Surprise, surprise he can hear.

Eye. Eye. Hear. Hear.


Zack's had them both checked out. He went to see his favourite eye lady for some black and white paddle waving. You have to give it to the young man he was on form. Full of smiles and very cheeky. Eye lady was so pleased with him and his behaviour that she said it had made her afternoon. She did the usual showing him a light, showing him some paddles to check his tracking etc. He did do some following and then decided not to bother. He decided to check her out by coyly looking round and peeping at her, smiling then turning away. 


Upshot of it all was that she thinks he knows exactly what to do to be able to use what vision he has, he just sometimes chooses not to. Whether that's because it is hard or whether that's because he can't be bothered (I  think it's the latter excuse) is really down to him. As I had thought, his vision is variable. Some days  it's good, other days it's not so good. I also confirmed with her that his right eye is much stronger than his left and we discussed the use of a patch. At this point in time we both agreed that to use one now may take away what good vision he's got, we may rethink the use of them at a later stage. Shame. I had a whole pirate outfit planned for Zack's patch.


Hearing got checked out too. Oh. Surprise, surprise he can hear. You don't say. He still has his glue ear which is affecting his hearing but he should grow out of that by about seven or eight years of age. The doctor (a new audiologist doctor who was very nice) did the newborn screening test on him again. The one which they click little sounds into their ears. I remember when Zack had it done and failed it. I remember when Scarlett had it done and passed. We were told that she wouldn't need to have it checked again until she goes to school. Both Dan and I looked at each other in surprise we were kind of used to not good news when our children have medical tests. 


Anyway, this time he passed his newborn clickety test. Well, on his right side anyway. The left side had a lot of background noise so wasn't that conclusive. I asked why his hearing has changed and she suggested that her thoughts were that the whole problem with his hearing has been the glue ear. There is nothing wrong with his ear drum, or any other ear bits and he doesn't have an auditory sensory processing problem.  Woohooo good news for Zack. The advice was to face him when talking to him and to keep background noise to a minimum.  I have known all this for ages. I have to creep about when he is in bed as one squeak of the floor board and he wakes up and starts shouting.


The past few months have been really busy. Scarlett is starting to want more of my time and just today I realised how good Zack has become, how he is growing up. I remember when we first brought her home and we had a couple of months of him not wanting to be put down on his own, wanted all my attention. Well now, he is so good if you sit him in his chair, or leave him on the floor with toys, or in his standing frame. He has the patience of a saint. I think he has accepted that Scarlett needs more attention and he just waits his turn. 


Scarlett loves her brother. If you leave them alone together on the bed and go out of the room I can hear her chatting to him. I'll come back in and she has turned over on to her side to face him, has hold of his hand and is gently cooing at him. If someone else she doesn't know touches him or if we play some rough and tumble with him, she watches him like a hawk, sometimes even gets upset. I am amazed at how she is already forming such a protective relationship with him. He on the other hand, puts up with her occasional hair pull or poke in the eye. He does get kicked in the body a lot by her. In return when he goes to touch her he tries very hard to control his arm so as not to be rough. And if they have a cuddle he responds with a massive grin. 


God help him when she finally crawls. Might spur him on to find his legs and get out her way. Either that or he better start saving up for a power chair.