Meetings and Evaluations

  The ball is rolling now on E's early intervention team. He has been assigned someone to come to our home once a week. She will work with E almost like a private preschool teacher geared specifically for his needs. I was thrilled to learn that she had read this blog prior to our first meeting and was already very familiar with E and with my husband and me. We were able to skip the Q and A and get right down to business mapping out our goals as a family. E also had an evaluation meeting today to assess his needs. The evaluation involved a light medical screen, questions about milestones, and play observation. The results were that E is a beautiful, healthy baby that is right on target across the board. He is 50% percentile for growth and meeting all of his developmental milestones. We were given much praise and encouragement as parents for being so very proactive and involved. It felt wonderful to feel like I got a gold star as a mommy :-)

  You know how those pats on the back go. It seems like for every one pat on the back, you get at least a dozen kicks in the butt. Well, I did something stupid. I was trying to clean E's hearing aids tonight and had been told to wash the ear molds with a mild soap and warm water. I knew that I shouldn't get moisture near the hearing aid, so I detached it from the ear mold so I could wash the ear mold without getting anything else wet. Doofus me detached the tubing from the ear mold end rather than the hearing aid end. Well, if you don't know, the tubing slides tightly through a tunnel that goes all the way through the silicone ear mold. I couldn't get the little tube back in! I got it pushed half way, but cannot for the life of me get it to push the rest of the way into the silicone tube! I gave up after a while in fear that I might damage the tube or somehow stretch or distort the ear mold. The good news is that E has another appointment with the audiologist Monday, so if he cannot wear that hearing aid, he will at least only be without it for two days. I was TRYING to be a good mommy and keep my son's hearing aids all nice and clean, but I ended up rendering one of them unwearable. Yay me. Well, lesson learned – do NOT disconnect the tube from THAT part.

  E has now worn his hearing aids for almost a week. He doesn't like having them put in, but once they are secured in place, he is a happy camper and doesn't mess with them. He goes about his merry little way completely unconcerned with his new ear accessories. Are they helping? Who knows. There is no indication that he is hearing anything. I have been told that it is a very good sign that he leaves them alone. Supposedly, if a baby seems not to mind the hearing aids or doesn't constantly try to remove them, it can indicate that the child has perceived a value in wearing them. I am hoping that we will get some information from his appointment Monday. He has to wear them for a trial period of at least three months before it can be definitively determined that they are of no use to him. I would like to believe they are doing something because I am not at all happy about the idea that I have to keep maneuvering these silicone blobs into his little ears everyday if they are not benefitting him in any way. I'm so very proud of my little guy though for putting up with it all!