Baby Hears Mom's Voice for First Time

By Jennifer O'Neill for Yahoo!

It’s “the giggle heard ‘round the world,” in comments from the nearly 65,000 people who’ve viewed Ryan Aprea break into a fit of laughter hearing his mom’s voice for the first time in a clip posted on YouTube Dec. 12. The 2-year-old, born at just 25 weeks, was diagnosed deaf during his seven-month stay in the hospital. But mom Jennifer told Today a cochlear implant he got in November changed everything.

“We went into the appointment not knowing if he would respond at all,” said the Huntington Beach, Californian, who has been blogging about the process on her Facebook page.

And now “he’s been interacting with us and giving us more intentional eye contact just in the few days since he’s had it turned on. My heart melts every single time he looks at me.” Audiologist appointments these days are “like Christmas morning for us,” she wrote on Facebook. “He’s doing so great!”