Hello there everyone,
I'm waiting for the courier to bring my new lovely red computer and killing time on DHs computer while he's out trapping, so I've read most posts but of course can't comment on you all.
As I'm writing, Jazz has been waking up and keeping herself amused talking and babbling happily for hours, but me thinks it's now feeding time so this will be shorter than expected.
BabyDreamtime - I have had one moment of sadness about the whole deafness thing but that's only because she is jibbering so much and they do that until they are 6 months but after that, when they don't get that feedback that hearing babies get, they drop off and don't make those sounds anymore. That is really the only thing I find sad because its so lovely hearing her express herself and find her little voice even though she can't hear it.
Now that she is 4 weeks old she is really developing some skills and I"m having so much fun bringing my developmental psychology into play. Her favourite friend is the picture of a face I have drawn for her and put in her basinette, she interacts with it for ages, talking and gazing. She has just started to get more alert after being sleepy and tired so she's more robust and hasn't got that fragile baby thing going on. Yesterday was a day of many firsts, interacting with a cot mobile and reaching out and holding a toy. she is getting control of those funny little flailing limbs and the learning is is full swing. I love it. You can practically see those neurons connecting by the minute, she's so alert and not at all a worry anymore. Play time can be anytime of the day or night and more often lately for about 5 hours at really convenient times like 1am until 6am but it's so cute. she never cries unless pushed to her absolute tether (like for a feed while driving or at the doctor's or something, but at home she just makes funny little noises and is so cute that instead of it stressing you out, you just wake up laughing. Now we sleep through it and can ignore it a bit but at first we didn't know what was going on, she went form sleepy baby to active baby overnight it seems. I know it's hard not to feel sorry when all you hear about is that she is not perfect, but honestly, we are not sad overall and have a tonne of support. Hearing australia takes her on from birth until age 21 and she has already had multiple appointments now, had molds made of her ears and is getting fitted for the world's tiniest hearing aids on the 17th of December in Townsville. We are getting hot pink! Too cute. Yeah it's a bugger but if you have to have a disability, it's a very small obstacle compared to many others hey?
By the way, as her hearing loss is so profound (no response to any stimulus) we don't expect the hearing aids to work so we are learning Auslan and baby sign. we will look at our options for cochlear implant (which can be done as young as 4 months, but all these tings require general anaesthetic and is done in Brisbane so there is a lot to consider. The best thing is, like I said, there is a world of support and everything is covered financially so we feel quite spoilt.
Oh damn, I wanted to answer the questionnaire, but spent forever talking about myself. Meanwhile, I don't need to know sign language to know fist in mouth means "get off the bloody computer and feed me!"
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