Jonica - initial Aus Hearing appt

Fri 29th Oct - after an interesting week including antibiotics (for the threatening middle ear condition uncovered last week) and 2 brothers away on a holiday with Nana & Grandad for 3 days, we arrived at Friday. Grandad came to stay with Kaelen, & Nana joined us at Australian Hearing for Jonica's initial consultation. This is a fairly simple event; no testing this time, mostly information, and not much of it new to us :-)

What was new, however, was the type of hearing aid Jonica will be getting. Hearing technology companies are bringing out new models all the time (every 12-18 months!), so although Jarrah & Kaelen initially received the same units, Jonica will receive a different unit to the one Kaelen has. (Jarrah's have been updated as part of the LOCHI study, for which we are very grateful, but Kaelen's are still the original issue.)

Jonica's will be the Nios Micro, made by Phonak. The behind-the-ear unit is about 1/3 smaller than Kaelen's, so hopefully they won't flop off her ears too much, and have nearly all the groovy new features that Jarrah's have, which is great news. We decided to get pink units, thought that was appropriate, and she had impressions of her ears taken at this appointment as well. Such a superstar, she slept through the entire impression-taking process, which involves inserting a small piece of cotton & string down the ear canal, then squirting a cool green paste into the canal and filling the ear right to the edge of the outer ear. Some babies *hate* this and scream at you...nope, not Jonica, she just slept :-)

So, in approximately 2 weeks we'll receive our 3rd set of hearing aids. Jonica will be 6wks and 3days old and should have great access to sound from then. In a funny sort of way I'm a bit impatient for this next appointment...i just can't wait for her to be able to hear everything we say to her! What was sadness in Kaelen's case is nearly excitement in Jonica's case...I'm really looking forward to her having more full access to sound and being able to make more sense of the world around her. She's begun to smile at us in the last week (at not yet 4wks old!), which is of course the cutest thing you ever saw, so it'll just be so good when she can understand us more fully.

Bring on the 15th of November!

Next appt: Wed 10th Nov - Jarrah, Aus Hearing check-up