Springtime in Big Sky

Hello from Big Sky!  It has been awhile since we added anything new the blog so we thought we’d give a little Junie B update!  The big news is she got her hearing aids programmed and put on yesterday. She is doing a 3 month hearing aid trial to see if she benefits from amplification.  Her hearing tests in Boston this past fall indicated profound hearing loss in both ears so it is likely hearing aids won’t make a difference but we are going to try!  I’m learning that it is best practice to do a hearing aid trial and if nothing else it gets her used to wearing a device on her ears and it also stimulates the auditory nerve.  After this trial, we will have more information about her candidacy for cochlear implant surgery. What is a cochlear implant you might ask? Here is some good info:

https://www3.gallaudet.edu/clerc-center/our-resources/cochlear-implant-education-center/navigating-a-forest-of-information/what-is-a-cochlear-implant.html

That being said, COVID-19 might affect the timing of all of this but we will just wait and see.  We were supposed to travel to Boston Children’s next week for some additional hearing screenings, meet the cochlear implant team, as well as catch up with June’s cardiologist and hematologist.  The trip has been postponed so in the meantime our specialty docs here in Bozeman are communicating with the Boston teams as we hunker down, try to stay healthy, and do our part with socially distancing!

In terms of day to day life with June, she is one amazing little kiddo!  She is a pretty chill baby and has been quite go-with-the flow this winter.  We’ve had her out in the Chariot a bunch on cross country ski adventures and winter hikes in the baby Bjorn.  She loves being outside and sports some killer sunglasses since she’s got some amazing (and sensitive) pale blue eyes.  That sun and snow combo can be a lot on the peepers! We’ve recently discovered a possible milk protein allergy that may account for the difficulty in keeping milk down.  Now that she is on some very broken down, lactose free formula, she is able to keep her bottles down much better… this was huge!!! Hopefully she’ll be able to put on some pounds at a quicker rate now.  She is getting a lot of services to help her catch up a bit (OT, PT, Speech, and consults with The Montana School for the Deaf and Family Outreach). She giggles, smiles, snuggles, rolls, loves pee-a-boo, almost sits up, and is overall a calm little sweetheart!