Hearing

The word 'perfect' is a little misleading... everything is in the eye of the beholder. Van is absolutely perfect in my mind and heart. Was from the second he was conceived and will be forevermore.

At the hospital however, he failed his hearing test. To the outside world, that would be 'not so perfect'. But as I said, to us, he was and is perfect.

The doctor didn't tell us that the test has a very high false positive rate, and simply said we were going to need to see a hearing specialist within the next couple weeks. His bed-side manner needs work. Babies can fail the test for a variety of reasons - vernix in the ears, their ear canal being too small, etc. Completely freaked us out though, wondering what Van's life would be like with hearing issues. Our society and world mainly cater to it's view of 'perfect' people.

We got over it. Van would jump at random sounds and would react to our voices/'shhhh' sounds. We weren't sure what to expect at the specialists office, but we knew Van was perfect (hearing or not) and it would work out.

As it turns out, Tim's at-home tests proved more accurate than the hospital. Today Van passed his hearing tests at the specialist's appointment, and seems to have perfect hearing. From the 4 tests he took, he still failed the same test from the hospital, but the specialist thinks it's due to small ear canals.

If you run up against something daunting in the hospital, or something throws you for a loop, most of the time, try to relax. Babies are still developing, and no matter what, they're always perfect.