It's a Date!!!!!

Last Monday we spent from 1pm to 5pm at Nemours in Wilmington.

1pm:  Audiology testing with hearing aids

• Never underestimate the knowledge, patience, and detail-focus of a pediatric audiologist.  Among a million other things, they are trained to know whether or not a child of 6-months in age can hear based on behavioral observations.  Ryan spent an hour in the 'audiology booth' sitting on my lap whereby sounds in varied pitch and frequency were tested.  The audiologist knows whether Ryan responded to sounds by watching her facial expressions and cues.  A few things that are noticeable when Ryan hears is her blinking or her binky sucking changes, or most obvious she turns her head to look for the sound.  
• Of no surprise, Ryan failed miserably, but I will say it was pretty entertaining.  I'm sure we'll be in the booth or something similar many times in the future
• Thank goodness Ryan was a very happy baby all day, otherwise this could have been miserable for her, for us, and for the audiologist

2:45pm:  Optometry

• Eyes dilated.  Ryan already has two up on me now-- she's had a MRI and her eyes dilated-- two things I've never experienced in my lifetime.  She's a busy baby.  
• Everything went very well.  She has perfectly normal eyes and vision, ruling out any syndromes that could be associated with vision

4pm:  Surgeon

• After a rich discussion, our surgeon agreed to do Ryan's surgery as early as safely possible
• This is still tentative, but most likely she will officially have cochlear implants on March 4th!  Yay!!!!  7 months!

Needless to say, Sean and I are very excited about this surgery and are looking forward to beginning her life with her ears.   Can't wait.  Now we just need to make a final decision on which manufacturer to use for her implants.

Ryan getting her eyes checked.  Girl had her eyes dilated!