Diezel was born 1-22-2008. On the third day of his being on earth we were told that he was deaf. I think I was in shock because while I was pregnant I told my doctor that I thought maybe he was going to be deaf. During the day he slept in my belly, through six kids being loud and noisy but at night when all was quit and I went to sleep he would move around like no ones business. My doctor told me to stop worrying. I do worry about EVERY little thing. So I listened to him. I talked myself into believing I was being ridiculous. If we were going to have another deaf child we would have already with the last six. So when my doctor came in with the news that our baby boy was deaf it was hard. I hadn't allowed myself to be prepared. I like to ALWAYS be prepared for EVERYTHING...and as we know that will NEVER happen. I had been through this before, I knew I could do it. I knew I was better prepared. I went home with my beautiful son and gave myself a few days before I told everyone. I didn't want all the advice and "oh it will be fine" speeches. I wasn't ready to let go of what he would never have. I'd say that lasted about a week. I was taking a shower and talking to God as I often do and a peace came over me. I knew then it was okay, everything would be okay. I got dressed and came out and told my husband he could tell our family and friends. I wouldn't trade him for nothing..I chose to believe that God thought I was worthy of such a precious gift not once but twice...Diezel was fitted with hearing aids at two months old. He didn't get a lot of use out of them. At first it was okay because he was to little to mess with them but by six months he would pull them out and I would put them in. We would do this allll day. I don't think he heard a whole lot with them. We knew right away we wanted him implanted. We looked at all three choices of cochlear implants and decided on Nucleus Freedom. It was a very smart choice in our opinion. He was implanted on December 15 and hooked up December 31st. We didn't notice any difference at first. NOTHING..We came back in two weeks and they remapped him. We could tell a little bit of difference but not much. Then in two weeks we put him in the booth and he actually would turn to the little toys that turned on and lit up when he heard a sound. He was hearing the high pitches but not the low ones. So they remapped it and WOW what a difference. Our cochlear implant team has told us they are amazed by Diezel that they haven't seen these kind of results only being hooked up for two months. They said he is doing awesome. We would agree now that he is mapped right, he hears, it is obvious. You could tell he was hearing sound but he had no idea where it was coming from. Now he knows his name when called. He is saying dadda, making the sound of a sheep, BABA. He still is having a hard time localizing where the sound is coming from. Oh he knows that someone is talking from a phone because my husband is a trucker, I am on the phone with him allll the time so he puts the phone to his ear and says dadda every single time..I am so pleased. I like the Nucleus Freedom. I like that the batteries go inside of the device. They stay charged forever. The device that goes behind the ear isn't to big. I like the body worn. We use the clip that attaches to the device and clip it to the side of his shirt and run the wire up to his magnet. I have been blessed that our son as done so well. We have an awesome team working with him, that helps. He is getting speech from the school speech therapist twice a week for thirty minutes each time. He gets speech from the hospital twice a week for thirty minutes each time and the deaf educator comes out twice a week. We are so lucky. I won't take this for granted, Diezel is getting bombarded with language from excellent resources including us and his siblings. It is definately easier when you have gone through this once before so you know what outlets there is out there for you. We still have chosen total communication as we did with our oldest. Just because they can hear doesn't mean that they are not still deaf. You take the cochlear implant off and my children are deaf...