Mollie's Story

Mollie Jane Bowman was born May 25, 2005 @ 4lbs 14 oz. She as you all know is the twin sister to Nathaniel Ture Bowman and baby sister to Madison.

Mollie is like all of our children a person unto her own. Her actions in the womb gave us a hint of who she would be in our future. She exercised her right to space in the womb and promptly sat on her brother's head most of the pregnancy. Poor, sweet, Nate the giving soul that he is was given the opportunity to wear a helmet for most of his babyhood due to Mollie cramming him into such a small space. His skull had to be reshaped by wearing the helmet 23 hours out of day. Ha! Mollie did get her fair share a few months later and was given a pretty pink helmet to wear as well. A syndrome the doctor's call Plagiocephalus. (I think I spelled that correctly?)

Bobby and I look back and reflect that maybe it was a good thing we did not know about Mollie's hearing loss as we don't know how we would have managed putting hearing aids and a helmet on her head.

As a baby we were not aware that Mollie was not hearing. I would receive comments while walking through stores about her ability to "sing loudly" from complete strangers. I really did not think much of it - I was by that time used to Mollie hollering and being "very loud" to get attention. I assumed (unfortunately) that this was just part of her gifted personality.

I started to suspect that the twins were behind (expected because they were preemies) in their speech and language at about 20 months of age. We knew from information to start looking for the developmental signs at about age 2. It was in comparing them to some of their playmates that I was getting concerned and started having some more serious conversations with Dr. Hain. One night while having dinner with some POM friends, I asked the question of 5 mom's, "how many of your twins have speech problems?" Out of all 6 of us, one if not both sets of twins had speech delays. This concerned me for sure...did I see a pattern here?

Shortly there after, my mother-in-law stated that she strongly felt that Mollie was not hearing, that she did not turn when you called her name. This of course was the start of that sickening feeling in your stomach as a parent. Could there really be something wrong here? So, at dinner one night we asked Madie to go upstairs and call/yell/holler Mollie's name. Needless to say, Mollie did not hear a thing, did not even turn
her head. This was the beginning of something much bigger than we could imagine.

By June of 2007 we were able to get into the Bill Wilkerson Center. A facility at Vanderbilt University Medical Center for the hearing and speech impaired. It was there that we first met Dr. Danielle Rose and Dr. K. Rigsby. We were introduced to the sound booth and started testing Mollie's hearing. It was in this room sitting behind my husband in a chair while he held Mollie that we discovered she was severely to profoundly hearing impaired. I remember saying to myself as my ears were throbbing from the sound vibrations, "for the love of God Mollie do you not hear that?" The end result was no, she did not hear that and it was a truly sobering moment for Bobby and I as parents. It is a hard thing to wrap your brain around. For losing your hearing as a child is not some ailment that you can physically see, it was not something at such an early age of life that you could pick up on, it was not something she could tell us, she didn't know any better.

I have to say that the doctors did not waste any time. Not only are they excellent in their field but they are empathetic and care so much about what you as a parent are experiencing as well your child.

By June 21, 2007 - Mollie was fitted with loaner hearing aids. It was in a small room with about 6 of us that Mollie was first turned on to sound - she just stared at all of us in wonder and pointed out the window to a crane that was working on a new building outside. Then she promptly wanted to be held by one of the interns that was with us - a sweet college girl of course - Mollie always is happy to snuggle up to someone new. I can say there was not a dry eye in that room including the doctors.