Hearing Aids and Other Adventures

James got his first pair of hearing aids today. (Turns out hearing aids are very expensive, so our thanks to the great state of North Carolina, which has a program that pays for the first pair of hearing aids for babies under three.) It was a long meeting with the audiologist where she programmed them and showed us how to use them and take care of them.

In the top picture, he's wearing the pilot cap that can be used to stop babies from pulling out the hearing aids (unfortunately, that's not ours; the ones we ordered are too small so we'll have to exchange them). Isn't he cute? In the bottom picture, you can kind of see the hearing aids -- there's a clear part that sits in the ear and then a plastic part that hooks around behind the ear. (We figure if people ask about them we'll just tell them he's in the Secret Service. Kidding.)

This afternoon he wasn't really pulling them out while he was playing (although he did when the sitter laid him down to change his diaper), but on our walk one of them did keep falling out. The problem is that his ears have grown a little bit since they took the ear molds, so the little part that fits in his ear doesn't quite fit properly. The audiologist took new ear molds while we were there, so they'll be replaced in a week or two, but it'll probably be a bit of a hassle until then.

We thought we'd see some dramatic difference when he had them in, but we actually haven't noticed much difference at all. The audiologist said that it was a good sign that he didn't seem startled when we were talking after he had the hearing aids on, because if he jumped or looked surprised that might be a sign that they're turned up too loud. So, we'll see how it goes over the next few days.

But in other news, when Mike got home, the sitter told him that Matthew had been inconsolable all morning. Then he threw up all over the bathroom. He felt a little warm, too, so I came home from work and we called the doctor. By that time there weren't any appointments left at the Chapel Hill office, so I had to take him to the Durham office. Turns out he did have a slight fever, and the doc diagnosed it as a viral illness, which apparently is common around here in the spring. The typical course is 3-5 days of fever and irritability (sometimes with vomiting and diarrhea).

The really really bad thing about that is that the virus is contagious like a cold, which means that James will probably get it too, and they probably won't let him go to surgery if he's sick (especially fever). So although I am completely dreading having to take him in for surgery, it will be worse to have to postpone it after planning everything around it happening this Friday. Although we are hoping for the best, we are really upset and disappointed about this, and we're kind of kicking ourselves for going out and about this weekend -- it didn't occur to us that there would be a lot of contagious stuff floating around this time of year, and the babies were mostly in their carseats the whole time, so who knew they'd pick something up?

They gave Mattie a dose of Tylenol at the doctor's office, and just as I stepped out the door, he threw up the Tylenol and all his milk. I turned back around and mopped him up with paper towels in the bathroom -- he had a puddle of pink puke in the bottom of his carseat, poor kid. I changed him into the spare outfit which almost fit, and we headed home. He fell asleep on the ride, and woke up shortly after we got home (thanks to Stanley and his ill-timed barking). But maybe a little of the Tylenol got into his system, because he was in much better spirits.

P.S.: James's good eating has continued -- no pump last night or tonight!