He'll talk your ear off!

I know I've been posting less often in the past couple of days, but I have to tell you...I have been busy helping Seth soak up language! He is so into EVERYTHING now...he is interested in every little thing and just taking it all in. It's so much fun!

Because I know how much you've all been pulling for him, I wanted to let you guys in on some things that I'm really excited about! Seth went to the audiologist for mapping yesterday and they put him in the sound booth.

So that you can all visualize this, here is an illustration of an audigram. An audigram is a person's graphical representation of their sensitivity to sound. On the left you'll see the hearing levels in decibels (loud is at the botton, quiet is at the top, so kind of backwards), or loudness of the sound, and on the top you'll see the frequncy of the sound. 

For instance, leaves rustling is about 10 decibels. (Very quiet). A dog barking clocks in at about 60-70 decibels. The gray banana shape on the audiogram is called the speech banana (no, I did not make that up), and within that shaded area, between 20-50 decibels, depending on frequency, is where all the speech sounds fall. To realistically be able to learn to speak, you must be able to hear sounds that fall within the speech banana. 

So are you ready for this? Before Seth's implantation, he booth tested between 70-110 decibels. (Meaning those are the level of sounds he consistently responded to).  He could hear jets, lawn mowers, etc. With his hearind aids on, he responded to sounds around the 60-70 decibel range...better, but still not in that speech banana he needed to be in to learn to speak. 

Yesterday, after adjusting his CI programs, Seth headed on into the booth (well, I went with him, as well). And he was localizing (correctly finding) sounds at....

30 decibels!

He's right in the speech banana and hearing great! It's so exciting. There's still a lot more work to do, but for one week past activation I am thrilled with his progress. After they adjusted his Map yesterday, he started babbling like crazy! 

So, I'm done with all the technical stuff...if you got this far, here is your reward...video of Seth jabbering at me! I apologize for the iffy quality...he was very wiggly tonight. He takes a minute to get warmed up, so persevere! =)

Activation Day!

As you can see, Seth was a happy camper as we headed into the audiologist's office for his activation. We started out with some housekeeping, going over the equipment, etc. He was a champ, just hanging out.

They ran some tests to make sure his auditory nerves were responding, kind of like an ABR (They were!). He thought that was swell.

Then it was time to turn on his ears. Lots of people had told us to expect Seth to cry or freak out. I have to say, I had the biggest feeling of peace today, and there's no way I could explain what happened as well as I can show you. In this case, a picture really is worth a thousand words. The next series of pictures are of Seth the first time I called his name.

Playing with the monkey as I call his name.

Wait a minute...do I hear something?

Yeah I do! It's my mom!

This hearing thing rocks!

It's with a full heart that I want to thank each and every person who prayed with us, donated to Seth, and walked with us in this journey. I can't even begin to tell you how blessed we are. Generally, it can take time for implanted kids to figure out that they're hearing, much less identify what they're hearing, but Seth was turning his head to sounds and has already started to babble again, this very afternoon! I can't even begin to tell you how blessed we feel. God has really been glorified through Seth's awesome journey, and seeing him laugh at his brother's voice today made everything that's ever happened worth it.

There were a lot of awesome moments today, but I think the video clip I'm including below sums it all up for me. God is good, all the time! All the time, God is good!

He who has ears, LET HIM HEAR! Matthew 11:15