Updates

I have not blogged anything about the girls' hearing loss in a very long time. I may make comments here and there, but I don't tell you how they are doing. I will start with Sara Catherine. Her audiologist says she is the model patient. She wears her hearing aids all day, only taking them out to take a bath. I try to take them out at bedtime, but she will not have it. Once she is asleep, I can get them out. We were told that if they do not bother her comfort wise, then let her sleep in them. She can put them in herself. The audiologist told us that was awesome. She said she tells her older patients that if one of her 4 year old patients can take them in and out, so can they! She also can tell us when something is wrong with them and when the battery needs to be change. Probably her biggest accomplishment is that she has tested out of speech. I guess the doctor was right when he told us that the biggest speech therapy for her would be to get hearing aids! She is very comfortable with them, and it is like they are a part of her. I have heard children ask her what is in her ears, and she tells them that they are hearing aids. So matter of factually!! She has told me that kids ask to touch them. I asked her if that bothers her, and she said that it did not. She will say funny things referring to her hearing loss. Just last night, I told her to go put her hearing aids in after bath time. She told me she didn't want to put them in because she didn't want to hear us. How nice would it be to shut off the world like that?! She also picks out what color mold she wants. Last time, we had light green with glitter. We called them Tinker Bell molds. This time she has light pink with glitter a.k.a Princess molds. I think the Princess molds are my personal favorite!

Now for Caroline's progress. In the beginning, I thought it was going to be so easy because she was getting them at such a young age that she wouldn't even realize them. Boy was I wrong!! It is like trying to keep a hair bow in a babies hair! I put one hearing aid in, and she is pulling the other one out!! It is hard to keep them in her ears. I don't think she has reached the age where she realizes they are helping her. Sara Catherine was 3 when she got her first pair, so she knew how much they helped her hear. I know that the more she has them in the better her language and speech will be, and that this is a crucial time for that development. We've been told to do everything we can to keep them in. If she snatches it out, put it right back in. Honestly, that is easier said than done. I will be driving down the road, and hear this cricket sound (that is what hearing aids sound like to me when they are out of the ear) and look back to find Caroline chewing on her hearing aid. I think that she will get to the point where she will want to wear them because she will also realize how much they help her. We will keep working with her, but I will say that she is WAY more feisty than Sara Catherine ever was. She is Little Miss Independent and wants to do things by herself and on her time!! :) She does talk, so that is a good sign.

The last we heard from the geneticist is that they were going to see if the doctor at the University of Iowa wanted to use the girls for research. That has been months ago, so I'm guessing not??!! We still do not know what genetic factor plays a role in the girls hearing loss. We may never know. I'm completely content and at peace with our girls both having hearing loss. I think that in the future we may decide to have another child. We were told that all of our children have a 1 in 4 chance of having hearing loss. Since two of ours already have it, the probability of our next child having hearing loss is very slim, but there is still a chance. I feel like we are so blessed, and thank God for our blessings. I truly feel like with both of our girls having hearing loss that it can be such a ministry opportunity, not just for us, but for them...especially when they are older.