Hearing test

As we have learned, many kids with cleft lip and cleft pallet have issues with their ears/hearing. After many failed tests while Noelle was in the NICU we have been going to appointments where they are testing her hearing abilities and discovering what the issue is.



Yesterday we went for a 3 hour hearing test again. We had to repeat this test from the test previously because she has to sleep the whole time they are doing the test.The first time we attempted these tests she was wide awake the whole time and would not sleep no matter how hard I tried. They told me to make sure she didn't sleep at all previous to her apportionment from 8 am- 2pm they wanted her to stay awake. How do they expect a new mom of 3 kids to keep their kid sleep deprived before their appointment. She is only 2.5 months old, she needs sleep! This was a challenge and really hard on me. She still doesn't sleep at night so I am surviving on no energy, caffeine is what gives me my artificial energy.



So yesterday I kept her awake, dropped the older two off at a friends house and prayed that we would have some success with testing. To my surprise Noelle fell asleep very quickly and stayed asleep for a good amount of time for the tests! We learned a lot from this appointment, although we still have more tests to do we at least know her level of hearing now.



Noelle's right ear has about 45% hearing loss and her left ear has about 60% hearing loss, so we are told that if we talk really loudly (70 decibels or louder) she should be able to hear us. With her hearing loss and water in her ears she won't clearly hear us, she will hear muffled words but at least she can hear something. This gives us hope that at some point she will be able to hear us with surgery and aids!



We will continue with tests next week and hope for more info with time. One thing we do know is that they do not make aids for kids her size so we are going to have to wait until she is bigger to get her fitted and hearing normally.