Do you hear me now?

My youngest child, Squiggle (now 13mo) has never passed a hearing test in her right ear. I kept getting told it could be fluid, just wait and test again, etc etc. She failed test after test, but she does respond to sound. They said she cannot hear below 1000 hz, and that her left ear is also probably compensating.

At 6 months of age, she got  nasty ear infection (both ear drums ruptured, pus coming out, etc). It didn't go away until late February/early March. They suggested tubes since it didn't respond to antibiotics well and since she had a hearing loss. They figured it would help. She had double tubes placed in march. She has had continual ear infections (complete with pus) since (so much for tubes!), and the tube in her right ear isn't even in the ear drum anymore (so much for them helping with hearing!)... it's just chilling in the canal. The left ear is the one that keeps getting infections. You know, the one she can hear out of just fine.

Just hours after her double tube placement.

I don't know what to expect in the future with her. She seems to be doing just fine and I've refused the sedated tests where they measure something with her bones. I just didn't feel it necessary. She responds to us. She mimics us. She signs well. Thank goodness we already owned Baby Signing Time, Signing time, Potty Time, and had done ASL with Bobble. I wasn't sure how to respond to the notion that she might not hear out of one ear when she was first born, but my husband had the best response: Good thing we were learning sign language and already owned Signing Time!

He took it with that attitude. He wasn't upset or concerned. He was simply positive about it. This gave me more incentive to start watching the videos more with Bobble again. I will probably go ahead with the bone hearing test when she is older, or just wait until they can test her some other way. I feel she is doing well enough to not see the need for a sedated procedure.

Do you sign with your children? If so, what is your reason for using sign language?

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What we've been up to

I thought I'd take these few quiet minutes while Bobble is sleeping (and inevitably getting ready to wake up since I started this post, right?) to let you all into my world a little bit. I know I haven't done a "what's happening" sort of entry in a while, so here's what's going on in our neck of the woods!

Bobble was moved from the younger group of children in his Montessori Toddler Program to the older group of children. They are still in the same room with the same teachers, but the activities are slightly different. They made this move a bit before the holidays because they noticed him imitating the older children more, and just showing more interest in them in general. Since moving to that group, he has started (verbally) speaking a bit more (remember, he signs) and listens every bit as well as the older children in the program.

This was great news for me, as I'm slightly concerned about his (verbal) speech. I don't think my child has a learning disability, and I can tell he's very smart.... but he's simply not saying much and I guess I really can't wait for him to start verbally speaking more. Yes, I know, I know. "Once they start talking, you won't get them to shut up!" I've heard that a million times. I try not to compare him to other children, but there are boatloads of other children who speak before age 2. He turned 2 this past week, and I don't think he (verbally) says 20 words. He understands beautifully. He can follow complex directions easily. He definitely has no issue knowing what we're saying.... he just doesn't say it himself. Our pediatrician isn't worried since he knows well over 120 signs and obviously knows the meanings of words since he can do multi-part tasks, but I'm just sitting here knowing that I spoke (phrases) at 10 months, and seeing people commenting on their children speaking (before one).... and then seeing them post things on social networking pages like their son "said he wanted *name* for his birthday." ....that child was just a couple days under two, but was asking for his younger sister (at that point, due any day) by her name. That is what he wanted as a present.

Slight bit of jealousy there, I suppose. I know Bobble will get there, but boy would it be nice if that happened sooner than later. Especially when it comes to him needing to interact with teachers at school!

On the Squiggle front, I'm 17w4d pregnant with Squiggle. I've been a bit down about the pregnancy, too. I kept thinking that the second time around I'd feel movement sooner. Granted, I think I've felt movement that was baby-related.... but nothing so obvious that I can't brush it off as potentially something else. It would have helped if I hadn't gotten that horrid stomach bug (last week? the week before? I don't remember!) that caused all sorts of gurglies in my stomach around the same time I started feeling movement. Now my brain just doesn't want to believe it's baby, I guess.

On a positive note, we loved the midwife we went to see a few weeks back. I'm so relieved to finally have a person we are comfortable with... that really helps put my mind at ease for a few things down the road!

We have our anomaly scan for Squiggle scheduled for Monday, the 11th of February. Yes, I will be finding out the gender if they cooperate. I'm more concerned with making sure everything is okay with Squiggle, though. Hopefully everything turns out fantastic, and maybe they won't be shy, either! I'm still betting on Squiggle being a girl. I've felt Squiggle was a girl since I realized we might end up getting pregnant that cycle (so before a positive test, even!). There have been a few differences with the pregnancy, too. For starters, I've had lots of morning sickness. With Bobble, I could just eat something with carbs every hour or two and I was good. Yeah... totally didn't work this time around.

Also, I didn't have any weird cravings with Bobble. Sure, I wanted steak.... but when don't I? The biggest thing with Bobble was the huge food aversion to grilled chicken (just the taste, not the smell), and the huge food aversion to fast food. (At that point in time, I wasn't completely aware as to how fast food meat was really.... well, made, I guess. I don't eat fast food now.) With Squiggle, I've had random cravings for..... fast food. Thank goodness if I give in to it, it sounds repulsive if I think about it after... which is good because that stuff IS repulsive! So far it's only happened twice, and two completely different types of fast food. I still hate the fact I even ate it, though. Squiggle won't let me really eat chicken at all (which is my favorite meat!), and the SMELL of it is gross to me. I have craved jalapeno poppers, though. I'm not a spicy food sort of person, but I've been wanting these a lot lately. I think I'm going to start getting my own peppers, halving them, and putting cream cheese in the middle and just baking them. I find the breading gross, and the fact they are processed means they have to have gross stuff in them. I'll try my own and see how it works out. I really just want the pepper and cheese, anyway.

Lastly, the heart rate. Bobble's heart rate was in the 170s a lot, and later in the 160s. I believe Squiggle's heart rate at the last appointment was in the upper 140s. I know that the heart rate doesn't actually tell you what the child will be.... but if nothing else, I'm hoping that means that Squiggle will be a more lax child. I could really use a break! *laughs*

Hubby started classes back up two weeks ago. He's been very busy trying to stay on top of school work already. Heck, he has an exam this week! It sure moves quickly... that's one thing I don't miss about school!

So, that's about it as far as home life goes. We at least all seem to be healthy for the time being... I'm sure you noticed that by all the posts lately. Slowly but surely, I'm catching up!

Speaking of posts... you'll want to keep your eye out for a big announcement in a couple of weeks. It's something you're not going to want to miss!

Talk It Up

A few months back, Bobble had a well-baby check-up. They asked all the normal questions like “does he repeat sounds?”, “does he follow simple instructions?”, and “how many words does he say?”. The last question is the one that got on my nerves. I mentioned that he said dadadadadadadaaaaaa and a couple other simple sounds like that, but mostly he signed what he wanted. I told them a couple of the signs that he knew, and they seemed disinterested in hearing all of them, so I didn’t drag on. I assumed they were content to know that he still communicated. It’s not like he isn’t vocal, they just aren’t formed words yet! The nurse left after finishing her notes, and then the doctor came in a bit later.

Our doctor is awesome. I would like to state that from the beginning. I love him to pieces. He had no idea what Baby-led weaning was, but was okay with us going that route and even bringing him some information on what it was to read. He understands that we want to raise our baby our way, and he respects that. From some of the stories I’ve heard from other mothers, this isn’t always the case. I’m thankful that, for us, it is. 

Anywho, he logged in to the computer and quickly glanced over the nurse’s notes. It was then that I got upset. I noticed she wrote that he ‘gestures’ for things. No. That is not what I said! I told him that he does not gesture, he actually uses American Sign Language (ASL). I expressed how it is upsetting that the nurse completely disregarded his form of communication like that, down playing it to seem like my son wasn’t developing in the language department. 

‘Gestures’ would seem, to me, like he would reach for something he wants and grunts. That is much different from him looking sad, signing ‘please’, signing ‘book’, and then going and bringing me a book. The doctor said he would take care of that next appointment. The next appointment he spoke of was this past Friday. I waited for the nurse to ask her questions. They started with the normal questions, and skipped that one. Completely skipped it. How frustrating! I had actually sat down and written down every single sign he knew. It took some time and some thought, and I bet I missed a couple. Heck, he’s learned a couple signs since then, too. I was at 81 signs come his 18 month well-baby visit. (I don’t count a sign as Bobble knowing it unless he uses it…. There are many he understands but hasn’t used himself. Those I don’t count.)

When the doctor came in, I told him I was surprised they didn’t ask us that question. He chuckled and asked me “So, how many words does Bobble know?”. I happily answered that he knows 81 signs, and explained how he says “booh” (book without the k sound) while he signs book, “buh” while signing bubble, “baa” while signing bath, “gooh” while signing cookie, and then the whole daaaa thing. I also said he understands us really well, so if I ask him to go find his shoes, he does. If I ask him to pick up his blocks, he does. If I ask him to go get me his (stuffed) frog, he does. Our doctor was really pleased. He said it sounds like he has a great understanding of the language, and that his development is great. He’s not concerned with the lack of verbal communication if he is communicating this well. Truth be told, ASL words ARE STILL WORDS. So he knew at least 81 words by that point.

He’s learning more and more each day. It’s amazing. He learned shower in one minute. He always signed “bath” for showering as well as bathing, so I finally said “a bath is when we sit in the water” and signed bath, pointing at the bottom of the tub, too. Then I said “Look at mommy, Bobble.” I signed shower, and then said “a shower is when the water falls on us while we stand in the bath tub!” and turned the shower on. “That is a shower!” and I signed shower. Bobble got all excited (he LOVES bath time!) and pointed. I asked him if he wanted a shower, and he signed shower. It was that fast.

Now I’m not much of a television fan, and by that I mean we have no television service. We have NetFlix for the occasional entertainment, and we have movies of our own, but nothing that is really “watched” frequently.  Here’s a great example for you: most recently I watched A Knight’s Tale with my husband. It was over the course of 5 days and in 3 different viewings. We just don’t watch much television. I know that’s not a bad thing, but I’m just trying to give you some background here.

Bobble watches his own videos, and I’d say he watches these videos more than my husband and I watch anything together. Before you get all preachy about television and my little one, please know that I do not use this as a babysitter, and I frequently am watching the videos with Bobble.  Besides, how am I going to know what he’s signing if I don’t learn them too?

We started out with Baby Signing Time, and now we own the entire series. Bobble has only seen volume 1, the Baby Signing Time set, and Potty Time. I split up volume 2 to be partially his holiday present this winter, and the other half to be his birthday (January).  I was going to originally just purchase Potty Time (in addition to my already owned Baby Signing Time videos) as a way to help introduce using the potty. I figured that, since he loved Baby Signing Time so much, he would love Potty Time and so he would be introduced to the concepts via the video before we started with him. I thought that would help him understand a bit more when we start with potty learning. Luckily for me, the ENTIRE SERIES was on sale when I looked to purchase.... and they were all half off. I was planning on purchasing the whole series eventually, but likely as individual DVDs since they were more costly. The sale gave me all the DVDs though (including the baby signing time DVDs again), so I ended up with a bit over 40 DVDs averaging a bit over $8 per DVD. I couldn't turn that one down!

I absolutely love these videos and am so thrilled to have found them. Sure, I've seen them a million times (well, some of them!), but the songs are very well done and I never get sick of them. That's good, because Bobble ADORES these videos! Sometimes he will wake up and sign "signing" first thing in the morning. Today he woke up very upset from his nap. The only thing that would make him feel better? Watching some Signing Time while nursing in mommy's arms. So not only are we able to communicate with our little Bobble before he started speaking, but he has the skills to communicate with other people that know ASL. How great would it be to be at a park and see a little one playing all alone and your child walk up and play with them? Of course it would be great. Now imagine that child playing all alone was deaf, and nobody else was playing with them because they could not communicate…. but your child can. It may not be much, but it would mean the world to that other child. It would mean a lot to that child’s parents. It will also mean a lot to your child.

I can’t guarantee that Bobble will ever be “fluent” in ASL, or that he’ll even remember half of it when he’s a teenager. I can guarantee that it’s helped us thus far, it will help us in the future, and it is helping Bobble now. To that nurse that wrote ‘gestures’, I have a gesture for you… but it’s not polite and I don’t want my son learning it. Instead, I’ll just take comfort in knowing that my son can communicate just fine, and even excels at it. It will never get old looking over and seeing Bobble run up to me with his blanket and signing “sleep”. Verbal communication isn’t everything. Bobble understands words. He understands what they sound like. He understands what they mean. He understands more than just words, he understands language.

This post wasn't intended to be a review, nor do I consider it a review. I didn't really get into any of the content of the videos or how they go about teaching anything. If anyone is interested in an actual review of the videos, let me know.