Hearing Aides

So, to continue on my catching upness. (No, upness isn't a word) Claire went in to her school, Central Institute for the Deaf, on March 16 and received some loaner hearing aides. They set the aides to a fairly low setting just to test things out.

First day of hearing aides

Claire had previously been tested at her school several weeks before and the staff concluded that on that day Claire only had minor to moderate hearing loss. Which was different to the previous diagnosis of moderate to severe hearing loss. Now, this news may or may not mean anything, but it is a glimmer of hope that Claire won't have to work so hard to be able to speak clearly. The reason why is that she is diagnosed as having Auditory Neuropathy. This broadly means that the nerves that connect her ears to her brain don't fire correctly. Sometimes they can fire extremely well, other times not at all, and anything in between. So, with all the knowledge of her condition, the second diagnoses may have been on a good hearing day.

During the first few days that she had her hearing aides, Claire was a huge crab. I wasn't sure if it was due to teething, or if it was the hearing aides. I talked with Claire's Speech Therapist, also a Claire, and she said to limit the hearing aides to a few hours a day. She also arranged to pick the hearing aides up that Sunday on her way home from her church, so that they could set them to an ever lower setting. Adult Claire thought that maybe with being able to hear so well, when Claire was unable to for so long, it was overwhelming for her brain.

The rest of that first week was pretty rough. I got some sort of extremely horrible flu for a day and a half, and Claire got sick shortly after for about three days. Yeah, that didn't help her crabbiness either. I got sick on a Wednesday night and was up throughout the whole night, sicking it up. Oh man, to my recollection, I've only been that sick once before and that was when I spent the night at Utah State with my friends from high school during conference weekend. I spent the night sleeping on the ground in the dorm hallway. Fortunately for me this time Sean, my sweets, stayed home from work on Thursday to take care of us. This was despite the fact that he went in the hole for time off.

Back to hearing aides. Adult Claire brought the hearing aides back to us the next day when she came over for weekly Speech Therapy. Since then, chubby cheeks Claire has been fairly content. To us the hearing aides seem to be working and help with picking up sounds that she may not have heard before. The thing is though, that deep down, Sean and I wish/feel like Claire doesn't have a hearing problem. It's just so hard to tell either way if an infant can hear. I'll be saying her name and she doesn't look up, and I wonder if it's because she's ignoring me. We still feel like things are up in the air with nailing down how well she is hearing. I'm thinking about calling up a different Audiologist to get a third, but extensive opinion.

Random pics.

Claire earning her keep.
Claire wanted to be held and I needed to dust. So, I combined the two.
Claire kept grabbing at the duster so I just let her have it. She did a great job dusting. With a little guidance.

My brother and sister-in-law, Court and Kari, gave this little piano a while back and Claire loves to play on it now.
Very surprising because the first time I turned it on when she was about two months old, she cried.

Fin.

Champaign

I'm trying to play catch up with blogging, and I should have posted this weeks ago. Oh well.

Three weeks ago all three of us were able to visit our old city Champaign, Il. Sean's was asked by his firm to represent them at the U of I Architectural career fair. We were there from late Wednesday night to mid-day Friday.

We stayed at the I hotel, which is a new addition to the campus. It is a pretty fancy/modern hotel. We were fairly happy with the accommodations. The staff at the front desk when we checked in wasn't too helpful. I felt like they should have at least opened the door for Sean when he was trying for a little bit to push the luggage cart out the door. Some of the decor was dizzying, like the carpet in the hallways. Looking down the hallways made me imagine a little "redrumming" boy on a trike.

Ahhhhh!

We all slept very well throughout our stay. Claire's pack 'n play just barely fit in the bathroom, so her strict baby sleep schedule was left intact. I personally believe I'm a Nazi of sorts with her "sleep schedule." But, she is very consistent with sleep and goes down very easily. We haven't really had to try and let her cry it out.

We felt kind of guilty for our midnight bathroom breaks.

Claire chilling out on the bed with her bird toy.

Thursday was a very busy day for Sean. He didn't get to sit for about six hours and missed lunch, because they were so busy. I was able to go to a baby shower for a friend in the old ward and I got to see a lot of great friends. I really enjoyed that visit, and I wish we could have been there a little longer to see some more friends.



Friday was a lot less hectic for Sean, and there was a good theory as to why. It was "unofficial" day in Champaign. Every year on the first Friday in March, there is a horrible tradition among students at the U of I to celebrate St. Patrick's day twice. Unofficial is the worst of the two. Students dress up in green and get plastered all day long. There are usually a lot of injuries and accidents that happen as a result. Despite that, it carries on year after year. We just happened to be lucky enough to be in town that weekend. So from all this we surmised, quite easily, that everyone came on Thursday, and skipped out Friday. Nice.

Aside from that, our trip was pretty good, and Claire slept the 3 and a half hours drive both ways. Oh yeah!

Tricked out yo!

The more I add to my blog the more I want to add. I added a new background, music playlist, and an age counter for Claire. I feel like eventually my blog is going to be so busy, that frail ones might seize up at first glimpse.