Hayden's Activation Day!

Hayden was finally activated this afternoon. It's been 6 weeks since his cochlear implant surgery. After school, we had lunch and he had a little quiet time. Actually, his time wasn't quiet, but at least I tried. At 2:00, we made our way downtown for his activation appointment. Thankfully, Hayden fell asleep on the drive in. I wanted him to be rested so that he might be easier to work with. Recently, his visits with his audiologist has been hit or miss. Sometimes he will be good during mappings, others he screams and fights.

Going into the mapping room, Hayden was pretty good. He did try to lock and unlock all the doors around so he didn't want to sit. After getting caught up with our team, we began the process. When it came time to have Hayden wear his new implant, oh boy, he was not going to have it. He screamed and fought every time I tried to put it on. Luckily, we got just enough time to see that everything was looking good. Dr. Ross had to guess at a low setting and seemed to be happy with the small response that Hayden gave him. Our job this week is to get Hayden used to wearing the implant so that on Friday, Dr. Ross can do a better adjustment with a true response from Hayden.

After we got home and had dinner, I tried to get Hayden to put on his ear. Initially, I tried bribery with a lollipop and then ice cream. He kept saying no, so into timeout he went. This worked last year with the first one, so I thought I'd try it again. Nope. He willingly walked himself to his timeout spot and sat down. After a few minutes, he got out. I was talking to the girls and turned around to see his implant was gone! I thought I lost it. I started to get really upset and angry, asking the girls to help me find it. Hayden realized I was getting angry and walked into the living room with a guilty smile on his face. He walks to one of his trains on the coffee table, then to another one on the floor by the couch. Inside of each is a part of the implant. The little stinker took his implant from behind my back, took it apart, then hid the 2 pieces in 2 different places. No one can tell me my child isn't smart.

Finally, I had to tell him if he wouldn't wear the implant it was time for bed and took his shoes off. This is what finally did it. He didn't want his shoes off or go to bed. So, I was able to get him to wear it. He spent the rest of the evening almost happily wearing his implant. He even asked me to put it back on when it fell off. Let's see if we have better luck tomorrow.