Hearing?

I took Nathaniel to two appts today. The first because he has been sick, cranky, and not sleeping at night. Our primary pediatrician is still out on maternity leave so we saw one of her colleagues. This Doctor did not seem to think that Nathaniel has an ear infection (that is a first) but did have some fluid behind his left ear. She is concerned; however, about childhood asthma. He will be on antibiotics for the next ten days, just in case of an infection. That should get us to the surgery. AND he will be starting Zyrtec again in the mornings and Benadryl at night. Poor baby. We will be keeping close watch for asthma related symptoms :(

Then at 2:30 we went to the audiologist for a hearing screening, which is standard practice before tube placement and Nathaniel did not do well on it this time. He has bilateral hearing loss.....and again, I don't think I am getting any parent of the year awards since I had no idea. Of course, it may have just been a bad day. He has not slept well the last 3 nights and took a very short nap today, so he may not have had the energy to look in the right direction. The audiologist asked if I had him in speech yet. WHAT?

I am pretty sure he is on target with vocabulary and does not seem to have hearing impairments around the home. He is putting 2-3 words together regularly now. Bye-Bye (fill in the blank, car, pee-pee, diaper, Mommy, Dada, etc) and seems to be picking up that certain things belong to either myself or Daddy. He will point to the car and say "Mama's car" or pick up my sunglasses and say "Mama's glasses".

This is a really fun stage of development. He is getting much better with please and thank you, although still often requires prompting. And he LOVES Nemo and Elmo. He even sleeps with a Nemo stuffed animal and blanket. He also loves our dog, Chico (things that end in O are his favorites, apparently). The other night he woke up crying and called for Chico before Mama or Dada. Crazy kid.

Anyway, they are hoping that getting tubes in will help with the hearing and they said his vocabulary will probably explode after that....so there is no telling what will be coming out of his mouth. God, guard my words!