The start of "our story"

Peter was born end of April this year.  He has two older sisters, but neither of those births prepared me for Peter's entry into the world!  We arrived at the maternity ward at 8:03pm, didn't quite finish checking in, and Peter was out and on my belly by 8:23.  He was purple-faced, not from lack of oxygen, but because he came out so fast his poor little face was all bruised! I don't recommend the "precipitous" delivery, as the hospital listed it. I think it was a bit shocking to everyone involved- and a completely unexpected turn of events for me.

I couldn't sleep that night, as I just wanted to cuddle my little guy, nurse him, or stare at the brand new beautiful person I had been entrusted with.  I was awake when they came to take him for the hearing screening.  He was gone a while.  When the nurse came back she said that they had done it twice, and he got Refer, Refer both times, and that they had called someone to check the machine, as maybe it wasn't working.  They would try again in a couple hours.  I wasn't too concerned, but I made sure they did do the test again before the hospital got busy in the morning.  He got Refer, Refer again.

Refer, Refer. Sounds like a code. I now understand it is so your beautiful baby is not "failing" anything, but that you are going to be referred for more evaluations....The nurses and doctors were all very nice and careful to explain that babies often pass a second screening a couple weeks after birth, that there could be water behind the eardrum that didn't get squeezed out because of a short labor, or debris in the ear canal. They scheduled a follow up with the audiologist.

I figured everything was fine, but that Peter couldn't hear right then. I did start explaining diaper changes in ASL, just in case, and as I was planning on using ASL no matter what.  Since I had used ASL with both girls I already knew CHANGE DIAPER :)

I did pay more attention to noises and Peter's (lack of) reaction. We have three big, loud dogs that bark and sing for meal time, and get really loud if there are visitors. Never woke Peter up.  He slept through dogs, loud sisters, shop vac, everything! But I thought it would all resolve itself by the time we had more tests. In any case, he was nursing like a champ, surpassing his birth weight in just a few days, and was happy and healthy!