Christmas



Morgan and Daddy





It has been the best Christmas this year, Woke up to it snowing and snow is starting to cover the ground. And all I hear is laughter and giggles from the girls as they open there gifts.

Its a Christmas to remember for sure. I can not ever remeber a Christmas with snow.

Should be easy to rmeber considering it is Baby's First Christmas.





Anna.









Anna , Morgan and Pawpaw





Morgan and Mommy



Hear Center.

We went to the hear center with Children's on 3rd on December 15th, Morgan had the OAE test ran again and the Tympanometry test to check for fluid and all was the same as it has been every visit with every test ran. The only thing this time was we were told her ear did not develop right from the results of the same test, This did not set well with us, because the results were the same as always and now we are told something completely different. After the booth test was done we were told that she had more of a moderate hearing loss. And they wanted to fit her for hearing aids and come back in 4 weeks and place them in her ears, although they said they do not know were to set her hearing aids yet and will not know. It will take months of testing to determine were they need to be set at. We explained we still did not feel convinced she needs them right now, and if this is the route we need to go. We were told they feel she does need them to come back in 4 weeks for more testing and they would fit her at that time. Needless to say we left there that day with out making a new appointment.

We have talked about it and we feel that she can hear so much better than anyone thinks, We know the booth test is accurate but we do not feel that she is ready to test in the booth. Basically they determined she had a moderate loss because she would not look over at a lower decibels being played, but let me ask you this would you if you had a girl in front of you playing with you in the booth and you were only 6 months old.So we have decided we would wait and go back when she was 1 yr old due to us not feeling good about anything they told us at the hear center, Its so different from what we have been told in the past, the fact the booth test requires a response and the fact that the brain stem test does not require a response and she is at a mild loss there. So I guess we wait for a while, but in the mean time Morgan hears more that you think she would from what we have been told.

Mild Loss

We have been to children's on October 4th and October 20th, each visit was pretty much the same with what we were told. We finally have an answer with the brain stem test that was done its called a Auditory Brainstem Response ( ABR ). Morgan has a mild hearing loss in both ears, she can hear down to 30 decimals. Also from some kind of bone test that they have done it appears that  it has something to do with the nerves as to her hearing loss that her ear developed fine. They have referred us to the Hear Center at children's now to speak to them and let them get us set up with a speech therapist for Morgan that would come out to the home and work with her. They have been so nice there at Children's and have been so great with Morgan. It never failed Morgan would stay awake all the way there and then fall asleep right before we made it in the building only to wake up right before the testing and not go back to sleep, like they want them to be.

4 Month Visit

Morgan went back to the Dr. on September 24, 2010 to get her 4 month old vaccinations. She weighed 11lbs 10ozs and was 24in long. She is growing like a weed. The Dr. we saw today was not Morgan’s normally Dr., she was out on leave but we still had a pretty good visit. The Dr said he did not think Morgan was teething and that it is very rare for any baby to come back on their 6 month visit with any teeth. Ashley and I looked at each other and just smiled, I knew he was thinking yeah right she will be one of the rare ones.

Our baby is on the fast track to growing up. She started crawling at 3 ½ months old. When the Dr was through looking Morgan over he said she was healthy and doing great then left the room, while we were waiting for the nurse to come give Morgan her vaccinations Ashley told me watch when we come back at 6 months she will have 1 to 2 teeth, and I just laughed and agreed. When shot time came I wanted to cry right along with Morgan, She still did great with her shots but she did not like them she screamed for a few minutes and I felt so sorry for her. So we went home and relaxed the rest of the day, poor baby her legs were sore. And for the first time she ran a fever with the vaccinations. And was not such a happy baby for about 3 days. I was hoping that with the next round of vaccinations she does not react this way.

Last ENT Visit

Morgan went to the ENT on September 20, 2010 almost 4 months old and failed all the testing again. The Dr. was puzzled as to how she reacts to noise and voices and did not understand why she was failing the test and getting a refer each time in both ears. So this is our last visit to the ENT at St. Vincent’s Hospital we have now been referred to Children’s, we have an appointment with Children’s the first week in October. They have been great at St .Vincent’s and loved Morgan to death, they always talked about how cute she is and she is such a great baby.

So I guess now we begin a new journey in a new place. We are hoping they will be able to tell us what’s going on and shed some light as to why she is not passing. We were told they would do a brain stem test and see how her hearing is on different levels. If there is some type of loss they said we would be in the Children’s system and would be in the best place to get care for the issue with her hearing.  It was a good feeling to leave that day knowing in just a few weeks with all hope the brain stem test would finally give us the answers we had been looking for and we could begin the process of correcting any issues that were in need to be corrected, but honestly we did not feel there was any major issue. If Morgan had not been required to take the hearing screen as mandatory by state law we would have never even thought once about her having any type of hearing issue. To us our daughter responds to everything we feel she should in every way she should. I guess we will see what the test have to say in a few weeks.



2 Month Dr’s Visit

July 26^th Morgan is now 2 months and 2 days old. She weighed 10 lbs 5.5 ozs and 21 ½ in long. Morgan does not mind to be weighed however she hates to be stretched to get her length, she will scream as loud as she can and turn as red as can be. Morgan lets it be known that she does not like to be stretched. But she does love to wait on the Dr because she does not have to wear her clothes. She is such a mess and all the nurses just love her, they say she is so sweet and so pretty. I just smile and say thank you, but of course I am going to agree with you because I am her mom.  When the Dr came in and checked on Morgan she said that everything looks great. She is a happy healthy baby girl, then we began the talk about her ears again, they had been sent all the test results so far. Dr said she does not seem to concerned with her ears, they have developed great, they are perfectly shaped ear drum and all, and since she know how she does respond to noise she does not feel we will have any real major issues with Morgan however they do what her to pass the test or find out what is causing the fail on the OAE, we know its not fluid on the eardrum.

Then came the dreaded hated part, the 2 month vaccinations. Believe it or not Morgan did better then I did. I could not help hold her down her Daddy had to help her legs still and she only cried for a few short seconds she did so good. I was so proud of my little girl she is so strong But of course Daddy was there to pick her up and make her happy again with smiles. We left there with our next appointment being for her 4 month visit, more vaccinations, and hopefully by then we will have a better idea as to what’s going on with Morgan’s hearing and those blasted hearing screens. I will be so glad to be done with all of the screens. I will be so glad when Morgan passes her screen. Hopefully she will I told myself.

** New ENT **

June 30, 2010

Morgan is now 1 month and 6 days old and after searching and talking about who to change to we found a new ENT at St. Vincents in Birmingham. We chose someone who has years of experience and some of our family has used in the past plus some friends recommend him from them using him with their children.

Upon arriving at St. Vincents early in the morning with Morgan and finally finding the office I was really hoping we were going to be satisfied with this ENT it took us a couple of weeks to decide who we were going to use. Once the nurse came out into the office and called us back I had that felling that we made the right choice. The nurse who called us back was not who I would have expected at all. He was mid aged and looked like someone who loves to ride a bike, but you had a warm friendly vibe that he loved his job and cared about the patients.

When we got into the room we handed him all that paperwork we had from when Morgan was born at St. Vincents and from where she had all the test run on her ear. Once all the questions where out of that way they have to ask began all the questions and complements on how precious Morgan was and how has she been doing and then he began to tell us about his family. It really helped break the ice on being in a new place and made you feel that you were in good hands. The nurse stayed with us until the Dr came in.

Once we completed all the questions and back ground history with the Dr he decided he wanted to look very closely at Morgans ears with a microscope that amplifies everything so the nurse came back in and held Morgans head still as the Dr spent all the time he needed looking at each ear. Morgan was not happy at first but the nurse talked to her and rubbed her face to where finally she did not mind being held down and the Dr looking at her ears. I stood there amazed at how well she was doing and Ashley never said anything but I could tell on his face he thought the same. After the Dr had looked at each ear and pulled out some wax from each I got to hold my baby girl again. We sat there and talked for a long time about everything. He said her ears looked great and he could not see any signs of fluid, although he almost wished he had seen fluid to explain why the test in the hospital failed and the test when she was 2 weeks old. He went over what  he would do if fluid was an issue, and really took his time explaining things and answering our questions. He told us the same thing the pediatrician told us that if she has a problem they want to know before 6 months of age before speech develops. Then we were sent for the test.

The Audiologist was wonderful, come to find out she was the sister to a church member where I use to go to church.Once the test where run she took the results to the Dr. I knew before he told us she failed again. And still no sign's of fluid that he could not see. He explained to us how the OAE test works and how sensitive it is. That test can fail if it picks up any movement or sound. Also if it does not get a perfect seal in the ear it can fail. We began to talk to him about how she will react to a dog bark or loud noises and he even witnessed her startle to the car seat pooping when we moved it. He did tell us that he did not have a way to test if its only certain decimals that she can not hear. Also he did tell us every once in a while he will have a baby that fails the first few test but then passes later one but its rare. But it still gave us hope that maybe she would be one of these rare babies to pass on the next testing in 6-8 weeks. The Dr also took the time to talk to us about what would happen if she don't. He said when we come back in 6-8 weeks if its still a fail he will refer us to Children's Hospital and get us into the system there and allow them to test her further. They have the Brain Stem test that would test to see what range she can hear down to. Also they would check to see if the problem is in her ear or in the bone or nerve. He also said we could monitor Morgan and see how she responds to noise that she is not seeing happen or feeling the vibrations off of.

We left there felling hopeful that everything would turn out just fine no matter what the outcome might be when we come back, but of course we were really hoping she would pass,  we did tell ourselves we would not set our self's up for disappointment when we return.

Over all we were happy with the New ENT.

I am ready to go to the ENT Mommy.