Life before having her hearing aids fitted, even tho young at 7 weeks, was in many ways the same as any other... As a new parent I was learning how to care for a precious baby girl, giving her plenty of cuddles and treasuring the close bond we were developing.
Our lives in some ways were also very different. The first difference we noticed was car rides, where most baby's will be rocked peacefully to sleep, Jaime's response was very different... Screaming... Every car trip would begin with me holding my breath, if I managed to put Jaime into the car fast asleep we might make a 15minute journey before the screaming began, any longer in the car... Forget it!
With medical appointments often an hour or more away from home this was becoming a nightmare! The only solution was to take a companion to sit in the back seat, as it turned out, Jaime would wake and panic when she could not see anyone nearby, and any attempt to reassure that you were just behind her was in vain. Unfortunately, however, I could not always muster up a driving companion and spent many car trips myself too crying as I drove, unable to console my precious baby, and desperate to get to our destination so I could wrap her in cuddles!
This story was similarly repeated with nap and bedtimes although getting Jaime to sleep was much like any other baby, if she woke she would again seem to panic and required much more visual and physical comfort to drift back off to sleep.
Having said this, Jaime's quiet times are not always a negative... Ever found yourself tip-toeing around a sleeping baby? Not us! With no hearing to cause her to startle we were not worried about waking her, I am sure many parents wish they could turn their baby's hearing off for nap times!
Now days Jaime wears her hearing aids most of the time, however, being an electrical device they can't go everywhere with her... Baths and showers are quiet times and have prompted me to begin learning 'key word' signing, and baby sign. Before every bath or shower we sign to Jaime "bath", she is slowly beginning to recognise sign and often smiles in response! (She loves the water) we also utilise the sign for "finished" to signal the end of an activity.
Sign is going to be something important for me to learn as we are discovering Jaime's new favourite activity... Swimming! We relish our weekly visit to the pool, as soon as we plunge into the water Jaime is completely at ease. We enjoy socialising with our swimming pals Mia and Zac too! At the moment we get by in the pool pretty easily, we just make sure we use visual cues to signal duck dives. I am nervous about when she progresses to toddler classes... How will she respond to the teacher... How will she know what to do?
I guess we will let time work that one out... At the moment we are enjoying ourselves too much to worry.
Finally we come to bedtimes, for the most part these are much the same as for hearing babies, we have a bedtime routine that includes story time. Story time is important for any child, I make sure we never miss our bedtime story as I feel it is key for developing Jaime's spoken language, not to mention I LOVE my cuddles! We also include one very important activity, we do the rounds and say goodnight to Jaime's brothers who, even as older teenagers, love to see Jaime's smiles as they sign 'goodnight', then finally goodnight cuddles with Daddy who was most resistant to signing but is making baby Jaime and Mummy very proud with his consistent attempts to sign (he's become very good at the goodnight sign). Secretly I am teaching Jaime the sign for 'silly daddy' as I am sure it will come in handy lots over the upcoming months and years...
Jaime is a very bright eyed girl and never wants to sit still, where she may lack in hearing she makes up for with her inquisitiveness and desire to always be moving so she may see the world around her.
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