Today, we took Marcus to the audiologist for a different kind of hearing test, called the BAER, which stands for Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response. The machine is pictured above, and it's basically a laptop computer connected to some electrodes by wires that plug into the laptop. The basic idea of the test is to give direct stimulations that bypass the ear and head straight for the auditory nerve. The goal is to figure out whether or not the auditory nerve is intact, because there are surgeries that can be done to restore hearing if it is.
Marcus, it turns out, has an intact auditory nerve, which to me is neither here nor there because I'm leaning against having surgery anyway. Usually if a kid has unilateral deafness, they develop perfectly normally and it seems unnecessary to subject the kid to an elective surgery to restore hearing that he doesn't necessarily need to function. I, for example, have an intact auditory nerve on the right side but I'm deaf on that side. And I've done okay.
In other news, the baby slept through night for the second night in a row yesterday, bringing his overall total to three times, all in the last couple weeks. We may be turning a corner here, and tonight we're going for three in a row! I've got my fingers crossed. I should probably clarify what I mean by "sleep through the night", as it seems different people have different definitions.
We put the baby to bed at 7pm, but then we wake him up at 10pm to drink more milk. If he manages to sleep until at least 7am after that 10pm feeding, we call it sleeping through the night, mostly because it means *we* get to sleep through the night. He gets 8-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep in that case, which is pretty sweet for us. I've heard people call it sleeping through the night only if the baby sleeps like 12 hours in a row which, I mean ... geez. That might never happen at all. So we're happy if he gets 8-9 hours overnight and we get to sleep soundly until morning.
He's still underachieving with his "tummy time", which is an exercise where he lies prone and is forced to pick his head and chest up off the bed to strengthen his muscles. He gets very upset after only about 5 minutes of it. And so I've heard about other babies his age already pushing up with their arms and lifting up their head and chests. Marcus just kind of weakly lifts his head up and looks around for a bit, then puts it back down to rest. That's about how well I do at the gym, so I can't criticize.
He gurgles and coos, smiles often if you play with him, and looks around the room at specific things and people to check them out. The other day I caught him looking at the cats for the first time. And yesterday he laughed. Well, not really laughed ... sort of a soft chuckle. But it's a big deal to me. Sort of a heh heh heh. I enjoyed it.
He's also got a new ride: the MacLaren Techno XT. Woo, it's a beauty. We originally got a Snap n Go that just carries around his infant car seat, and we thought it was fine. But he was getting so hot and bothered riding around in this summer weather that he was complaining, so we thought we'd get him something a little cooler. Now he's stylin', facing forward like a big boy, and he's got multiple settings for his seat back so he can practically lie flat and sleep, or sit up and watch the world. And we love the way it handles, so much better than the clunky Snap n Go. At under $300, it was an easy purchase. And will last him well into toddlerhood, probably until he's ready to walk full-time. This will probably be his last stroller.
Ah ... one more thing. Marcus has discovered The Wiggles. For you single and non-parent people, The Wiggles is an Australian kids band that has been extremely popular for a few years now, and we found it on Netflix instant playback. So Janelle played it once on her computer screen as a joke, and wouldn't you know it ... Marcus was enthralled! I had no idea a baby that small could watch something as complicated as a TV show, but man he definitely is watching it. We feel like bad parents plopping him in front of a screen at such a tender age, but you know what? It gives us up to half an hour of peace at a time, which is totally worth swallowing your pride for.
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