Just how loud can our little boy cry?

* Loud enough for two different nurses in neighbouring ICU units to come rushing in to his room at the Children’s Hospital one night to see what was going on. (His nappy was being changed.)

* Loud enough for Jase to hear him from outside when he pulls up in the driveway each night. (Arsenic hour.)

* And yes … (sometimes) loud enough for me to hear him crying without my processors on. Oh boy was I surprised to hear him hark up in the 20 seconds it took me to brush my hair this morning. I confess I stared at him in surprise for a few seconds while I matched the faint, cute little cry in my head with the bright red, wide-mouthed, writhing little baby in his cot before I hurriedly put my processors back on and picked him up to soothe him. (He was hungry.)

Impending labour symptom # 2

Second note to self: if, in a future pregnancy, your hearing suddenly starts to return for no reason at all, be very wary.

Again, about two weeks before I gave birth to our son, I noticed the residual hearing in my right ear start to improve slightly. The first sign of this was in the shower – I could hear the water running over my hair. (Very faint and crackly, mind you, but the sound was there nonetheless.) Then I noticed I could hear cupboards closing, without having to slam them. I could hear Jase talking in my ear, though I couldn’t understand his words. And, finally, I could hear the dial tone of the telephone (with volume full blast, and the receiver held in a very precise location over my ear).

I pointed out this weirdness to my audiologist, who, at my 12-month CI review, actually conducted a proper hearing test to assess what was happening. Sure enough, the slight residual hearing that I have in my right ear had improved a little in certain frequencies. In one of the lower frequencies, for example, I was now registering tones at 65 decibels – before the surgery, they needed to be 90-100 for me to hear them. How very bizarre.

This jump in hearing disappeared immediately after the birth. Now I doubt there’s any medical reason to support that, and I can’t say it would happen to anybody else who wears CIs, but I’m firmly connecting it to the approach of labour in my particular case. Something else I’ll keep in mind for next time!

Grand slam success results in Easter abuse

Visitors arrived to a devastating scene at Jason and Daniela’s house on Saturday 3rd April, where it was discovered a beloved Easter egg had tragically been destroyed before its time.

          ‘It’s my fault,’ said Daniela, sniffling. ‘I’ve developed this habit of slamming things over the last few weeks and, well … look.’

The noisy silence

Over the last three years, I’ve come to treasure sounds. Most sounds. Not bagpipes. Don’t miss them, sorry. ;-) But I have tried to embrace all other sounds, even the badly distorted ones. No surprises there.

Since the silence following CI surgery? Sure. There are (temporarily) fewer sounds to treasure (told you about the cupboard slamming, right?). But I’ve started to discover some new sounds. That I can even reproduce. And I’m learning that the sounds I ‘treasure’ are, well, just Plain Annoying to my hearing family and friends. ;-)

Take these scenarios …