Surgery Date

Today we met with Dr. Alexiades to schedule Hannah's surgery. We've been planning for this day for months and months through countless hours of speech therapy and doctor appointments. Hannah will be bilaterally implanted on February 29, 2012 at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. This means we will be implanting both of Hannah's ears on the same day. There are pros and cons to doing this surgery sequentially or simultaneously, but we are committed to implanting both her ears (as two ears are better than one) and would rather have Hannah undergo one surgery. Our dream is to have Hannah able to hear her family and friends sing Happy Birthday to her when she turns one in May.

We went over Hannah's cat scan images and learned there weren't anything structurally wrong with her cochlea. This means Dr. Alexiades can insert the implant without any strange twists and hopefully the surgery will be smooth sailing.

As much as I was anxiously awaiting to know her surgery date, it still felt like a huge tug at my heart. She's still our little girl, she hasn't even blown out the candles of her first birthday cake and we just signed a surgery waiver and shook hands with her surgeon.

Once outside, we gave our little girl an extra-long hug and I took her to enjoy the unusually warm January afternoon. We headed to the swings and met up with our friend Abby.

We have just under a month to prepare, which includes a pre-surgery get-away to sunny Florida to visit Mom-mom and Pop-pop. I'm sure it will be nice to relax a bit before the big day.

Happy New Year

Michael and I had a quiet New Year. We're keeping close to home lately, making the most of our family time together. We are so excited for the New Year and thrilled this will be the year Hannah will finally hear our voices. We can sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and know she will soon sing along.

We've taken all the necessary pre-op testing at NYEE. She had to have hearing tests with Megan, her audiologist with NYEE.. The first one was an unaided hearing test, meaning Hannah again had ear plugs placed in her ears and she was taught how to look at a tiny bow in the corner with a silly frog playing the drum when she heard a sound. So with Hannah on my lap in the sound booth and Megan piping in the sounds and observing from the booth, it looked like Hannah was hearing a lot because she kept looking over. I've always hoped she would surprise everyone and she would ace these hearing tests. When Megan came to talk with us after the test, her findings were still consist with a profound hearing loss. It's just a constant pull at my heart and I wish these tests would just stop.

The following week Hannah took an aided hearing test, meaning she went into the sound booth and took the hearing test with her hearing aids. Like before, Megan would pipe in sounds and Hannah looked over at the silly frog in the corner. The findings said Hannah had a moderate hearing loss with the hearing aids on. This level was not sufficient, meaning Hannah's hearing aids weren't providing enough sound through their amplification, she was no eligible for a cochlear implant.

We also met with Liz, the director of hearing habilitation with NYEE, for a speech evaluation. Like Hannah's therapy sessions, Liz played with Hannah using toys to see what her hearing levels were and how she responded to sounds. Liz had a whole new flurry of toys for Hannah. I really liked the way Liz was with Hannah. She is stern and certainly has high expectations but has the experience to teach Hannah.

Finally, we went to Manhattan Diagnostic Radiology for Hannah's sedated cat scan. We need to have the cat scan before we meet with Dr. Alexiades. It will show Hannah's cochlear and it will become the roadmap on the day of her surgery. If there was any abnormalities with the cochlear, Dr. Alexiades would need to know so there aren't any surprises for Hannah's surgery.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Hannah the Banana. Isn't she cute?!?!

Hannah started the day at The Center. Afterwards, we met Grandma and Grandpa Weitzman for a walk in Central Park. It was a gloriously warm afternoon and the sun felt so good. Hopefully all of Hannah's Halloween's will be this sweet.

Lucky for us, Michael got out of work a little early and joined the park festivities.

Our building had a trick or treat parade and Hannah and Michael joined. Hannah stayed in her banana costume but Daddy changed out of his monkey suit and was his boyhood idol: The Man In The Yellow Hat. That's the great thing about kids. You get to relive your childhood or at least have the excuse to carry on. After Hannah came home with some candy loot, we met up with The Flemings for a bite at Go Burger.

Clarke School

Hannah is a busy girl. She is now going to The Clarke School for more sessions. She sees Jen every Tuesday and Friday at 8:30 for a half hour private therapy session. Like The Center, Hannah works hard at discovering sounds and using her little voice to make requests. The session starts with a Hello song. Hannah just loves this. Jen works with Hannah on the Lings Sounds, those six sounds that lie within the speech spectrum of hearing. Jen will present Hannah with toys that represent each of the sound so an airplane represent the aaah sound, a cupcake or ice cream cone the mmm sound, a monkey for the eee sound and a rattle for Hannah to SHHake for the shhh sound. Jen will start by saying the sound, wait for Hannah to notice the sound and then show Hannah the appropriate toy.

We also attend a Friday morning parent/infant group with Hannah every Friday morning from 9-10. The group consists of a total of seven families with children who have some degree of hearing loss. This has been a source of so much support for all of us and getting to know the other families has been amazing.

Aaah Ouuu Eeee Sssh Zzzzz Mmmm

Hannah began her speech therapy sessions at the Center for Hearing and Communication in downtown Manhattan when she was three-and-a-half months old. And we are so lucky to have Jessica as our speech and language pathologist. Our sessions are every Monday and Wednesday at 9 am and each one is an hour. The sessions begins with Jessica listening to Hannah's hearing aides with a listening tube. She chants Aaah, Oooou, Eeee, Shhhs, Zzzz, Mmmm, Railroad Hotdog and makes sure all of the vowels and constants are clear for Hannah to hear. While Hannah's hearing loss is profound, I do believe the hearing aids do help her. While her hearing level ranges in the 90-110 decibel range, the hearing aids can bump up her hearing about 50 decibels, allowing her to hear conversations. The therapy teaches Hannah how to listen. Jessica will introduce different sounds to Hannah like the bells, Hannah's favorite and a snare drum, Hannah's least favorite and many, many toys in between. Jessica plays with Hannah using the toys as a way to talk with Hannah, and introduce simple words like up, down, open, close and pop. The goal for now is for Hannah to turn to the sound. Once she knows she has to look for the sound, meaning to that sound comes next.

While an hour class for any child could seem long, Hannah was so focused and attentive for about 45 minutes of it. The rest of the time allowed me to ask Jessica questions about Hannah's hearing and ways to interact with Hannah.

The hearing aids

At 10 weeks old, Hannah received her first hearing aids. She has her own pair of binaural Phonak Naida S V Up behind the ear hearing aids. I was terrified. I just couldn't see my little baby with these hearing devices on her tiny head. We sat with Anita, her audiologist at the Center, who explained all about the hearing aids, how they work, how to troubleshoot them and how to put them on. Once they were on , Hannah was calm but was much more alert. I called out to her, calling out her name and she looked up at me. It was just amazing to see that reaction. It was like pulling off a band-aid.

Once her new "ears" were on, Michael and I went for lunch. She was still our little sweetie pie, happy as could be. We kept looking at Hannah to see if she noticed any of the noises coming out of downtown Manhattan. It was just really hard to tell, but we were hopeful.

After lunch, we met with Lois Heymann for a therapy session. A lot of family and friends wondered what a speech and language therapy session would be like for a two-and-a-half month old. We wondered ourselves. Lois explained the session were intended for Hannah to turn to sound and eventually have meaning to that sound. Lois used a push toy that had tiny balls that twirled around. Hannah really enjoyed this, especially the knob on top. Tasty. After, Michael rubbed Hannah's belly, saying Mmmmmm. When he stopped, Hannah used her voice to indicate she liked it and Michael continued. Eventually, Hannah tired out and we got the chance to talk to Lois. It was like a therapy session for the parents as Hannah dozed the afternoon away.

Center For Hearing and Communication

We traveled downtown to the Center for Hearing and Communication and met with Lois Kam Heymann, a speech and language pathologist with over 30 years experience working with young children, to discuss their program. The Center offers twice-a-week, one-hour speech and language therapy sessions through Early Intervention as well as the Deaf Infant Program (DIP). Lois showed us around the Center and we were impressed by the bright green and blue walls, the children's drawings and the fun toys. We also met several of the speech pathologists who were all warm and welcoming. We felt this would be the perfect place for young Hannah to come and learn how to listen, speak and play with other children. There was also lots of laughter from the other children who seemed right at home.