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I told my mom that I thought she couldn't hear, but she kept on telling me that there was nothing wrong with my baby's hearing. Because of the fact that Denise was so sharp with her eyes, and missed nothing, my mom thought she could hear.

'Something was wrong'
After I took Denise to the physiotherapist, and she told me that I should take her to an audiologist, I became worried. I knew that there was something wrong, but I convinced myself that it was just something small.

At the audiologist, I was immediately in tears when she told me that she didn't get a reaction. It wasn't what I wanted to hear. I still feel sad when I think about it.

I cried all the way from the audiologist to my home. When I stopped at the house, my mom waited for me at the door. When she saw that I cried, she turned around and started crying too. It was a major shock to all of us.

I immediately felt that it was my fault, that I did something wrong. During my pregnancy, I had a lot of arguments with Denise's father. I still blame myself.

It made me unhappy to realise that she would never be able to hear my voice or that she would never be able to talk. And that I would have to send her away to a special school in another town. It was something that hurt very, very much. I don't know how to describe that feeling.

Visiting the audiologist
We took her to Nicolize. Once again, I hoped that she would say that it was just a small problem, something that would get better in time or that could be corrected with a small operation.

Now I am just thankful that the hearing aids are helping her to hear and that she will learn to talk.

After the second day of wearing the hearing aids, my mom started seeing reaction. Another little girl, whom my mother looked after, was sitting next to Denise. When the girl started crying, Denise immediately became still and listened to her.

Everyone at home now make sounds when they're near her to see if they can get a reaction, but most of the time she still doesn’t react.

Signs of reaction
More or less a week after she first got her hearing aids, Denise fell asleep on my bed one evening. The door of my bedside table was open and I closed it with my foot. It made quite a noise and she got a fright.

I came home from work one afternoon and my mom sat outside with her and she couldn’t see me. I started talking to her and she turned her head and looked at me.

On the 17th of February, we visited Nicolize again. She adjusted the volume on Denise's hearing aids. From day one, the one on the right-hand side whistled, and it still whistles. We press it every now and again and then the whistling stops for a while.

Denise has this small teddy bear. When she squeezes it, it also whistles. I often squeeze the bear when I'm next to her. Then she turns her head and looks at it. There have also been times when I talk to her while she is sitting on someone else's lap. Then it's as if she looks around and searches for the source of the sound.

Fiddling with the aids
Just recently, Denise started taking the hearing aids out of her ears. She sits very still when I put them in, but during the day she takes one of them out and looks at it or tries to put it in her mouth.
 

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