Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Lily's CI Activation

Lily's CIs were activated yesterday. Yesterday was really the first time she has heard anything. We have been waiting for this day since December 4th, when we first found out our baby girl is deaf. She didn't respond to my voice so much, but she did seem to respond to her daddy's voice. It was really exciting!

The audiologists said Lily did really well. They told us that most babies cry or are irritated, but not Lily. She sat really still when she was listening to the series of beeps from the computer. When she heard her daddy's voice, she turned to look at him and smiled. It is so precious.



The sounds that Lily is hearing right now are really soft sounds. We will change the program each day so that she will slowly hear more and more. We don't want to overwhelm her by throwing her into this noisy world after she's lived her life in complete silence for 9 months.


Here are a few pictures from Lily's "Hearing Birthday." You can see what the external equipment looks like. She has brown coils (the magnets on her head) and pink processors (the piece she wears behind her ear). The pink things clipped to her back are the controllers that allow us to change the programs and adjust the volume and sensitivity. This will eventually connect to the processors and she will wear it all behind her ear once her ear is big enough.


She has done a pretty good job of leaving everything on. Sometimes she'll grab at the processors so we just put her pilot cap back on and she leaves everything alone. The pilot caps have been the best investment for us. She wears the white Hanna Andersson pilot cap and the white SilkaWear cap. Since the caps are white, we can still see the blinking red lights through the material of the cap. The blinking lights let us know if sound is getting to the microphones on her processors. If the lights blink slowly, she isn't hearing; if they blink quickly, she is hearing.


Lily tolerated Program 2 just fine today, so tomorrow we'll turn her up to Program 3 and she'll be hearing a few more sounds than she could hear today. Her journey into the hearing world has just begun!

9 comments:

  1. what a great day! congratulations! the miracles just keep coming- just wait!

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  2. Such an exciting day! I am so happy for Lily and you all! Now the fun of watching Lily learn to listen begins! HAPPY HEARING BIRTHDAY SWEET GIRL!

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  3. Happy hearing birthday! Congratulations!

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  4. Congratulations!!! What a great start for her...can't wait to see all of her hearing milestones. Great job getting to this point!

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  5. Happy hearing bday! Now the journey really begins!!!! I know you've been waiting for this day for a long time. It's finally here! So happy for you. Your baby girl can hear!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  6. Thanks for posting that video. It was so great to be able to share in that moment. How precious it was when she turned to look at Josh when he was talking. Congratulations. I'm so happy for all of you!

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  7. Happy hearing birthday! Lily looks so precious!!

    I'm jealous of her CI's..she has both pink!!

    I'm wishing your journey will be exciting!

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  8. Wow! Congratulations!! My daughter's surgery was August 10 but we are still waiting for activation... September 9 is the day. How old is Lily? Taylor is 15 months as of today. Best of luck! Maybe we can trade pointers and progress since our daughters are on the same timeline. So Happy for You and Your Family!

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