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.

Dr's Visit. How Fun.

June 11th

Morgan is 2 weeks and 4 days old, and growing like a weed. She was 7lbs 9ozs. We were on track she had gained over her birth weight of 7lbs 4ozs. The Dr said that she looked great she was a happy healthy baby, until they did the heal prick for the PKU anyways.Seeing Morgan get her heal pricked hurt cause I did not like seeing her in discomfort and it made big sissy curl up in the corner and not watch.I think Anna was glad that was happening to Morgan and not her. Anna and needles does not get along at all. 

 While we were in with the Dr Morgan's belly button fell off. I was so excited because she could now have her first bath in a bath tub. She did say that her ears looked great that she did not see any fluid on her ears and then we began to talk about her ENT appointment a few days before. She said that her ear drums were perfect and she did not see any fluid that the test had talked about so that really made me determined to locate another ENT.

She did tell us that right now at this moment in time it is not important that Morgan be able to hear if she can not, but she really does feel that she can hear, to what degree she was not sure, but if there was any type of issue with her hearing we would need to know about it by the time Morgan turns 6 months of age when her speech would began to develop.

We left the Dr's that day with our next appointment being in 2 months. Due to use not being first time parents we got to skip coming back at 1 month. I was so happy about that.   I had a feeling we would be spending enough  time at the ENT to make up for not coming to the Dr every month.

Morgan's First Bath

Two Week Follow Up

June 8 th

Morgan had her follow up visit with an ENT in Gardendale. Once we were called back Morgan and her Daddy went to the test room where they began the test once more that we had run in the hospital. I sat in the room waiting on them to get back with my fingers crossed hoping surely this time she has passed the test. She responds to noise at home, and when we go to see Ashley's parents she jumps every time their dog Fuzzy barks. So I just knew she would pass this time. Ashley came back to the room with our baby girl just to look at me and say she failed again. My heart sank, then he said they ran the OAE and Tympanometry test, and the Tympanometry test showed that there may be fluid on her ears so that could cause the fail on the OAE.

 The Otoacoustic Emissions ( OAE ) is a test that uses a probe in the ear canal and a computer to record response to sound from the organ of hearing ( cochlea ). Tympanomentry is a test that uses a probe in the ear canal to record movement of the eardrum. Can detect problems such as fluid in the middle ear or a hole in the eardrum.

Once the Dr came in he went over the test results with us and said that the test results appeared to show fluid on both ears and then began to talk to us about having to do tubes if the fluid does not clear up or even an antibiotic to help clear it up after some time. Then the exam took place where he looked Morgan over by looking into her ears, up her nose and then stuck his finger down her throat. I had never seen both Morgan and her Daddy so mad. I wanted to take Morgan and cuddle her to calm her down but her Daddy would not let go of his precious baby girl. He had a loving hold on his daughter and was not letting go. I knew at that moment I would feel sorry for anybody to hurt his baby girl. Boys beware.

The ENT said everything looked fine to come back in 3 weeks and we would test again. We made an appointment to go back but when we got out to the car Ashley was so upset he wanted to find somewhere else to go he did not care to come back. So I began the search for a new ENT.

Morgan 2 weeks Old

Hello World.

   On May 24, 2010 our wonderful family grew from 3 to 4. We welcomed the newest member of the family Morgan Lee Colvert @ 11:05 am she was 7lbs 4ozs 19.5 inches long. We were full of so many emotions. We had waited 9 months to meet our sweet baby and she was finally here and she was perfect. Our family was complete.

 Our oldest daughter Anna took to Morgan so fast she loved her new baby sister more than you could imagine. Just look at how happy she is holding her new sister. We knew right away that Anna was going to be the best big sister in the world. All I could do was look at my girls and think I am so blessed to have such beautiful happy healthy girls and a wonderful husband who loves us more than anything. Little did we know life was about to become more interesting with a few more obstacles.

Before you leave the hospital now, due to state law your baby has to take a new born hearing screen. We were told before she arrived that most of the babies do not pass and receives a refer on their test, not to be alarmed if this happens that usually with in 2 weeks or so they will pass the test. Morgan was taken for 2 test on the day we were due to leave and was brought back saying they could not get her to pass. I could not help but have this feeling that something might be wrong with her hearing.

I tried to keep reminding myself the nurse said that most babies do fail and get a refer but I could not get past that feeling but I am a worrier.  I had already been cleared to leave at this point and we were waiting on Dr Blair to release Morgan. But she decided she wanted one more test run. We were so frustrated when they did this because they were having to wait on the machine in the NICU to be brought over and then she would be gone for 30 mins to an hour taking the test. All we could think while she was gone was this is so stupid if she did not pass the first two test she is not going to pass the one either. When Morgan was brought back to us we were told she did not pass this one either. If she was to ask for another test tell her no, just follow up with the ENT in 2 weeks.

We started dressing  Morgan  in her clothes to come home in, I had not been told we were released yet but I did not care I was ready to go home it was already after 1:00 in the afternoon. Soon after we started dressing her we were told we could go. I never finished getting Morgan completely dressed. Me and her daddy was mixed with so many emotions and mostly frustration that we just wanted to go home. So we loaded Morgan in her car seat and took a few pictures and our wonderful nurse Lisa took us down to the car. Finally we were headed home to start our new family and Morgan's sister Anna was waiting on us to get home.

  

As we drove off from the hospital we began to talk about Morgan and the possible problem with her ears because she failed all 3 test. We were just hoping and praying that she can here and if she can't that would be ok to we could handle it, it would be a long not so easy road but we would do everything for our baby girl that we could. Inside I was heart broken at the thought of her never hearing my voice if she could not hear, I wanted to cry but I told myself no we don't know anything yet its not time to think about the worst, be strong, but be prepared for whatever the test might show in 2 weeks. I turned to Ashley and said I fell like she will be fine, that she can hear something she seemed liked she startled at some stuff in the hospital and he agreed. He said that he feels she will be fine as well and the he has hopes she will pass the test but will not tell himself she is going to because if she don't it would break his heart so he would stay prepared for what ever the test show.  At this moment I began my prayers to God.
And so our Journey begins.