Can Ace Hear Me?

I am a little worried.

My mum is a child care teacher and works with children a lot. She told me about a month ago that Ace seems to respond very slowly to sound.

It’s true. Even though babies are not suppose to see clearly before 6 months and can only see you if you are within 19 inches of them, he will follow the shapes and shadows moving around him very quickly. His gaze often follows me as I walk around the room and sometime even though I am very far, he still can ‘see’ me.

While he is supposed to be very reliant on his sense of sound and his gut feel now, he doesn’t really respond when we call his name. He also doesnt like it when we clean his ears (see picture).

Dunno whether ears suffering from infection...

I went to babycenter.com to check and the doctors in the website said that babies will only recognize their names after they are about 4 months old. The website also said that if my baby were to be startled out of sleep by sound, he should be ok.

I observed him and found him to be okay. Taking comfort that his hearing test at birth gave an okay reading, I didn’t think much about it after.

Then the other day, mum told me that they tried an experiment while I was away. She and dad positioned themselves in the left and right side of Ace respectively. They were out of his sight range and no matter how they called him, he just did not respond.

I tried the same thing but instead of calling his name. I tried clapping and found that he responded when I was on his right side but he doesn’t bother to turn when I tried to do so from the left.

I then quickly logged in to babycentre.com to read up again and they said that I should clap behind his head. “If your baby startles, he is fine..” they say.

I tried the test but Ace was oblivious to any form of clapping I had.

Heck! How the hell am I suppose to know if he was startled when I am standing behind him and I can’t see him at all!

While I was playing with him the other day though.. clapping in the left and right side of him startled him.

And then I recalled how he was soundly asleep when I brought him into a roomful of people dancing to loud music. (But he is used to those sounds cos it is something he hears often while in my tummy. Maybe that is why it will soothe him to sleep!)

I recall how he doesn’t wait when I ask him to do so. (Heck, he is 2.5 months old! How can I expect him to understand ‘WAIT’. Besides, he may be too hungry!)

I recall how he doesn’t respond when I call his name. (Siao ah, he can only do that at 4 months onwards, the doctors say so…)

And I am thrown into panic.

I try to calm myself and remind myself that:

- Ace likes to talk and response when people are talking to him (maybe he is responding to the facial expressions and actions leh???)

- Ace likes music and his favourite song is twinkle twinkle little star (oh no, no wonder. The other songs dun have actions. He can only ‘see’ this song cos I do the twinkle twinkle action when I sing this song. But why does he cry when his favourite Mozart for Babies CD stops?)

- Ace refused to sleep when he heard my voice outside the training room and only proceeded to do so when Zhenyuan brought him far away so that he couldn’t hear me while I gave a talk in the room. (maybe his hearing was ok during that time? Maybe he is only partially hearing impaired? Maybe only one ear is working?)

Darn. I brought Ace to a roomful of crazy dancing people with loud music on several occasions. But I was careful to stuff his ears. If that were to be the cause, I would feel sooooooooooo guilty for life! What is a handsome little boy without a sense of hearing going to do? What kind of life will he lead?

I am keeping my fingers crossed and will continue to observe him. I think I better talk to the doctor at his third month appointment for injections. :S