Look Who's Standing!

Well, okay. So, maybe he isn't standing totally by himself. But he is finally pulling himself up to a standing position on things. That is a big accomplishment. We're really excited to see that he is slowly building up more lung stamina. He used to be just too tired to work more than ten minutes or so without a good long nap. He worked the full hour with Ms. Kristi. It could be due to the fact that she completely adores him and he knows it. The fact is that he's got her wrapped around his adorable little finger. Just look at her in those pictures totally in love with him!! Ms. Kristi is his Deaf ed. teacher (and the Beast's, too!). We love when Ms. Kristi comes because she brings some great new toy every time. This week, it was some stuffed animals that sing and light up. I think Little Guy is totally in love with them...and perhaps with her. I don't know how I'll ever break it to him that she's taken.

We're hoping he can keep up the great work. He was diagnosed with RSV today, so we're watching him very carefully. So far, so good. And that's the way I hope to keep it.

You may have also noticed from the pictures that he has big tubing coming down. That's the corrugated tubing we bought and string his oxygen tubing through. It works great at preventing him from strangling himself, preventing siblings from twisting it, cats from chewing it, and well...let's just say it's been truly a life saver.

Photos of the ABR, Earmold Impression, and Tubing of the Molds

*Click on the pictures to see the whole photo. Apparently I need to learn to reformat pictures.*

One thing friends, family, and others who may have had their own children referred for follow-up screens wants to know is simply "what is like?". We promised we'd take photos and video footage of the process, and we've done just that. When you go through the movies, please remember that this is my fifth child and I'm still only 3 weeks post partum. I promise those extra three chins I'm carrying will go away eventually. :) (They will go away...right?)


This is what the ABR (auditory brainstem response) test looks like. The baby sleeps through the whole thing. Tiny receptors are placed on the baby's head and then a small tube pumps sound into the baby's ear at various frequencies and volumes. The test records the brain's response to auditory stimulation. This is a totally painless test. As the child gets older, it sometimes becomes necessary to give the child medication to help him stay asleep through the test. Under about six months, though, most babies sleep through it without the aid of medications.

This is what it looks like while impressions are being made for earmolds. In order to insure that little or no feedback occurs, the earmold needs to fit the inside of each individual ear perfectly. So, the audiologist will make impressions of the inside of the ear to send off to the molding company. Babies grow rapidly, so it's expected that a baby will go through several sets of earmolds in his first couple of years.

After the earmolds arrive, the tubing needs to be trimmed to fit the baby's ear just right. This is what the tubing may look like to start with. The earmolds in this picture are just temporary until Little Guy's real molds come in sometime next week.