Oh Baby!

As you are all aware, we have been having various issues with Sadie's hearing aids.  Her first pair, Starkey, were too big and constantly fell out of her ears, however the clarity was great and there was never any feedback.  Her 2nd pair, Oticon Safari, fit great, but there was constant feedback with them.  Well, after about a month of waiting, we were finally approved for the new, high-tech hearing aids called Widex Baby 440. 

Sadie was fit for the Widex Baby aids yesterday and so far they have fit great, and the feedback has been minimal (a little feedback is normal with hearing aids.)  They are soooo tiny!!!  My only concern now is if she is hearing the same sounds as with the other hearing aids.  These are made for babies with minimal to severe hearing loss.  Sadie's original ABR showed her at moderate to severe.  If things have progressed, and she is at a more profound level of hearing loss, these aids won't be able to help her much.  Unfortunately this isn't something we will be able to determine for a while. There are little things we can look out for, like does she startle to loud sounds or is she turning her head to noises.  So far with the new hearing aids it has been sporadic.  I don't see her startle to loud noises, but I do see her occasionally turn her head to sounds. 

We are going in for a behavioral test in 2 weeks to see if we can make any determinations on her hearing.  A behavioral hearing test is done in a sound booth and basically they look to see if the baby localizes any of the sounds.  The audiologist warned me that babies start to do this between 6-9 months and Sadie will barely be 6 months. So, if we don't see anything major, she wants to ensure I don't get too upset (yeah right :)).  We will hope for the best though! 

Attached are some pictures of her 3 different types of hearing aids.  Here are the 1st pair, Starkey:

Here are her 2nd pair, Oticon Safari:

And here are her most recent, Widex Baby 440:

 And here is a picture just b/c it is cute :)