No more hair!!!

This is what happens when you shave a 40 lbs. lab mix. His head and ears get really big and he has a boney rat body. He looks so funny, but I don't care because all the shedding hair finally gone for at least a little bit.

6 months old

I know this is a little late, but I still have to post a picture of my baby. He turned 6 months on 3-6-2009. He is up to so much. He won't stand still for a second. He loves to crawl all around the house and is now learning to pull up on things, like the coffee table, fireplace and sofa. Watch out world because Jacob is getting ready to walk!!!

One test down, Two to go...

We are well on our way to meeting our PPO's deductible before we get out of the first quarter here in 2009. Jake had had his ABR (Auditory Brainstem Response Test) on Tuesday and tomorrow he will undergo an MRI and next week is a P1 Latency Test. The ABR is the same test he had at 6 weeks that told us initially we had some issues, this test basically measures how his brain responds to certain level of sounds. This does not tell us whether the sound he is hearing has clarity or if he can properly hear the sound but only that his brain is responding when levels of sound are input. The MRI will check to make sure the wiring (cochlea, auditory nerve, etc...) are formed properly and our issue does not lie with that avenue, which we are almost positive it's not. The P1 Latency Test will measure Jake's response time to understanding and interperting certain Ticket lingo & drops (inside joke for all you P1's). In all seriousness the Latency Test is going to tell us more about where he is at than any of the other tests. It will tell us the response time in which sound is being captured by his brain, and I think might tell us of the clarity but don't quote me on that because I did not go to medical school! Back to Tuesday's ABR, he did well. When he took the ABR at 6 weeks the lowest level of sound they could see his brain responding to was 65 decibels, this is about the level of a normal conversations. On Tuesday they got a response down to 20 decibels which is about the sound a mosquito when buzzing by ya. This is a nice improvement and perhaps shows his auditory nerve is progressing. Again the ABR does not tell us the clarity of the sound so we could still have an issue there but the Latency Test next week will give us more information to work with on that angle. The ABR and tomorrows MRI both require him to be sedated which kind of sucks to see little man go under like that. Rebecca held him while they administered a suppository to put him under for the ABR. With the way this boy goes through diapers its a wonder the medicine ever had a chance to work. After the test we got to go see him in recovery and he was glassy eyed and stretched out on a bed . When he saw Rebecca and I he gave this drunken smile nod as if to say "This is some Good Stuff, you guys got any peaches I'm hungry!". Lets see what we find out on tomorrows MRI, 1 down 2 to go!

Hearing Tests

Okay for some of you that don't know this, but our son Jacob was diagnosed at birth with a hearing impairment. We have been working really hard these past few months on his speech and language development and getting him to listening to noises. He has been doing really great and we have had a lot of success with him. Tomorrow and the next couple of weeks will be a little rough on Vince and myself because Jacob will be going through some more hearing tests. It's all standard procedure, but none the less it's still a little nerve racking. We ask that you keep Jacob in your prayers that he will pass all of these tests with flying colors because it will show how much his brain and nerve have matured over the past few months. The more they mature, the better the chance he won't have to have implants when he gets older. So if you pray every day like I do, remember to add Jacob to your list.