Sharing a bedroom or not?
We've recently discovered that our beautiful daughter is severely deaf, and at 3 weeks old has been fitted with her hearing aids this week.
She is the youngest, and the last, of 4. Our eldest is 6 (girl), then we have 2 boys who are 4 and 20 months. None of her siblings have any hearing loss. Our original plan was to have the boys move into our 6 year olds room, then the girls would both have their own rooms. We have a decorator booked to come in the summer and make the rooms nice and fresh for them all, but now we have found out that our baby is severely deaf we are not sure what the best sleeping arrangements would be.
We know that she won't be wearing her hearing aids when she is sleeping, but then won't be able to hear us coming when she wakes in the night. With the others we could at least call out to let them know we're coming or making a bottle. We don't want her to feel abandoned so wondered whether being able to see her sister would help her until she's a bit older and we can reassess again.
Or would it still be best to keep her in her own room?
We'd love to know what other families have done and the reasons behind their choices.
Thank you!
Hi littlestar, we have a profoundly deaf 9 year old son and a hearing 14 year old daughter. Our plan had been for them to share a bedroom until either we moved to a three bedroom or until our daughter needed her own space and could move into a converted attic room. However, as you say, our little deaf ones can't hear you coming during the night and need the room a bit more well lit so you can sign to them when you are there Or so they can at least see who is approaching them and not get frightened. We moved our daughter into her new attic bedroom when our son was 10 weeks old and moved him into her old room. It worked really well for us. Being deaf he can be quite noisy (no volume control!) and he didn't sleep through until he was 6&1/2 which is quite common for deaf children. It can be quite scary for deaf kids at night because they can't hear the usual House noises. Our son is a BSL user and often lies awake for a bit processing everything from his day before nodding off. He has a brain stem implant which only gives him access to Environmental sounds and not speech.
I do find the H.I children take longer to learn to sleep through the night and for sure have insecurities and need more light and physical touch so they can calm down and see what we say / sign. But I do have all my kids in one room and they all adapt to each others needs. Good luck.
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