Family Potluck Picnic with CHC

Today we attended CHC's first annual family picnic in Central Park. It was an awesome day, filled with lots of families, both familiar and new, as well as the Center's speech therapists and executive director. I call it a family picnic because obviously of all the families that were there, but the Center has also become a family to us. We have been taking Hannah to CHC since she was about 3 months old and it's such a tremendous place of love and support. They have taught us so much about hearing, children and have helped us in more ways than I have the words for. I love it so much there and I'm so thrilled Hannah will learn how to listen, how to communicate and how to hear at the Center.  CHC is such a huge part of all our lives and we're so thankful.

Hannah loving all the delicious salads at the First Annual CHC Family Picnic

A great afternoon with our CHC family in Central Park

Happy Birthday America

To celebrate the fourth of July, we took Hannah to a baseball game to see the Brooklyn Cyclones. We savored over hot dogs, french fries and ice cream. It doesn't get any more American than that. This game marks Hannah's third baseball game in just as many boroughs. She loved all the sights and sounds, the smells and especially enjoyed hearing all about the national pastime. 

While the Cyclones were pouring on the runs, Hannah played a little game of her own called "Peek-A-Boo" with my brand new Brooklyn Cyclones hat. She can play this game all day and loves when you say "Ahhhh" when you (or she) is hiding and "Boo" for the big reveal. 

"Ahhhhh"

"Boo"

And again...

...for the hat.

We stayed the full nine innings but Hannah took a good snooze for the seventh inning stretch. She missed the fireworks after the game, but she is our little fire cracker all the time.

Group Therapy

Hannah's already busy schedule just got even busier this summer. In addition to her 4 hours of individual therapy a week at both CHC and NYEE, Hannah takes part in a group session at CHC twice a week with 5-7 hearing impaired children her age. Our first session was today with Fara, who is her individual speech therapist, and Anita, her audiologist when she was wearing hearing aids. The group was a lot of fun, they sang songs, played with blocks and Hannah's personal favorite, shook things up with a parachute. The goal of these group sessions is to teach the children how to listen in noisy environments and listen to their peers. Since so much of Hannah's therapy involves one-on-one with an adult, the group is a fun change. Hannah seemed to enjoy the new atmosphere and she was able to keep her focus on the activity in the noisy environment.

AG Bell Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona

This past weekend, we went to the AG Bell conference in Scottsdale, Arizona and had such an amazing, inspiring time. While Hannah was experiencing her first child's program on her own, Michael and I attended various sessions such as advances in hearing technology, growing up with a cochlear implant, reading to children and how to have an effective 60 minute therapy session. We had the opportunity to meet and talk with lots of industry leaders including speech therapists, audiologists, early interventionists and parents from around the country, all sharing ideas and best practices. We met extraordinary people full of so much passion and learned so much about different ways to introduce language to Hannah and just how important repetition is. Normal hearing kids hear 24 hours a day, as there are no "earlids" -- so the brain is always absorbing the information channeled through the ear. But for people with hearing aids and cochlear implants, they are missing access to sound when their technologies are turned off.

The best part of the conference was meeting other parents, especially those with children a little older than Hannah and getting their advice on the road ahead. One thing we realized is how lucky we are to be living in New York City where Hannah receives the very best care in her hearing journey. We heard stories of families from the middle of the country who were told that their hearing impaired children would only sign and wouldn't be able to talk and it was the parents who researched and fought hard to get their kids an oral education.

While we know that early implantation is great and important for her overall development, one thing for sure is we will not let Hannah rest on her successes.  We need make sure all of her hearing needs are met throughout her educational career. We are going to be Hannah's strongest advocates to help her be the best she can be, even when the test scores show how well she is doing.

After attending the various sessions, we were able to enjoy some family time where Hannah enjoyed the pools at the resort. While previous pool visits were not here favoirte, the 113 degree temperatures melted away any lingering resistance. We splashed and laughed and eventually Hannah felt safe enough to fall into the water from the side of the pool. We even enjoyed a few trips around the lazy river, though her aqua mics took a trip by themselves. Yikes! Luckily, Michael was able to recover them.

Lazy River at the Westin Resort

"Mom, they need to have candy station at the turns."

We had such an amazing time and would recommend this conference to anyone on the fence thinking about attending.  We loved meeting everyone from Advanced Bionics (Hannah's CI manufacturer) and our new AG Bell family. We can't wait until Disney World in 2014.

Mother's Day Weekend

Mother's Day was extra special to me this year. It was my first Mother's Day with my precious little angel Hannah Rose. I can't lie and say I downplayed this holiday. Just the opposite. I had plans, big plans of marking this special occasion. I was super excited about my first Mother's Day and I needed the entire weekend to celebrate and do something special with Hannah and Michael. I've been Hannah's mom for almost a year and although my rookie year is almost over, I just love this little girl to bits. Being Hannah's mom has been a pure joy. She is the most amazing little girl I've ever known and being Hannah's mom is such an honor. She is one special little lady.

To kick the weekend off, we took the subway to Brooklyn and visited the New York Aquarium and Coney Island. Michael and I went to Coney Island pre-Hannah and I just love the carnival-like atmosphere. From the aquatic life to the taste of Nathan fries, I was sure Hannah's senses would love it just as much. 

Hannah and I at New York Aquarium

The New York Aquarium was filled with lots of new sounds and sights for Hannah and it was exciting just to see her discover the world around her. She came face-to-face with sharks and turtles and got to enjoy a show with sea lions.

Afterward the Aquarium, we walked around and took Hannah to some of Coney Island's famous scenes.

 Hannah got a new stuffed animal, this one a colorful frog we named Andy. I think she likes him.

On Sunday, we enjoyed brunch with Grandma and Grandpa at Fishtail. We went to this restaurant last year for Mother's Day, which was two days before my due date. It was a thrill to now have Hannah join us. We enjoyed the lobster and Hannah was "forced to eat chocolate cheesecake lollipops.

 We ended the day at Central Park, testing out the grass. All in all it was a pretty perfect weekend.

Grandparents Day at CHC

Wednesday, May 2, was Grandparents day at the Center for Communication and Hearing.   It was a delightful and educational day for me.

Hannah is so at home here.   When she arrived she was the center of everyone attention.   She seems to know everyone there and she loves the doting that's bestowed upon her .   I feel so comfortable that this environment was so welcoming to her.

First we went to her therapy session with Farrah.   Farrah is a wonderful therapist who seems to know Hannah very well.   First Hannah waved her hand at Farrah, then she looked at Mommy and to my delight,  Farrah said "Say hello to Grandma", Hannah looked at me and waved and blew her awesome kisses.   Hannah's go to word right now is"up"and she usually uses it appropriately, especially when something is dropped on the floor.   She's learning words, such as in, out, open, shut, push.   She played with a doll and we all sang la la la as the baby was rocked and put to sleep.   She's learning the Shhhhh sound.and the ooo sound.   Hannah has quite a long attention span.   She played with us for about forty minutes without showing any crankiness.   Farrah shut the lights to demonstrate the shhhh sound.   This did not frighten Hannah at all.   In fact she looked at me in the dark, smiled , and waved like the Queen of England.   I don't mean to sound grandmotherly, but I think she's gifted.

After about forty minutes, Laurie Hanin, the executive director of CHC had me come out and observe the rest of Hannah's therapy session through a one way mirror.   Laurie talked about the progress that Hannah was making.   She told me that her development is equal to any other eleven month old.   She told me that she will definitely be main streamed in whatever school setting Jennifer and Michael choose for her.

Hannah is a star.   She's making wonderful progress.  

After my session with Laurie, I had my own hearing test.   By some fluke I passed, which is strange because I'm often told by people that I don't listen.   And these are the people who love me the most.

Next I took a tour of the facility with Nancy Nadler,  Director of Development.   There are not only programs for children Hannah's age, but there are also programs for school age children, adolescents, teenagers and adults.  We went to audiology rooms which were designed to make children feel at ease and not intimidated.   There was a simulated living space where people with hearing loss can learn to adapt to their own living environment.   I was especially impressed with a room that was designed by an architect and a sound engineer  to help people with hearing devices adapt to such settings as a noisy restaurant, an office or a sporting event.

Grandparents Day last spring in Central Park

I feel very reassured that Hannah is in such a wonderful environment with caring and highly professional people.  I'm writing this on Jennifer's blog for Mom mom and Pop pop who are in Florida, and for Grandpa who is recovering from hip replacement surgery.   You were all in my thoughts so I share this with you.

11 Months, Left Ear Activation and Near Perfection on the Right

Hannah turned 11 months on Friday, hard to believe. I can already start to feel the wave of emotions as I think about her first year coming to a close. 

Hannah is 11 months

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We started the day with Megan, Hannah's audiologist. It was a two-part appointment as we missed the third mapping earlier in the week when Hannah was sick. The first part was to officially test and see where Hannah's hearing stood after a month of wearing her implant. To do this, Megan felt Hannah was ready to go into a hearing booth. Then after her right ear was tested and mapped, we were going to finally activate her left ear, almost two months after her surgery. 

Megan wanted to see how Hannah would do in a sound booth since she responded so well during the first two mappings. Hannah sat on my lap and listened to a series of different beeps and sounds that were piped directly into her implant. This was a more controlled setting than the previous mappings and would give a more clear picture of how Hannah was hearing and how softly Hannah could hear. Hannah did really well, turning to looking at the drumming panda in the box like she did during the mapping sessions. When it was over, Megan came into the room with a huge smile, saying she was really pleased. 

Megan showed us Hannah's audiogram, a graph that shows the softest sounds a person can hear at different pitches or frequencies. Hannah is now hearing almost at normal levels in her right ear! It is in the upper range of the hearing banana. She was now hearing between 20 and 30 decibels with her cochlear implants, from 50-70 with her hearing aids and 90-110 unaided. What this means is that Hannah could now hear all the sounds in the speech banana, from the low to the highs and everything in between. Needless to say, I cried. This is a true miracle.

To see Hannah's unaided audiogram, click here. To see Hannah's new audiogram with the cochlear implants, click here. 

After, the right ear, Hannah's left ear was activated much like her right ear. Hannah's right ear processor was now removed and Megan only worked on her left one. After various tones piped directly into her left implant to test Hannah's threshold on the left side, the base levels were set and we will gradually bump up the sound on the left side during the week while only tweaking the right. Here's a small sampling of her left ear activation. Note in the video how Hannah's says "Up" when she drops a toy. She's such a smart cookie.

Hannah now has two Neptunes - two headmics and two processors attached to her tiny body. It's a lot of equipment, it's a lot of times they fall off. But we are seeing our little girl come alive with sound and it is glorious. 


Afterwards, Hannah and I headed uptown to visit Grandpa in the hospital where he was recouping from hip replacement surgery that morning. Hannah, you sure brought a smile to my Daddy's face!