6 Months And Counting

I meant to write on Wednesday when it was officially 6 months but I didn't get a chance to sit down to write. I am writing now. It has been 6 months since Landon first got his BAHA (Bone Anchored Hearing Aid). I titled my post 6 months and counting because he will have a BAHA for life! I am just amazed at how much the BAHA has helped him these past 6 months. I cannot wait to see how much more he will improve in the next 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, etc.

I know it has been a while since I have written about Landon and how he is doing. I have mentally noted everything and every experience we and he has had with his BAHA. One of the things we first noticed when Landon received his BAHA was how much more alert he became. That alertness has led to him having a great attention span and focus on a task. 

Landon also became more vocal, not so much with words, but with a lot of sounds (that we hope will turn into words). Right now his only real words are Mama, uh-oh, and no. He is in speech therapy and we know the more therapy he gets and the more we work with him on using words that he will eventually talk. There are days I get concerned but I realize he also understands a lot of what we say. Since he has had his BAHA he is able to understand what we tell him. For instance, when Landon is done with his sippy cup we tell him to go put it in the sink. He goes and puts it in the sink. He may not say any words, but he does understand our words to him. So when I get concerned I also quickly remember that he is comprehending what we tell him and what we teach him.

In the past 6 months we have decided to teach him some simple sign language. He has mastered 4 signs: please, more, thank you, and all done. We are currently in the process of upping the number of signs he knows. While we are teaching him sign language, we are still working with him on talking. For now since he isn't talking, signing is our best communication.

Logan (our oldest) has been great with Landon's BAHA. We have taught him that he is not allowed to touch it and that only Mommy and Daddy touch and handle Landon's BAHA. We have also taught Logan that if Landon takes off his BAHA to come tell us. Logan has mastered the art of telling on his brother, not just with the BAHA, but with everything. :)

A question we get often is, does Landon leave his BAHA on? Yes he does. However, like our audiologist told us, if he is tired or not feeling well he will take it off. There was a point in the past 6 months that Landon refused to have us put it on him. At that point he had 3-4 teeth coming through so we took his cue and left it off for a little bit. When Landon is feeling great and isn't tired, he leaves it on and goes about his little 18 month old life as if everything is perfectly normal.

I hope this helps my readers in some way. I hope that through telling about Landon's experience with Microtia and having a BAHA that I am able to help anybody going through this or anybody who knows someone else experiencing the same thing.

Thanks for reading!

Pictures are a picture from each month that he has had his BAHA.