Anderson gets hearing aids

The day after his big brother turned five, September 14th, Anderson's hearing aids came in.  When the audiologist put the aids in his ears his face lit up, and when she took them out to let me try to put them in, he cried.  He wore them almost the entire day that day and almost the entire day the next day.  I breathed a sigh of relief as I thought it wasn't going to be a battle to keep them in as I had thought it would be.  Day three he decided he didn't like them any more, and began taking them out of his ears every time he put them in.  Things only escalated from there as he began fighting us when we tried to put them in.  He shakes his head no and screams and pushes us away.  It's heart breaking and frustrating at the same time.  He has had them for three months and finally wore them for three hours the other day.  This was the longest stretch he has worn them since the first couple of days he had them.  We also switched from the Oticon Safari to the Phonak H2O's because his Safari's were eating batteries way too fast and were defective.  The audiologist decided to let us do a trial with the H2O's and we decided to keep them once we found out that the technology used to make the H2O's was superior to the technology used to make the Safari's.  He has been doing better about keeping them in, but it's still a daily battle and he still fights us putting them in his ears, and if given the opportunity, takes them out and throws them (or puts them in his mouth to chew on them).

On Everett's birthday we switched Anders to a big boy (convertible) car seat.  We kept him rear facing, of course, but were hoping that him being in a convertible car seat would help him not hate being in the car so much.  No such luck, though in the last few weeks he has done tons better with being in the car, too.  Usually you can just walk to the car with him and he starts crying as soon as you get to his door.

After we received the official hearing loss diagnosis we began trying to figure out what caused it.  He had a sedated CT Scan, and there aren't any bone malformations in his ears or anything abnormal at all.  He also had a full developmental evaluation.  He passed with flying colors!  Even so, he has a teacher for the hearing impaired that comes once a week to work with him to make sure that he stays on target for everything since he does have the hearing loss.  He also had a kidney ultrasound as many times hearing loss and kidney abnormalities are linked.  That, too, was normal, thankfully.  He has also had genetic testing to rule out any gene mutations, genetic links to hearing loss, etc.  All of that came back normal as well.  He just had another blood draw to check for the Connexin gene which is a gene that has been found to cause hearing loss that is usually progressive.

In October, he had a really terrible, awful, horrible stomach bug.  He threw up so much he started throwing up bile.  We took him to the ER and they gave him fluids and sent us home with liquid Zofran.  He was still nursing well, but wouldn't drink out of a cup or eat any food.  A few days later he was still throwing up and having diarrhea, so I called the pediatrician, and he had me bring him into the office.  From there he sent us back to the ER because he was dehydrated.  They gave him fluids, ran some tests, did an abdominal x-ray to rule out an obstruction, and sent us home a few hours later.  A few days later, we went back to the ER because he continued to vomit.  Finally, after two full weeks of vomiting, diarrhea, or both he finally got better.  Everyone's best guess is that he had Rotavirus even though he has been vaccinated against it.

Meanwhile, in non-medical news, he is an absolute doll.  He uses five words consistently and with meaning: mama (sometimes mom mom), dada, Bella, uh-oh, and hi.  We think he has a word he uses for Everett, but we're not positive.  He still adores his big brother and gets sad every morning when he leaves for school.  He runs all around the house now.  He climbs on the bookshelf, and in the kitchen chairs to get stuff off of the table.  He still loves Bella and torments her with his constant love and attention.  She is always so tolerant and loving towards him.  He loves to read books and will bring them to me, then sit in my lap for me to read.  He still has beautiful blue eyes, and sometimes when the sun hits his baby fine hair it looks red.  He loves being held and cuddled and hates it when I'm out of his sight.  When we have gone to playdates lately he either clings to me or stands back from the group taking it all in.  He does these things unless we're at the park.  At the park he runs around like a wild man, climbs on everything, and tries to keep up with Ev.  He's at the age now where he and Everett fight over toys, especially the shopping cart.