Sounds of joy...

My cochlear implant and I have become firm chums, but few things can be considered as more beautiful as interacting with your children. I found communicating with my daughter, Maria, very difficult before I got my implant and she was one of the main driving forces behind me obtaining my implant. Maria is now almost 4 and my implant is now as part of her life as it is my own. When she's annoyed with me (teasing her for instance) she removes the headpiece from me. The other day I shamefully kept my implant plugged in onto the TV when I was listening to a TV programme while I was playing with her. She was pretty angry with me and she cheekily told me to remove the cable right now and almost made me take my processor off too - so it was a matter of negotiation to be allowed to leave my headpiece on!

But.... something even more special happened a few days ago... I guess it's about time to mention to all and sundry that Mandy and I are in the family way again and are expecting our second child in a month or so (yes she IS 8 months pregnant!!!) and... I was so overjoyed to hear our baby's heartbeat - I never heard Maria's so this was especially special for me. The fascinating sound of the frantic bleeps of the heartbeat of that small child yet to be born was something very emotional and particularly moving for me.