Well, Kind Of. I'm in Seattle all week this week on business. I have joked with my friends that it's like being on vacation even though I have to work. It's kind of a nice break to have no one but myself to take care of for a whole week : ) It helps a TON to have such a great husband who is able to take care of everything with the kids so I don't have to worry while I'm gone.
I haven't gotten to do much while in Seattle, except for the nightly eating out. I'm traveling with my boss, and he has the car : ) I am perfectly fine it though as I've had lots time to read, watch TV, and other things I don't normally get to do.
Last week was quite the crazy week. Both of the kids had a stomach bug and Seth and I each had to miss a day of work to stay home with them. Friday night, I woke up around midnight with the same stomach bug. It's amazing how quick the kids bounce back from being sick, and how long we as adults are down. I think I stayed in bed a total of about 20 hours between Friday night and Saturday night. I was beginning to wonder if I was going to be able to make my flight on Sunday, but luckily woke up Sunday morning feeling great!
I'm looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend with the family when I get home.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
6 Months Post Implant!
This post is long overdue!
The kids and I were off the last two weeks of December and just returned to work and school on Jan 5. However, I somehow could not find the time to get a post in during that time : )
When I started this blog, the purpose was to keep everyone updated on Abby's surgery and follow up speech and language progress. I've been really bad about keeping updates about Abby's progress. I think sometimes I just take the things she is doing for granted because despite her hearing limitations, she is a very normal child. However, when I really think about what she is able to hear, understand, and speak compared to many other people in her situation, her progress just blows my mind!
So, let me see how much I can get everyone up to date on Abby. She has had her Cochlear Implant for 6 months now, and it has been turned on for 5 months (almost 6). Words cannot describe the progress she has made in the last 6 months. Her vocabulary contains (I'm guessing here) at least a couple hundred words, and most of those words are understandable not only to Seth and I, but to others as well. She is becoming much more clear in some of the words that she knew before the implant as those 'gaps' in the words that she was not hearing before her implant are now being filled in with her ability to hear so much more through the implant. For Example she has always called Seth "Brother" because in the word Seth all she could hear was 'e'. Brother started out as some 2 syllable word starting with a 'b' sound; something like 'bu-u'. Brother now sounds like 'bu-der'...much more like you would expect a 2 year old to say it. She also tries to say Seth now...it is more than just 'e' but I cannot really describe how she's saying it. What is so cool at it is that now she knows she is hearing something before and after the 'e' and she is trying to repeat that. We are still working on the 'th' sound because that one is also new to her, but she does have in in some words like 'toothbrush'.
Another sound that we are really working on is 'S'. She does not seem to be responding consistently to the S sound, however it's kind of strange because on occasion she will say the 'S' sound. Her speech therapist thinks she is hearing it, but just hasn't connected yet that it's a sound because it is such a soft sound ( I know that probably sounds crazy and all of this did to me when we started this journey, but I do understand what she means by that now : )
Over Christmas we were doing something and out of the blue Abby counted to 10! I had no idea she could count to 3 much less to 10 so of course ever since then I've been setting different objects out for her to count and she consistently counts to 10.
I will try to be more consistent in tracking Abby's progress on this blog. I also want to take some time to write Abby's Story from start to present. I think it would be helpful for other mom's ( and dad's) of newly identified hearing impaired babies to see the possibilities and normalcy their children can have with this disability!
The kids and I were off the last two weeks of December and just returned to work and school on Jan 5. However, I somehow could not find the time to get a post in during that time : )
When I started this blog, the purpose was to keep everyone updated on Abby's surgery and follow up speech and language progress. I've been really bad about keeping updates about Abby's progress. I think sometimes I just take the things she is doing for granted because despite her hearing limitations, she is a very normal child. However, when I really think about what she is able to hear, understand, and speak compared to many other people in her situation, her progress just blows my mind!
So, let me see how much I can get everyone up to date on Abby. She has had her Cochlear Implant for 6 months now, and it has been turned on for 5 months (almost 6). Words cannot describe the progress she has made in the last 6 months. Her vocabulary contains (I'm guessing here) at least a couple hundred words, and most of those words are understandable not only to Seth and I, but to others as well. She is becoming much more clear in some of the words that she knew before the implant as those 'gaps' in the words that she was not hearing before her implant are now being filled in with her ability to hear so much more through the implant. For Example she has always called Seth "Brother" because in the word Seth all she could hear was 'e'. Brother started out as some 2 syllable word starting with a 'b' sound; something like 'bu-u'. Brother now sounds like 'bu-der'...much more like you would expect a 2 year old to say it. She also tries to say Seth now...it is more than just 'e' but I cannot really describe how she's saying it. What is so cool at it is that now she knows she is hearing something before and after the 'e' and she is trying to repeat that. We are still working on the 'th' sound because that one is also new to her, but she does have in in some words like 'toothbrush'.
Another sound that we are really working on is 'S'. She does not seem to be responding consistently to the S sound, however it's kind of strange because on occasion she will say the 'S' sound. Her speech therapist thinks she is hearing it, but just hasn't connected yet that it's a sound because it is such a soft sound ( I know that probably sounds crazy and all of this did to me when we started this journey, but I do understand what she means by that now : )
Over Christmas we were doing something and out of the blue Abby counted to 10! I had no idea she could count to 3 much less to 10 so of course ever since then I've been setting different objects out for her to count and she consistently counts to 10.
I will try to be more consistent in tracking Abby's progress on this blog. I also want to take some time to write Abby's Story from start to present. I think it would be helpful for other mom's ( and dad's) of newly identified hearing impaired babies to see the possibilities and normalcy their children can have with this disability!
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