Katie is HEARING clearly for the first time in her life, at age 4 1/2, here's the video. I said her name and she looked right in my eyes (we rarely get eye contact). I sang and she heard me. She cried a bit, because as you can imagine, experiencing a new sense is sensory overload and pretty overwhelming (it's like us experiencing an overwhelming, bright strobe light in our eyes for the first time). She actually turned it from "1" volume to "0" (off) at about 2:00 when she touched it, so she didn't even hear the cover of a cover of Allison Krauss singing Baby Mine at the end of the video, lol... we had her listen to the real one later... will upload another video later when she's laughing at the feedback sound! The BAHA (hearing device), which is conducting sound via bone, works on a soft headband by transforming sound into a strong vibration on her skull, then conducting it through her skull to the tiny bones in her functioning inner ear, bypassing the absent ear canal. Make sense? She's only wearing one and will eventually wear two, this is a loaner. We are so excited for how this will transform the way Katie engages with her environment and starts to interact with us more!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10154273407975693&l=3831757604944926590
A big day for Katie Grace! Now with her hearing device on, she mimics when I sing a note! :) So darling!
I know it's KATIE who got access to one of her senses today, but I'm also just so overwhelmed--in a good way. It's so strange for me to process as her mama, she can HEAR us. It's so hard to wrap my brain around. She went to take her sister's juice and I said, "no, no, no" from across the room, without a visual cue and she turned around immediately, looking for where the sound was coming from. Later I said, "Mama, mama!" to her (from 3 feet away) and she said, "Mama!" back to me. I sang "You Are My Sunshine" to her and I got THIRTY seconds of amazing eye contact. That's just unheard of for Kate. (Pun intended). I haven't happy-cried this much since Gotcha Day. Sound is breaking open Katie's shell, and helping her want to engage with us. Thank you, Jesus!
Will update more sometime when I get a chance! :)
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