Hearing in the dark

Its difficult raising a child who's only deaf when he's sleeping. You might think that's an odd statement, but I'm sure I can explain.
We're used to Evan hearing, so we communicate with him as such. When he falls asleep the "ears" come off, and he's as deaf as a door knob. His CIs aren't just waiting beside his crib for him when he awakes. The batteries are removed, and put in the UV sterilization/drying box with the equipment. All the while his other set of batteries are on the charger for the following day. Its the same routine every night, we alternate batteries on the charger and everything is sterilized.
As any parent will tell you, children wake up in the middle of the night for a variety of reasons, Evan is no different. Its an art form trying to sooth a child who's not happy, sick, or just awake at the wrong time. Now imagine doing it deaf. We could go downstairs and put his CIs together with the batteries from the day that just passed, its takes a few minutes but can easily be done. But that's not the point. Generally, when the ears go on, its morning, or after his nap. They wake him up, stimulate him mind. Unless he specifically asks for them, which he does, then we leave them off in the middle of the night. He can talk without them, but he can't hear himself, or anything else, as the door knob comparison explains.
I've come up with my own little ways to communicate with a deaf child. He doesn't know sign, so it's not that. When he requests something, I put up 1 finger, which means wait. I guess I do this when his ears (I'm going to stop with the quotes now) are on because he understands that what he wants is on the way. There's also a lot of pointing, such as pointing to where his head should be, instead of where it is. For the most part it works. He'll say "daddy sit", which is self explanatory, I sit on his rocking chair and he lays back down.
The hard part happens when he's sick and wakes up. He has his normal every-other-week day-care-cold so he's been waking up. Its nice to sooth him, talk to him, rub his back. The back rubbing works, the talking happens, but the listening does not. I guess we just find a way, and work our own magic.
It must be weird to only hear part of the time, since he does know the difference. I think I would be anxious if I couldn't hear the noises around me, and on top of that its dark. I'm not sure how he deals with it, when he's old enough to explain I'll be asking him. I have so many question to ask him, so much I want to learn. I look forward to the day when he can teach me even more then he already teaches me every day.

Audiologist appointment

This morning Evan saw the audiologist for a routine mapping. He hasn't had a mapping in a long time, so its been a while since he had to have the coils on his head without things working.

He's at that age where he knows when they're broken, and it really frustrates him. Naturally he was very annoyed this morning. They were able to eventually get the information they required, and new maps were programmed. The new map is very similar to the old map. I don't really have exact details on what changed. Our current audiologist doesn't explain things like are other one does. Our original audiologist is coming back from maternity leave in May, just in time for the next mapping.

After the mapping we had to go to the lab. They call it a lab, but its not the kind of lab you may be imagining. No test tubes or microscopes. There's a special computer, different connectors, and a bunch of other stuff that I haven't bother to ask about yet. Evan is part of a study. That's how he was able to receive bilateral implants. So every time we see the audiologist he visits the lab. It doesn't hurt, they basically just attache their coils to his head and measure brain stimulation with a special cap that goes on his head. It tells them how well he's hearing, and they can compare his old results with new results. The brain answers more questions on its own then his mouth could.

Evan really wasn't in the mood for the lab today, so the two technicians just played with him for a bit and then we went home.

That's it for now. :)

Clear-er

As each day passes, new words are spoken. Those words are now becoming easier to understand, clearer. Gone are the single word sentences, now i expect 2,3,4+ words in a row. I know he can do it, that's why i expect it. He may only be 2, but when i speak to him i feel that he's listening, and understanding at least some of what i'm saying. He still talks gibberish, but that's normal for a child his age, normal hearing or not.

This past weekend we were at a 2 year olds birthday party. Evan is very quite amongst large groups of people. I attribute that to many different things, since i don't know the actual answer. I would assume that listening to 15 people talking over each other is a lot of work, it is for me at least. Maybe he just needs time to process, maybe he just wants to listen. I did notice that he talks very quietly at these types of events. It's really very cute. I don't think he really knows how to raise his voice. He knows how to scream and yell, but talk in a louder voice, not so much. I guess that's something we learn over time?!?!

I don't really mind if he doesn't want to talk, because he's doing what he wants to do, and that's fine. When i was in a quieter area of the house with only a few people around, he did speak up more.

As usual i had to explain the implants to anyone who asked. Nobody knew what they were, and they weren't expecting them. We always get the same questions, "Will he always have to wear those?", "Does he hear anything?". I guess i should be used to it, but come on, aren't those common sense? Will YOU always have to wear your glasses? Well, yes, if you want to see you will have to always wear them. Do YOU see anything? Come on, he wouldn't have magnetic coils attached to his head and a device behind each ear if he didn't hear anything. That would be like a completely blind person wearing reading glasses. You use the device because it's helping you, duh!

I don't lash out when we're asked questions. I try to teach and inform the best i can. Sometimes people just don't want to learn more then what they originally asked, and that's fine. I still try to add in some more info. I have my usual speech about how the implant works, in this weekends case it fell on "deaf" ears, no pun intended.

Then there was the 5 year old who kept asking what they were. I would explain to her in the simplest terms that Evan needs those to hear. After her last attempt at asking i compared the implants to glasses. I think she finally got it, or just grew tired of asking. Either way, this particular 5 year old was so sweet to Evan. She was playing with him, talking to him, trying to teach him things. That made me feel very good. I always worry that children won't include him because they don't understand. Unfortunately, it will happen. Everyone in life becomes excluded for one reason or another.

Bye cat!

Nope, we aren't banishing the cat from our home, though she did get out last night. This morning when Evan was on a walk with his grandparents, a tabby cat was following them. The cat followed them all the way to the park. Eventually when they left the park Evan said "Bye cat". He said 2 words together, it's happened a few times, but now it's happening more often and it feels great.

That's all for now.