Cochlear Implant Activation!!

Here we are again!
 

Kendall had her cochlear implant activation on February 27th, two weeks after her surgery .

We made it a family affair and brought her brother Kemper with us. He was so excited for Kendall to  "get her ears turned on."

   Her audiologist started the activation with the introduction of beeps and tones from the computer into her implants.  The initial sounds didn't phase her but as they continued she would stop playing with her toys and look up at me like "what the heck was that?" 

When her audiologist first transitioned over to speech sounds Kendall got a little nervous and began to fuss. The sounds were quickly turned off and she continued to play. The second time speech was introduced she didn't cry or fuss but she quickly turned to me for support. The third time she hardly took notice. She just took a quick pause from playing to look at me in wonder then she would start doing a little bounce in my lap each time she heard a noise.

We had a special guest follow along with us on activation day. Our local news channel had contacted us when Kendall was having her surgery and asked if they could do a story on her. They also wanted to do an update on Kemper. They had done a story (can't find video version) on him back in 2010 when he was implanted. It was fun but so nerve wrecking. They take so many shots and ask so many questions, so you never know what they will use. Plus trying to wrangle two kids while talking on camera is near impossible. Two versions of the interview were shown on the news that day, thankfully the one with me talking showed up late night. I thought the prime time version that I have linked below was much better. My husband did the talking!;)


North Texas Toddler Hears for the First Time « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

Kemper and Kendall's audiologist takes a picture of  all her cochlear implant recipients on their activation day. K found his as well as the spot left open for his baby sister.

With our favorite audiologist Leslie.


It took Kendall a good two/three weeks before she was fully comfortable and understanding sounds. We had to make a several trips back to the audiologist to make some tweaks to her C.I.s during those first few weeks.  Her audiologist originally give us four programs, each one gradually increasing her access to sound. Every couple of days and we were supposed to go to the next program as tolerated. Only thing is we could never get to program 2 before she started blinking at sounds requiring us to keep her volumes and sensitivity settings really low. Each time we would adjust her programs she would be fine for a day or two but then she would start blinking to sounds, alerting us that her program was too loud. It was like as her brain adjusted to hearing sounds it was requiring less and less stimulus to get a reaction. This was quite the opposite for her brother.When he was activated we had to make multiple trips back to increase his settings.

Kendall has taken to hearing like a fish to water. She loves to hear. We thankfully haven had any issues with her taking  her C.I.'s off, except while in the car. Although everything tends to come off while shes in the car bows, shoes, socks...;)




Here are a few videos of Kendall in her first 2months of hearing.

March 17 (2wks 4 days hearing)
responding to her name and understanding "hi"

March 19 (3 weeks hearing)
A friend posted a video of her baby making raspberry noises with her mouth, Kendall didn't even need to see it in order to imitate it!

March 26 ( 1 mo hearing)
Kendall responding to her name and acknowledging that I am speaking to her.

April 21st (almost 2 mo hearing)
Trying to shake her egg but shakes her booty instead!
I did not give her any visual cues, she understands the word shake!