abigailsmommy
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2013
- Messages
- 7
- Reaction score
- 0
Hi all! I just wanted to introduce myself and my daughter! I am a full time student and stay at home mom with 4 kids. 3 hearing and 1 deaf. I have a 14 yo step daughter, Kenzie. 9 and 6 yo boys from a previous relationship, Triston and Wyatt. And we have our 8 month old (almost 
) blender baby, Abigail, who is profoundly deaf.
She failed her NB screen in the hospital and the audiologist told us that they would call in four weeks to schedule a follow up appointment to retest her. They didn't call, so I called them when she was 5 weeks old and scheduled the follow up for the following Tuesday. On Monday she was dx'ed with RSV so we cancelled that appointment and planned to reschedule when she was better, which took about 4 weeks. By the time she was better I felt that she was hitting most of her communication milestones, and that we didn't really need to follow up. If she didn't startle at loud noises it was because she has to loud older brothers. If she didn't look at you when you were talking to her it was because she didn't want to talk to you! Maybe I was in denial, idk. Anyway, at her 4 month check up I mentioned that she had failed and that we had not yet followed up and her pediatrician suggested that we have it checked out. At the followup appointment she failed an OAE (2 in each ear actually) so we scheduled another OAE and an unsedated ABR for 2 weeks later. At that appointment she failed the OAE again and her ABR showed moderate to profound in the high frequencies. We were told that with aids and therapy she "should develop speech and language normally". We set up Early Intervention and scheduled an appointment with another Audiologist and an ENT. To try to make an even longer story kind of short. We ended up with tubes and a referral to Children's Hospital...and a sedated ABR/ASSRT/Bone Conduction Test. During that test there was no response to any frequency at any level to 100db. We just had our HA appointment today. Meanwhile, we have an educator for the deaf coming in once a week to work with her and myself and the 3 older kids are learning to sign. My husband knows a few, but doesn't have as much time to learn as the rest of us I quess. BUT, he's gunna have to learn because we have decided that ASL will be her first language regardless of how much hearing she has or doesnt have and regardless of whether the HAs work or not.
) blender baby, Abigail, who is profoundly deaf. She failed her NB screen in the hospital and the audiologist told us that they would call in four weeks to schedule a follow up appointment to retest her. They didn't call, so I called them when she was 5 weeks old and scheduled the follow up for the following Tuesday. On Monday she was dx'ed with RSV so we cancelled that appointment and planned to reschedule when she was better, which took about 4 weeks. By the time she was better I felt that she was hitting most of her communication milestones, and that we didn't really need to follow up. If she didn't startle at loud noises it was because she has to loud older brothers. If she didn't look at you when you were talking to her it was because she didn't want to talk to you! Maybe I was in denial, idk. Anyway, at her 4 month check up I mentioned that she had failed and that we had not yet followed up and her pediatrician suggested that we have it checked out. At the followup appointment she failed an OAE (2 in each ear actually) so we scheduled another OAE and an unsedated ABR for 2 weeks later. At that appointment she failed the OAE again and her ABR showed moderate to profound in the high frequencies. We were told that with aids and therapy she "should develop speech and language normally". We set up Early Intervention and scheduled an appointment with another Audiologist and an ENT. To try to make an even longer story kind of short. We ended up with tubes and a referral to Children's Hospital...and a sedated ABR/ASSRT/Bone Conduction Test. During that test there was no response to any frequency at any level to 100db. We just had our HA appointment today. Meanwhile, we have an educator for the deaf coming in once a week to work with her and myself and the 3 older kids are learning to sign. My husband knows a few, but doesn't have as much time to learn as the rest of us I quess. BUT, he's gunna have to learn because we have decided that ASL will be her first language regardless of how much hearing she has or doesnt have and regardless of whether the HAs work or not.
We're also getting in touch with Hands and Voices here and there is a Deaf Chat group that meets monthly in our city. I'm just waiting until I know more sign to look into that. I'm a full time student at a college that offers ASL courses, so I'm adding that to my schedule next semester. I'm focused more on baby sign right now, just because that's where she is but I definitely want to get some formal classes so I can TRY to stay ahead of her. 
