She can hear!

We took Eleanor to the audiologist today, and she passed in both ears!  The test apparently can only say if the baby can hear, not how well they can hear, but there’s no reason to suspect she has a problem now.  The lady said that some people just lack the response that the hospital test requires, which is part of why so many infants fail it.

After that appt we took Eleanor to the ped: she’s been really congested for the past couple days and yesterday her voice became hoarse.  At first we just figured it was a cold and it would pass, and the hoarseness was probably from all her midnight crying,  but then we started reading all this stuff about RSV and that with an infant under three months you should always take them to the doc when they exhibit signs of a cold, so we decided to take her in.  We explained all of the fussiness of the past week as well as her new issues, and the doc said it was all because of reflux, even the hoarseness!  Thankfully, she doesn’t feel it’s bad enough to warrant meds – Eleanor looks great and is gaining weight well – so we just need to keep an eye on her.  She told us basically to do everything we have been doing, with propping her up after feedings, etc., and to “be prepared for some more bad nights.”  Fun!  I’m happy she doesn’t have a cold on top of the reflux, though.  One thing is quite enough to be going on with!

About the weight gain: she’s officially 8lbs 9oz now!  That’s a gain of almost two pounds since birth, the little chunk-a-lunk.  : )  She’s just starting to grow out of some her newborn onesies, which is kind of sad.  We have tons of cute 3 mos clothing for her though, so I’m not too sad about it!

After those appts, we went to the store and bought her a new bed: it’s a little nest thing that will (hopefully) fit between us in our bed and that we’ll be able to prop up on an incline.  She likes to sleep with us, but this should give us more peace of mind that she’s in a safe zone.  It’ll be a lot easier to prop her up with it than on our arms too, and much more comfortable for us!  We’ll see how it works tonight.

We also (finally) turned in our last set of taxes without her on them.  It’s been quite an eventful day!

She’s growing!

We had her latest ped visit on Friday, and she was up to 7lbs even!! Grow baby, grow! She was healthy in all other ways, and may have gained a bit in height too, though she wiggles so much that she messes up the measurement every time. : ) She also had to have her second set of labs done for the PKU, etc. testing that our state requires. I haven’t heard anything from the first set yet (done in the hospital), but maybe they just combine it all.

Her next ped appt is at two months, which seems like a really long time away! We do need to get her in for a hearing test in the next two weeks, though. I don’t think I ever mentioned it on here, but she failed the screening test in her right ear at the hospital. Her left was fine, but they tried four times on the right over three days, and nothing. About 95% of babies who fail the screening are perfectly fine, and I’m almost positive she can hear in that ear, so we’re not really worried. It’s just another appt!

She’s been doing the reflexive smile – where they smile for no apparent reason – pretty much since birth, and she’s also responded to me a couple times with smiles that I’m pretty sure are genuine, since a few days old. I was just reading in What’s Going on in There that the difference between a reflexive smile and a real one is the eye muscles move in a real one. It looks to me like she crinkles her eyes up a bit, though I’m not entirely sure. Anyway, I finally got one on camera the other day! It’s not the best pic (I had to snap it very quickly with no flash) but it’s so cute! You can also see her double chin and chubby little cheeks: