My girls

I'm not in the habit of using photos in my blog (as a matter of fact, I haven't got a single one) but I *had* to put this one on, as I've been asked for a photo of my two princesses - here goes - Sarah, aged 8 hours, on the left, Maria, the big sister, on the right. I love them to bits and am so proud of them both.

A child is born

Something unrelated to implants but I really had to mention this. On the 10th September, at 1:38am, Sarah Louise was born. Instantly, I fell in love yet again - I loved her the minute her head popped out and said hi to the world. The amazement I felt seeing my second daughter come out is with me still.

The first birth - Maria, was very tough. Mandy suffered quite a great deal, she couldn't have an epidural anaesthetic as the anaesthesist found it hard to find the 'sweet zone', so to speak. It was a difficult, painful birth for Mandy and it was awful for me just to look at her and try to act calm when in fact I was feeling so helpless about what was going on. So it was with not just a little trepidation that we approached Sarah's birth.

As it is, we needn't have worried. The minute the contractions started getting rough, we were taken into the delivery room and Mandy was given the epidural (worked this time!) She was very calm - then, before we knew it, our little mite was in our hands.

So far, she's been very peaceful. Maria adores her little sister, really taking care of her, stroking her, brushing her hair, singing to her - a proper little mummy. Talking about implants, at least some things have changed now! Firstly, I used to find the process of burping the baby quite stressful with Maria. Since I couldn't actually hear her burp, I had to rely on the sensation of the burp and the smell on her breath (!). Suffice to say burping babies wasn't my greatest skill. Now, at least I can actually hear the burp. I can also marvel at the sounds that babies make - snuffling, mewling, cooing sounds that only babies do. I never realised what these sounds were before, as I don't recall the babies we had in our family prior to my hearing loss. So far, it's been wonderful. I love being a dad of two princesses :)

Minor processor issues

I had some problems with my processor recently. I noticed that

1) When it's pretty hot (we've had a long hot summer in Malta this year!) the volume seems to go down quite substantially. When I tried auxiliary cables the sound was fine so it was related to the microphones. When temperatures went down, I heard a sort of pop and everything went fine. What I also noticed was that this volume reduction seemed to be 'announced' by a rustling sound similar to the one that you move a cloth against a microphone.

2) I also noticed that, at times, when I switch the processor on, it turns itself off again, then when I turn it back on again, it seems to loop between the Sensitivity settings and the volume. Pressing the sensitivity button seems to lead it to 'hanging' as the on switch doesn't work. The only way to reset is to remove the battery compartment and put it in again.

I reported it to the Manchester CI centre and in their typical efficiency they sent me a new controller, even putting a self addressed padded envelope in for me to send my existing one back - apparently the second problem is a known one. I'm currently with another controller and seeing what happens.