Trick or Treating at EA Burnaby

Daddy's work frequently puts on cool family events like one we went to today, the Trick or Treat at EA's Burnaby campus.  We decided to go, and give Jordy a little practice run before Halloween on Monday.  It took a little while but he eventually got it.  For a while afterwards he was signing "Tree" a lot, it took me a couple of hours, but I figured out he thought we were saying "Trick or Tree," or something like it!  What a funny guy.  At one point he pulled out his HA's (it was pretty noisy) and dad commented, "Oh, he's decided to break communication with CapCom!  We also got to see lots of cute kiddie costumes!  One of my favourites was a home-made one where a kid dressed as an army guy in a tank.  Anyhow, check out the picks, you'll get a sneak look at our Family Halloween Costume theme this year, yes Daddy has a NASA flight suit too!  I can't wait to get a photo of all of us together, but that will have to keep until All Hallow's Eve!

Signing "candy."

He decided he just had to plunk himself down
in the middle of the walkway to have a chocolate.

Right about here it all clicks! 

Here he is signing "thank you."

Checking out the loot! 

There's my "costume," I painted the moon on my belly!

This place is a ZOO!

As many of you know, May 17th marked the 1-year anniversary of everyone’s favourite baby-blog! On behalf of the entire staff here at Little Dumer News we thank YOU, our loyal readers – we’d be nothing without your support!

As a special treat, this blog post is brought to you by one of our rarely-seen staff writers: The Big Dumer. With Mommy going back to work in a few days we’ve given her some time-off to get ready for that big change.

The Big Dumer took most off this week off work to get some stuff done around the house and to have some fun time with Mommy and Jordy before we settle into the routine of work and daycare. On the “fun” side the family packed-up and went to the Greater Vancouver Zoo on Wednesday to enjoy some sunshine before the weather turns (it is the May long weekend after all!) With the new Golden Ears Bridge it only takes about 20 minutes to drive to the zoo...not bad! We had heard mostly “meh” things about the zoo, which is why neither The Big Dumer nor Mommy had ever been there. We’re pleased to say that it was better than we expected. We’re not saying it was great or anything but with sufficiently lowered expectations anything can be enjoyable. That’s how The Big Dumer got dates in university.

It is a pretty big place and we didn’t have time to walk the whole thing...storm clouds were moving in and it was a race against time to see the good animals while staying dry. We wandered around the entrance, caught the end of a Falcon demonstration and saw some Emu and Eland. One of the highlights was a train ride around the park – Jordy’s first ride on a miniature train! The train took us by a wolf, hippopotamus, two moose (named Maverick and Goose), camels, yaks and more! Our only concern was that Jordy would choose a bad time to throw one of his hearing aids off...for instance when the train went over the hippo lake. So we removed his hearing aids for the train ride.

After the train we wandered around the African Savannah area and got some great shots of Lions, Giraffes, Zebras, Baboons, one Rhinoceros, Hippos eating watermelon, Wallabies and a Black Panther. Oh my!

Jordy holding on for dear life while on the train.

Notice the new silver & blue HA's with green ear-molds. Canuck colours. Didn't help.

.

Happy with Mommy after the train ride.


The Crocodile didn’t move enough for Jordy to notice him.

The Big Dumer jumped a security fence to get the shot of the Lion so we have to show it.

By this time the rain clouds were moving in and the Little Dumer had fallen asleep so we headed home. And not a minute too soon as the promised storm moved in and sent sheets of rain driving in the wind. Amazingly a few minutes after passing 264th on Highway 1 we heard that a tree had fallen right across the highway due to the high wind! Narrow escape! Closer to home the traffic lights were out on our main route so we re-routed through the Costco mall parking lot. Bad idea. When the power goes out across an entire mall, the last place you want to be is in the parking lot as everyone vacates every store and heads home. We eventually made it home and enjoyed the storm passing overhead.

Fittingly, the one-year anniversary of the blog coincides with another major milestone in the life of Jordan. Yes we are announcing here and now that JORDAN HAS HIS FIRST TOOTH!!! Yay! We were hoping we could make this announcement before his first birthday and just days ago those small white bumps in his lower gum turned into a full-fledged tooth. We tried to get a picture of it but the only way to do it is to get him laughing hard and then take a close-up. This is the best we could do so far:

Next up: First words, first steps and college.

Another exciting event occurred this week – we got the FM unit for Jordan’s HA’s! For those that don’t know, the FM unit is a little attachment that goes on the bottom of the hearing aid. It receives a signal from a small transmitter that can be worn around the neck. When someone wearing this device speaks (such as a teacher or parent) then the sound is beamed directly to the HA’s. This is especially effective in noisy environments such as classrooms or in the car as it will lower the volume of the ambient noise and raise the volume of the voice from the FM unit. The theory is that if we use it around the house then Jordan will more clearly hear human speech and that will help him develop his speaking skills. In the classroom it will allow him (for example) to pick up the subtle elegance of a class on Electrodynamics. Another upside is the legendary stories of teachers past who have gone to the teachers' lounge (or to the bathroom) with the FM unit still on and discussed topics inappropriate to be beamed 3 rooms down the hall into the ears of a child with an evil grin on his face.

Since it’s been a while, we have TWO Sign of the Week links for you:

First, "Ball":

http://c0445781.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/08Ball.m4v

Second, "Cookie":

http://c0445781.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/22Cookie.m4v

Whew! It’s been a busy week already! And the best is yet to come as Saturday is Jordan’s big birthday party – a Beach theme and Grandma and Grandpa are coming up from Oregon! Yay!

Another babe with HA's

Just a little post to say that when I was at the dentist's office this week there was an article in one of the magazines (People, I think) that mentioned one of my teen idols, Joe McIntyre from the New Kids on the Block has a baby with hearing loss too! His child has been wearing HAs since the age of one month! Rhys has a more severe impairment, possibly requiring a cochlear implant, but it was kind of cool to find that I have such a thing in common with this pop star!
Here's a link to the article if you'd like to have a look:
http://celebritybabies.people.com/2010/03/26/joey-mcintyre-introduces-son-rhys-edward-and-opens-up-about-his-severe-hearing-loss/

Don't forget to check out the sign of the week, "new!"
http://c0445781.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/20New.m4v

VRA Results: GOOD!

Hey there, sailor!

Sorry it took an extra day or two to update everyone, but we took Jordy to his appointment with Selma (our audiologist) on Wednesday and, as promised we'll tell you all about it. I'll cut straight to the good stuff and let you know that the results are what we had hoped for. Well, I suppose one could hope that this whole 'hearing-losscapade" has been a huge mistake and our baby can hear just perfectly, but that wouldn't be very realistic and Chris'n'Deb are nothing if not realistic.



We invited our SLP, Sydelle to come along to observe so it was Jordan, Mom, Dad, Sydelle, and technician Kelly, all in a sound-proof room with Selma visible through a window on the other side. Kelly was able to receive communication from Selma with an ear piece, and Selma could speak to us over the same intercom she used to play music and tones. She played some snippets of fun kiddy songs to get Jordy used to it and whenever he would turn toward the speaker outputting sound she would reward him by lighting up one of three visual "reward" boxes on each side, they were all different, but an example was a bunny that did a little dance and rang a bell. Jordan was assessed without his H.A.s for most of the test. It took him a while to catch on that these would light up when he turned toward the sound, but eventually he got it. He sat with Dad for the first half of the assessment. Kelly's job was to use toys to bring Jordan's attention back to centre after turning to each tone. After a while Mom and Dad switched off, and found that Jordy did well if he was allowed to sit on the table to play rather than on our laps. The test seemed to click along after that.

Uh-oh! He's going straight for the electronics!
Baby-proofing is high on the agenda this weekend!

It's slightly out of focus, I know, but I had to show you
the look he shot me after I told him, "no."

It was really cool to see him react to what Chris and I often thought were softer tones that we thought he may not be able to hear. Though we can also see how the test must be very subjective, as sometimes he would turn and look for the animals without a sound, or there would be a much louder sound than one he reacted to earlier but he wouldn't turn. Also, we weren't able to see his face, and Selma mentioned that sometimes he would dart his eyes toward a sound but not turn. There seemed to be a lot of interpretation involved and she says it gets easier as kids get older and as an audiologist gets to know her subject. The cool thing is, despite the interpretive nature of the assessment, Selma was able to complete an audiogram which is consistent with the very first hearing test (ABR) last July. All points plotted were within 10 dB of the original assessment, which tells us two things: 1) that both tests are probably accurate and 2) Jordy's hearing loss is unlikely to be a progressive one - his hearing isn't getting worse, and probably won't. This is precisely what we wanted to hear. Hooray! In addition, Selma did test a bit with the H.A.s in, and registered his hearing as within the "normal" range. Also good news.

He loves to play with these balls, usually smacking them together.

One final note, a bit of a retraction from last Friday's Post, "How do you sign 'hungry,' again?" I wrote that Ayasha was let go from DCS "due to some budget cut-backs this fiscal year." This is apparently not quite accurate, as Janice Springford, DCS Executive Director (and a devoted follower of the blog, I may add!) informed me. As there are some DCS clients and potential clients out there reading Little Dumer News, it is important to me to be sensitive and accurate about the information I post about this organisation which I am greatly indebted to, so here's the skinny, in Janice's words:

The truth of the matter is that Ayasha was only on a maternity leave placement, and therefore was casual staff, and would be let go when the regular staff returned. Our number of clients has dropped since September due to Kindergarten enrolment for some of our preschoolers, so when Sydelle came back, there really was not enough work for two full time SLPs, and since our funding was indeed reduced by MCFD (Ministry of Children and Family Development), it would not be appropriate to keep Ayasha on when there is not enough work for her.

I hope that no harm's been done, thanks Janice!

How do you sign "hungry," again?

100% Cutie!

I am not much for New Year’s Resolutions. Several years ago I realized that making a change for the better ought to come from the changee, not Old Man Time closing the file on twelve previous months. Having said this, I have to admit to falling off numerous wagons in the last bit of 2009: the Cloth Diaper Wagon, the Exercise Wagon, and the Hearing Aid Supermom Wagon. It’s time to clamber back on board.

I am very passionate about cloth diapering; I see it as that little bit extra I can do to help out Mamma Nature and it isn’t insanely inconvenient over disposables. No one loves laundry, least of all myself, but all I need to add is an extra rinse cycle to an extra load of wash every other day. So why have I gotten so lazy about this? I am not sure, but I am tackling it with a renewed vigour: days at home are once again cloth diaper days, I’m back at it since last week.

Exercise. Ugh. I was doing so well up until Thanksgiving! When Jordy hit three months I dedicated myself to a regular workout and was back to my pre-baby weight in no time! Hooray. Then I got sick around Thanksgiving and never got back to the regime. Of course, by the time I started feeling really bad about it, it was coming up on Christmas and with all the chocolate and fruitcake, really, what’s the point!? So I am going to dedicate myself to that again, soon, annnnny day now....

The little reacher-creature trying to snag my mocha
during a break on Commercial Drive -- and really,
can you blame him?

Now the Hearing Aid (H.A.) situation is the one I feel most guilty about. Jordan went several days over the Holidays without wearing his H.A.s at all! This is a funny one, because it started out that we would take a break from the H.A.s whenever Jordan was having a “bad H.A. day.” This means pulling them out constantly and crying every single time I would put them back in. Doesn’t sound too bad when I type it out in black and white, but living with it is bloody torture (for both of us, I am sure.) What I noticed after the last time we got new ear molds made up is that he had fewer of these days when the H.A.s fit nice and snug. But then he would have the occasional bad H.A. day (and my theory on why is the old ladies’ excuse for everything: teething. He would pull at his ears even without H.A.s in them.) Anyhow, we had so many bad H.A. days in November that even after we got new ear molds and he was having better H.A. days, I had gotten lazy. Yes, I own that. But I have noticed that it is very easy for not only myself, but for everyone around me to come up with reasons to excuse me for this lapse. It’s too loud, we’re passing the baby around at the party and don’t want to lose the H.A.s, he pulled them out once – let’s take a break, you can’t expect a 6 month old to just accept them without a fight, etc. Until it occurred to me that babies with normal hearing cannot turn down the noise, they have to live with it, and too bad if it isn’t convenient, it’s up to me and Chris to not lose his H.A.s and to try more than once to put them back in if he takes them out, and while it may be true that it is a lot to expect a baby to wear H.A.s without a fight that doesn’t mean we don’t make the effort to put them in every day. When I examined the lame excuses I was using I felt terrible, but I knew this was only a fraction of the guilt I would feel if Jordy has a speech delay that is my fault. Thus I have a new commitment to putting Jordan’s H.A.s in on a daily basis. And though we do sometimes take breaks, they always go back in his little ears. I take this moment to ask friends and family who spend time with us to help us out in this endeavour. Don’t feel weird or bad asking where his H.A.s are or timid because you don’t know how to put his H.A.s in; let me know if you want me to show you how, it really isn’t difficult at all once you know how they go in.

This topic does remind me that I haven’t updated everyone on our new Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP,) Sydelle. Unfortunately, due to some budget cut-backs this fiscal year, DCS had to let go of Ayasha. Though we were extremely sad to see her go, the timing turned out to be okay for her as she was able to find another agency looking for an SLP and as she has a little one due in the spring so she will be going on maternity leave shortly anyhow. Sydelle is fabulous! Chris hasn’t actually met her yet, but both of them keep telling me, “I’ve got to meet this person, he/she sounds (insert positive adjective – usually ‘funny’ or ‘brilliant,’ here )!” Sydelle has a one year-old, Jake, and so has a lot of supportive advice for me and we find we have a lot in common. Right now we are working on awareness of Jordan’s communication methods and appropriate responses to them (e.g., he reaches for a glass of water – how do we respond,) and reinforcing our own spoken communication with visual cues, such as ASL and facial expressions, etc. (it’s time to boob him and then put him down for a nap – what do we say and sign.) It’s amazing what normal, hearing babies pick up in an incidental fashion by overhearing parents on the phone, speaking to one another, and other language in the background. It takes a lot of effort to be cognizant of our communication so that Jordan takes as much as possible from it. It would be helpful if he had his H.A.s in at all times!

Checking out the crazies on the SkyTrain

We are also taking American Sign Language (ASL) lessons. DCS is able to provide us with in-home lessons, an excellent benefit. We’ve been studying since late November. Ritva is our usual mentor, but she has been ‘snowbirding’ in Arizona since Christmas and until she returns in early March we are having our lessons with Bev. Mark and Aida usually come by on those evenings too, which is a plus as Jordy sees them more than anyone other than Mommy and Daddy. We always have a great time, though it’s possible Ritva thinks we’re all alcoholics; since teaching us ‘beer’ and ‘wine’ in our holiday themed lesson, we like to use sentence examples that include those signs: ‘We have dinner together with family – and drink wine,’ etc. Thank goodness Ritva noticed one night that I was using one of our more common signs incorrectly: for months I thought I was signing ‘hungry.’ It’s hard to explain but, you kind of make a c-shape with your hand, and with the fingers toward you and the back of your hand facing away from you, you gesture downwards along your chest, just ONCE. I was making this movement multiple times, thus asking my son if he was, not ‘hungry,’ but ‘horny!’ I still don’t know which was more cringe-worthy: my gaffe, or Ritva (sweet little grandma that she is) telling me what I was REALLY saying!

Next week we will be taking Jordan in for his first hearing test since his diagnosis. He is now physically capable of sitting up and has a full range of head and neck movement which means he is ready for a Visual Reinforcement Audiology (VRA) assessment. Our audiologist, Selma, will sit in a booth and cue tones for Jordan while he sits in my lap in a dimmed room. The tones will come from the right or the left and when he hears one, he will turn his head (hopefully) in the direction the sound originated, this response is rewarded, by Selma with visual reinforcement. I’m given to understand it’s something like a stuffed animal on that side of the room lights up and moves or sings a song or something equally appealing to a baby, though describing it to you, I admit to having an “It’s a Small World Afterall” moment. I am really looking forward to seeing what his results are, not only to be reassured his hearing hasn’t degenerated at all, but also to see how much better his hearing is with the H.A.’s. Naturally, I’ll let you know how that goes next week.

We did hear back from the University of British Columbia (UBC) before Christmas about Dr. Kozak’s referral for genetic tests. Don’t anyone try holding your breath unless you’re a Navy SEAL though; there is a 12 month patient waiting list! As we said before, it’s just another point of information, it doesn’t really change anything, so we’ll let you know what we find when we find it, but that day is far off and we’ve got bigger fish to fry until then. I don’t want to scare anyone, but before that time, The Little Dumer will probably be walking and talking!

Just another good citizen waiting for a bus

It’s hard to believe that in about a week Jordy will be 8 months old! We’ll have to take him in to be weighed again. When we checked on January 4th he was pushing 19 lbs (18 lbs., 14 oz.) Funny enough, people constantly comment on what a big boy he is, but according to the growth index he is average. Chris theorizes that his sparse hair makes him look younger than he actually is and therefore bigger than his perceived age. I was filling out his baby book the other day and there was so much to write! He is able to grasp with his thumb and forefinger, it’s a little clumsy, but he has enough dexterity to get his rice cracker in his mouth! He isn’t crawling yet, but he is really close; he kind of rotates on his tummy to where he wants to go, not the most efficient way, but it works! And he has got a subtle scoot; you sit him down on his bum on the floor and a minute or two later he is two feet away from his starting point. I have seen the future and it involves a lot of baby-proofing! Jordan had first ride on the bus and sky train this week too, we dropped Chris off at work and then went on an errand to shop for his birthday gift. We later met him for lunch and left the car with him so we could take transit home. The hardest part was getting the stroller on and off the little “community” bus, but even that wasn’t too much hassle. Jordy’s just growing and learning so quickly, Chris doesn’t even really think of him so much as a baby as a little boy at this point. That’s a load of bunk though; he’s still a baby to me, dammit!

16 Pounder!

Today we took our little guy to the Public Health Unit for his FOUR MONTH (really!?!?) Immunizations and he was pretty good, only cried for about a minute.  Whew!  We also weighed him and he is 16 lbs and is 25.5 inches long.

Here he is a couple of weeks ago showing off his brand new cloth diapers

(he outgrew the first set, which only went up to 15 lbs.)

For those of you who wonder how the technicians at the audiologist's office create the

"cast" for the ear molds, they squirt some goop in his ears. 

It looks like this  - kinda like someone stuck some old chewing gum to his little ears! 

He looks super chubb-o in these pics, I don't know why,

but he doesn't look like that all the time!

At our second ELF visit, Jordy, here with Alaina, meets Kayla and her mother Ingrid who is an SLP

with DCS.  Kayla is hearing.  We learned a lot of new signs at this visit,

including "penguin," "gorilla," and "donkey."

Last Saturday we celebrated Uncle Mark's birthday with a picnic on Burnaby Mountain. 

It was a beautiful sunny day, but a little windy.

Nice one, Uncle Mark!

Mas Tequila!

And Nanny came over on Sunday for a visit with her grandson, and helped give him a bath.

How not to use a Nasal Aspirator & Other Tales

September 15th – Really? I can scarcely believe this month is half over! We have been keeping busy, busy, busy!

The weekend we picked up the Matrix, we decided that a maiden road trip would be just the thing. So I consulted Jack Christie’s 52 Best Day Trips from Vancouver and learned that there is a Benedictine Abbey in Mission run by monks. I decided I just had to see this! So on Sunday we drove out to Mission, had a late lunch at ABC (which Jordan slept right through,) then made our way up the hill to Westminster Abbey. Some dark clouds loomed overhead but we managed to stay dry our whole trip. We just missed the visitors’ hours by a couple of minutes but happily learned as we strolled a woodsy path leading to a view of the valley below that we were in time to hear the Vespers bells. It was a treat to see Jordan listening and staring at the bell tower until we got moving again. I was taken over by a warm feeling of happiness to be walking with my family under the trees as the bells tolled, even if Chris declared them to be cacophonous and not exactly pleasing. Mommy had been hoping that these particular monks were the sort who made amazing cheese or wine, but this was not to be, Westminster Abbey is a seminary, so it’s just books and religion for these guys.

http://www.mission.ca/Page151.aspx

The next day was Labour Day, and after some discussion, we decided that Jordan has reached an age at which we no longer find it necessary to avoid going to restaurants and it was high time we resumed one of Chris’n’Deb’s favourite traditions: Breakfast Out. Yes, having a nice late breakfast in a restaurant is one of our “things.” So we went to Ricky’s and had breakfast, and it was nice, and though Jordy didn’t want to endure sitting in his stroller the whole time, it was no trouble taking turns holding him whilst eating. Good call, Dad! This is a tradition I welcome back heartily.

We met with Ayasha again on Tuesday and one of the best things I took away from that meeting was the enlightenment gained from several demos that she shared with me which tried to convey sound as someone who is partially deaf may perceive it. We will never know exactly what the world sounds like to Jordan, but these may bring us pretty close. I can’t share all of the demos with you, as they aren’t all available digitally, but here is one link: http://www.phonak.com/consumer/hearing/hearinglossdemo.htm I have never been more conscientious of noise as the few days after hearing the demos, because as I listened to the muffled tones and struggled to understand I wanted desperately to turn off the fan, and ask Jordan to stop babbling just until the recording was done, but the fact is, someone with a hearing loss doesn’t have that luxury. It’s important to remember that while the H.A.’s amplify sound so he can hear better, they amplify everything and that means noise which can make the process more challenging. This realization has reinforced my decision to learn a workable ASL vocabulary.



That night Jordan woke up several times with congestion. Poor little guy was struggling to breathe as he nursed; he had gotten his first cold. No coincidence, I am sure, that this followed not long after learning to put objects and his hands into his mouth! It really wasn’t too bad during the day, as he is mostly upright, but at night lying flat on his back made breathing a chore. The second night, when he stuffily awoke around quarter to four, I thought I would break out the ol’ nasal aspirator (you know what that is right, a bulb syringe - bulbous rubbery suction thingie) to help the little guy out a bit. My friend Jackie would later comment after relating my late night misadventures with the bulb syringe, “isn’t it just: insert & suck?” O such clarity! But being the well-meaning rookie I am, I had to read up on this first. A groggy first-time mom wuth a nasal aspirator: what could go wrong? I do admit to trying out the bulb syringe out without consulting any literature which resulted in my blowing some air into my poor kid’s nasal passages before the sucking action worked. It occurred to me, “gosh, that can’t be right!” To his credit, Jordan took it pretty well in stride. Anyhoo, the book says to administer saline drops to help loosen the mucous and then use the bulb to suction it out. But that wasn’t specific enough for me. I mean, what saline solution? Is there a bulb technique? What do you do with the snot when you’re done, etc. So as Chris was passing in the hall and asked if all was well, I said, “well, since you’re already up...” and roped him in to assist. We puzzled over how to approach this task for a moment ‘til Chris, keenly intelligent as he is, said, “We don’t know what we’re doing, look it up online.” Yes, this is what the internet is for! So there I was at 4 am Googling “nasal aspirator.” After reading up I whipped up a saline solution with everyday kitchen ingredients – wow! And got the dropper out and headed back to the nursery where I proceeded to torture my son by half drowning him with saline solution because the squeezy end of the dropper wasn’t on right, so instead of just one drop releasing, all the contents released! And I don’t think, even though I am sure my bulb syringe technique was perfect, I managed to get a hold of any mucous at all! And so after much frustration, feelings of guilt, and tears (both mum’s and son’s) I decided I couldn’t continue this treatment, hoped the saline dousing would help somewhat, and put Jordan to the breast in hopes of comforting him after this trauma and getting him to sleep. And to top it all off I felt extra bad that I kept Chris up for this horrible episode. In the end, Jordan seems none the worse for wear and I fixed the dropper, and have managed to help out in those extra mucous-y moments. Ah, first time parenthood, at least I can now look back on this fiasco and laugh. As to the cold, Jordy is still a bit congested , I have to wipe the crustified snot from around his nose every so often, and we have the odd rough night, but he seems to be getting better.

On Thursday, we welcomed Nanny Mary back home from her month long visit with family in Newfoundland. She commented on how much Jordy has grown since she left, and I have to admit that even to me he seems to have grown even in the last week! He is a little drool monster these days, and after hearing about Jordan’s cold, Nanny suggested he may be cutting teeth. I pointed out that I’d read most babies wouldn’t get them ‘til closer to the 6 month mark to which she said, “Christopher got his first tooth at four months!” This was followed immediately by, “Sorry!” from Chris.

Friday was a big day too, as it was Jordan’s first visit to the ELF program. It was a bit of a last minute announcement, coming just a few days before, and so it turned out that Jordan and I were the only pair to make it, but we still got to get to know the facilitator Alaina (not sure if that is how she spells it though,) meet the DCS staff, see the building, and generally get oriented. If there was any doubt as to my need to learn ASL it vanished on this visit. Alaina and Janice are both deaf and an interpreter was present to help us to communicate, besides that, everyone who works at the office is ASL fluent. Watching everyone’s hands flying with the conversation was fascinating for Jordan, but I felt truly inadequate for the first time since we found out about his hearing loss. I never once thought to myself, “I honestly don’t know if I can be everything I need to be for Jordy,” until Friday. I did share my sense of insecurity and everyone rushed to reassure me. Office manager, Karen helped me check out some Signing Time DVD’s from their resource centre and I am starting to feel better about my abilities, but it was humbling to know only a few words and be afraid to try them out. If you would like to learn a few signs I suggest going to DCS’s brand new site: http://www.deafchildren.bc.ca/sign-language/read-your-baby The woman who teaches the signs on the videos is Alaina. She will be reading and signing books to the kids, and teaching parents how to read and sign for them too. And I once again encourage everyone who loves Jordan to contribute to DCS as they have a lot of really great programs and have aspirations for more projects in the future. You can help by donating used clothing at these drop off sites: http://www.deafchildren.bc.ca/sites/default/files/Blue%20Box%20Locations.pdf or become a member. http://www.deafchildren.bc.ca/donate Incidentally, the Signing Time DVDs are fabulous! A couple of my friends had already suggested them for us, and now that I’ve viewed a couple I can understand why. I think I will have to buy the whole set at some point.

L-R Interpreter Christa, Alaina, Jordy & Janice

After our visit to DCS we headed to New Westminster and picked up Jordan’s new ear molds from Selma. We got purple ones this time, Daddy’s favourite colour. I have to say though, it appears the left ear mold is already starting to fit loosely. Thank goodness this is all paid for by the province! That was one exhausting day! After we got home, mom and son took a nap together and slept so heavily that we didn’t wake until Chris phoned for us to pick him up from work! Oops! I am happy to say we do seem to be making fantastic progress with the H.A. wearing. We are now able to keep them in Jordan’s ears for just about every waking moment! And at the last visit with Selma, she gave us some samples of Stick’n’Stay a double sided adhesive specially cut to fit the H.A.s and they work like a hot-damn. A little spendy though – something like $10 for a box of twenty. I may pick up a box to use for times we don’t want to run the risk of losing them while we’re out, but for everyday at home we’ll go without. We had been using something like librarians use to hold their glasses around their necks, made of elastic and that clips to his clothing. It appears that after several weeks of wearing it in a way that pulls his H.A.s nice and snug to his head they seem to have trained the tubing and H.A.s to rest where they should. So they don’t flop around anymore – Hooray! We’re now able to wear the H.A.s on their own and they look good!

Finally, on Saturday, Jordan helped us all celebrate his Tia Aida’s birthday at The Boathouse. He was pretty good. Once again, he wasn’t going to stand for being left in his carrier, but this was not a problem as Aida and her mum-in-law, Carol were more than happy to cuddle and coo to him. And as his Dad pointed out, that makes three restaurants for Jordan in one week!

Crazy week

Gentle Reader, you are fortunate my seasonal allergies are bugging me at 3 am or you may not have gotten any kind of post this week! It's shaping up to be a gnarly one, between getting the house painted and dentist and audiology appointments and next week isn't looking much better I may as well tell you now!

Our favourite little guy is officially Three months old! Wow, really?

Last Tuesday we met with Janice Springford, the director of DCS. We'll be attending a drop-in early language foundations (ELF) program starting in September and will meet with speech language pathologist (SLP,) Ayasha, regularly starting next Wednesday. I have to say, I am looking forward to both! I do feel like I have accomplished a lot in the last month (it's only been about a month since we found out, can you believe it!?) and have really done all that I can to ensure Jordan is getting all the support he needs, but once his sessions with Ayasha start, I think I will really feel like we're doing something to make sure his speech will develop as it should. I learned something important from Janice last week though, as she put it, speech problems can be fixed, that is what the SLP is for, what he can gain from us is an understanding of the world of sounds around him. What family and friends can easily do every day is take the opportunities to point out sounds to him, "Jordan, the cat is meowing, do you hear the cat meow?"

As to the drama of keeping the hearing aids on our boy, I have to apologise. I think I made it sound much worse an ordeal than it actually is, based on some of the concern I have raised in a few of our readers. Yes, it is tricky at times. But I honestly think the difficulty comes down, for the most part, to two things: Mom and Dad are rookies at the H.A. installation gig and Jordan can't completely support his head yet. Once Jordy's able to manage the head-bobbing there will be less rubbing against his bouncer, or car-seat, or Dad's shoulder, etc. and thus less pulling on the ear molds. We do the best we can. In fact, we have a new record: 5 hours of H.A. usage one day last week!

Anyhow, I suppose I ought to take a crack at sleeping again, I can use as much shut-eye as I can get! Tomorrow (today, technically) I have an evening dental appointment to get fitted for a crown that I should have gotten a year ago, so Chris will be on his own for bath and bedtime --you may want to wish him luck!

Sometimes life hands you a diaper full of green poop

Sorry there hasn’t been much in the way of updates, we’ve been keeping quite busy. As I said in my last post, it has been incredibly difficult keeping Jordan’s hearing aids on him or at the very least keeping them on with minimal feedback. [Little side note here: I will probably be typing “hearing aids” a lot from here on out, I’ll abbreviate it as “H.A.” going forward.] They can’t be worn whilst nursing or napping (or bathing, I think should be quite obvious.) And they will squeal if he turns his head and pinches the tubing or loosens the ear molds just so, especially when there is always one that isn’t a super-snug fit. And of course, the one that is a super-snug fit isn’t much fun to cram into his ear canal. Since ensuring that Jordan associates as little negativity as possible with his H.A.s is important to us you can see how the whole business has been very tricky. We have put in his H.A.s every day but some days are better than others; sometimes he just wears them for a total of two hours, but the record is four. Today was one of his good H.A. days. We do our best to have some fun with the Little Dumer as soon as they’re on and running; we sing songs, read or look at picture books, play with toys or dance around and generally try to show him how great it is to have H.A.s in. We had a really great Sunday afternoon dance party, with Jordan doing the hand jive and Daddy trying to mimic him all to the sounds of Rolf Harris’ “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport” and “Iko Iko.” I am sure we made quite the picture! I felt guilty at first not being able to happily have him wearing his H.A.s every waking moment but I’m coming to understand it’s a process, and we are bolstered and encouraged by Selma and EHP liaison, Lori. In case anyone would like to hear it, I've added "Tie Me Kangaroo..." to the playlist, scroll down to the bottom of the page to choose it out of the list (it's good fun, mate!)

Chris and I have also made a decision about which interventionist program to sign up for. It sounds like The Deaf Children’s Society (DCS)will be able to meet all of our needs, they are extremely flexible, and it doesn’t hurt that we have a connection with the location with Chris working in Burnaby. We will be meeting up with the program director, Janice, tomorrow to get all the ducks in a row. You can read about DCS on the list of references to the left, or click on this link http://www.deafchildren.bc.ca/membership/index.html where you can even become a member for a small fee. You’d be supporting a group that supports Jordan and you even get a few perks like a newsletter, please consider it.

Let’s see, what other news do we have? Oh yes! It was a big day for the Dumaresq Family on Saturday! Mommy and Daddy went out together for the first time since Jordy was born! The Drivers babysat for us while we went to the movies to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. It was so fantastic to get away on a date! And it couldn’t have gone too badly for Mark and Aida, as they weren’t holding our baby and his diaper bag out to us to take as soon as we arrived to pick him up! They even said they’d be willing to do it again. Mommy wasn’t the least bit nervous; she was able to enjoy herself completely! We couldn’t think of anyone better than the Drivers to look after our boy the first time. Thanks guys!

Mark & Aida with the little Dumer. Jordan waves 'bye to us, but he's already interested in other things

And finally, it appears there are still some things I have to learn the hard way! A few days ago I noticed, as mums will do, that my boy’s poop had a slight green cast to it. I promise I will refrain from describing it in detail, and that all this poop talk will lead to a very good lesson learned in the end! But I digress.... This diaper-load caused me some concern so I googled breastfed-infant-green-bowel-movement. Hey! This is what the internet is for! What I learned is that this is often an indication that a breastfed babe is not getting all of the high-fat hind milk. For those who aren’t familiar with the wonders of human lactation, breast milk comes out in two stages: the thinner sweeter foremilk, and the richer high-cal hindmilk which is necessary for baby’s growth and development. It takes a while for a nursing babe to get to the “good stuff” and apparently I wasn’t allowing Jordy to do so. Apparently I made the somewhat common mistake of watching the clock and not the baby and switching him to the other breast after about fifteen minutes. Turns out this is kind of like making someone a fabulous steak dinner, but taking away the plate with the steak just after the salad was eaten. See, I had frequently heard surprised comments from others about how “long” the kiddo nursed, as if it was abnormal. And true enough, I had never seen another baby nurse as long as Jordy likes to. He did have a tendency to slow down around the fifteen minute mark and let me break his latch without a fight, so I thought I was doing the right thing. Well, what do I get for worrying about the opinion of others? A few diapers full of green poop, that’s what! Granted, I am not normally one easily swayed by nay-sayers. I allowed myself to be easily convinced because it’s so damn hard to sit still for long stretches of time with an infant latched on to my guns! I’m working on fixing the problem by allowing Jordan to control our nursing sessions. Rather than dislodge him, I wait for him to fall off the breast and I “block feed,” which is nursing on just one side any time in a three hour span that he wants to feed. His poop has since lost its green hue; it looks like mustard but its no-ot! I am learning so much from this little guy of mine! I am reminded that things are no longer about me, or the opinions of others but about my little Squirt and what he needs and wants when he needs and wants it. Someone once said that a perfect example of minority rule is a baby in the house. Amen, brother.

Just call him LL Cool J - all the Ladies Love Cool Jordan!

Here he is with Catherine and Peggy, more of Mommy's Starbucks cronies.

Challenging

Holy noodle! Is it ever challenging keeping hearing aids on a bouncing baby boy!

The Little Dumer gets his hearing aids!

Today was the big day! Jordan got to pick up his hearing aids today! Take a look at the photos:

The blue part is the ear mold, it goes into his ear canal and prevents the sound that is picked up by the hearing aid from escaping and getting re-amplified, if that happens it creates feedback, resulting in a high pitched whine that would be most unpleasant for the listener.

Just before triming the tube that connects the ear mold to the hearing aid.


Selma chatting with Jordy

Up close, the Versata by Phonak. Stylin'!

In the middle of the appointment the fire alarm went off!
(L-R: audiologist Selma, receptionist Sarah, technician Vivian, and Jordy with Mommy.)

At home, Jordan's right ear - the ear mold fits perfectly!


Left ear's is a little loose already, a new mold was taken before we departed.


"Yeah Mom, I make this look goooood!"