Wednesday, October 10: He Can Hear!

Today was such a good day!!! Ashton was given a hearing test this morning, and they basically set him up to fail so that they could make sure the audiologist would make it a priority to get in to see him. And guess what? He passed in his right ear!! We're so happy about that, because even if he has hearing problems in his left ear, at least he has one good ear! They think he may have fluid still in his left ear, which could be why he failed. But it's very common for newborns to fail the first test, so we're not too worried about it. The biggest reason we're so happy about him passing is because that rules out so many syndromes, since a lot of them have hearing loss associated with them. So the audiologist will come in tomorrow afternoon to examine his left ear and make sure there aren't any internal defects. Fingers crossed!

Ashton was also lowered on his respiratory support to only 3 liters of oxygen, which means he can start to try breastfeeding (which means no more tubes down his throat)! So we tried that today a little bit, and I couldn't help laughing the entire time because he looked so confused and was very hesitant about it. He definitely has a weak suck, and he only got a couple of drops in (the rest was all over me, thanks), as he was mostly just sucking on his bottom lip the whole time. But he acted like he really wanted it, and so hopefully we'll try again tomorrow and make some progress. He was super cute during the whole thing, though, and was very comfortable and relaxed. Even though he doesn't have any more tubes in his mouth, he now has his feeding tube in his nose, since he obviously still needs it.

Tonight the ophthalmologist came and looked at Ashton's eyes. Kirk and I weren't here, because the nurse advised us that we might want to sit this one out. They had to clamp his eyes open and even though his eyes were numbed, I guess even the nurses have a hard time watching. But we're told it went very well and that she didn't find anything wrong! That means we can rule out a few more syndromes!

We are just so happy with all of the progress he's made today, and it finally feels like we're nearing the end (well, the end of the NICU at least). He has come such a long way in the five days he's been here, and we know that it's because of all the prayers that have been offered on our sweet Ashton's behalf. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

P.S. Oh, and our nurse today told us that most kids who are born with a white/blonde patch of hair always have it. So basically, Ashton will be the coolest kid ever because he'll have two different hair colors!