Hearing Test

Today we went back over to Doernbecher for another hearing test. This is the third time we have been there for her hearing so I was kind of expecting her to have a hearing loss. She failed her first newborn hearing test due to excess fluid in her ears. So a few weeks later we had to go in for an Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) test. We were instructed to postpone a feeding and nap so she would be super hungry and tired. Despite this, it took a while for her to fall asleep. Once she was asleep the test could being. The audiologist, who is awesome, put little electrodes on Ivy's earlobes, her forehead and right shoulder. Then they put little earphones in her ears and send various sounds and different frequencies and decibels in to her ears. The test measures how her cochlea, auditory nerve and brainstem respond to the sounds. The results of the first test indicated that she may have a mild hearing loss in the right ear and the reading in the left ear was not clear enough to give a good results so we would have to come back when Ivy was older and hopefully the fluid in her ears would be gone and her system would be more mature. We were there about 4 hours for that visit.
Today we went back for the second ABR. Ivy was much more sleepy this time so she was asleep within ten minutes of getting in the room. This is after she projectile vomited all over Chris in the waiting room...that was fun. This time the audiologist was able to get clearer pictures and therefore more accurate results. After holding a sleeping Ivy for 3 hours the audiologist told us that Ivy appears to have normal hearing in her right ear and close to normal hearing in her left ear! She was also able to redo one of the original tests that Ivy had failed at her newborn screening and the results were normal. The audiologist was really happy with the results.
It is a great thing because with Ivy's cleft palate, her speech development may be delayed. So at least we can rule out a hearing loss when we are looking into her speech development.