LOVE these! The headbands hold the CIs behind Lily's ear without bending them. No more velcro dots! I added a little flower alligator clip to the headbands for fun. If anyone else is interested in these headbands, email me for the contact information. The woman who makes these is wonderful. Here are a few pictures of Lily wearing the headbands.



Quick update on Lily's progress:

Lily amazes us everyday. A few of the things she is doing now: dancing to music without seeing anyone else do it, saying "uh uh uh" for up up up, says "uh e" for "uh oh" with the correct inflection when she drops something, says "mmm" for mommy, milk, more and "moo" (when she sees a picture of a cow), says "ahhhhhh" every time she sees a picture of an airplane, gives a kiss when we ask for one (without us puckering our lips), claps her hands when she HEARS us sing "Pat-a-Cake" (no modeling from us), waves bye-bye when she hears the phrase (she even waves when we tell her bye-bye on speaker phone).

She's doing many more things, but I just have time for a quick update tonight. We're so thankful for the miracle of cochlear implants.

So Much to Update

Lily has been doing wonderfully with her CIs. She hardly ever tries to take them off, which we are sooooo happy about. She leaves them alone much better than she did her hearing aids. The only time she really tries to take them off is when she is trying to get our attention (because she knows she'll get it immediately) or when she is tired. For the first two weeks she wore the CIs with the babyworn option (the BTE controllers clipped to her back). She is wearing the babyworn option in the top picture. We didn't use the snugfits because we didn't like the way it was bending her ear down. So we put a velcro dot on her processors and a velcro dot on her headbands and we just stuck the processors to the headbands. Since none of the weight of the CIs is on her ears she can wear the BTE controller attached to the processor (all one piece) and her ear still doesn't get bent. We love this way because now we don't have to mess with cables hanging everywhere when we need to change her clothes. The next pictures show how Lily is currently wearing her CIs.


We had our first sound booth test since Lily's CIs were activated. She did great! She responded to sound at 20dB across all frequencies. Yay Lily! We think this is awesome for having been activated only 3 weeks ago. It was so cool to watch her localize as the sound switched speakers.

Another big event for Lily this week is taking her first steps. She has taken one or two and a few times, up to four steps. Today she walked a short distance across the room, taking about eight steps. Lily is growing up so fast and so much is changing for her right now. The world is just beginning to open up for her.

Now for bad news. . .insurance. We already knew our insurance was denying her claim for the surgery since she is under 12 months. Now they are also denying our audiology appointments because, in their words, "Cochlear implants for members less than 12 months of age is considered investigational and therefore diagnostic analysis of bilateral cochlear implants is being denied as investigational." . Drew's mom was worried this might happen to us. However, I thought (and still think) it best for Lily to have access to sound as soon as possible. This will just be another battle between the insurance company and me. Insurance won last time. I'm hoping they don't win this time. We're going to appeal the decision and our doctor and audiologist are going to conduct a peer consultation. If we don't get anywhere with that, Cochlear's Insurance Support will help us file a second appeal. Wish us luck!