Year: 2005

Today we took Maxim for a hearing test. It was slightly delayed by our pediatrician due to a bit of water in Maxim’s right ear, but since that was confirmed gone during the last check it was about time to proceed with the test.

Our appointment was for 14:15 in the “Center for preventive pediatrics”. We found the building pretty easy following dr.Simos’ instructions. The first letter of the sign outside was gone and the sign read as “enter for preventive pediatrics”. It struck me that the meaning didn’t change.

Anyway, stepping inside the office we got into a very comfortable atmosphere. There were no people except for about five members of the staff. Office looked very clean and fresh. One of the ladies there politely invited us in exactly the minute we entered the office, although we came about 15 minutes earlier.

We were told that the test will take just a few minutes and that it won’t cause any discomfort to the baby. Now that’s always nice to here, isn’t it? We were also given the explanation of the testing procedure. It is rather simple I must say. There is a normal laptop computer with a tiny microphone attached to it via a long wire. The microphone is not only a microphone, but a tiny speaker also. A sterile tissue is covering it, in case you’re worrying. Now, the nurse is putting the micrphone in baby’s ear and presses a button on the computer. Sounds are sent to the ear and the returned noises measured. All is done very fast and automatically. There are some wave graphs on the screen, but they don’t hold any meaning for the uneducated like yours truly. It is mandatory that the baby is totally quiet during the test. Luckily Maxim was sleeping through most of it, so we didn’t have any problem.

While Maxim was being tested, I was filling in the form (hard copy unfortunately) with the standard set of information about the baby and his mother – names, addresses, dates of birth for both of them, caretaker and pediatrician names, clinic, etc. There were a few fields about hearing disorders in the family, but I clicked “No” on all of them. I am not aware of any.

The form also had a clearly marked paragraph that explained that data from this hearing test might be accessed by a number of medical bodies. I had to put my name and sign for that I read that. Alternatively I could mark a field saying that I object against such sharing. I am not against it, so I didn’t.

Anyway, three minutes after we started the test, it was done. We could pick up Maxim and leave. By this time I was slightly worried about the bill. See, we don’t yet have the insurance for the kid and all cleaningness and technology in the place were suggesting that the place isn’t cheap. To my relief, I was informed that the test is free of charge for everyone. This center is probably making a huge amount of money by testing other things and taking care of rare hearing disorders. Or they just sell the information as expensive as they can. I don’t care actually. Free, fast, and with good quality of service – what else can I ask for?

Before we left, we were given the certificate confirmed Maxim passing the test. Also we’ve got a paper explaining the procedure and information sharing bit. And if that all wasn’t enough, they gave us a piece of paper with all words a baby is supposed to say before the age of 3. That last paper was all in Greek, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. I am sure we’ll hear all the needed words and sounds just in time…

One of my favourite actions to watch recently is Maxim falling asleep. On a good day it takes me about 20 minutes to calm him down to oblivion. The process seems to be so simple and routine, but there’s so much happenning that it reminds me of all those educational movies on Discovery about animal life.

At first, Maxim is very active. He moves his hands and legs, looks in different directions and his face is always moving and changing the grimace. I sit down in the armchair, take him in my lap, put his head on my left hand and pull a blanket over him. By this time, his legs are moving less and his hands start to calm down. He finds some spot to look at and explores it most of the time. His face starts to relax.

I put my right hand on top of the blanket to add some weight on to him and give him the feeling of protection. I give him some tea from the bottle. He sucks and I can see how his eye lids get heavier and heavier.

His left eye is always first to close. When he cries, when he worries, when he is hungry; and so it is when he falls asleep. His right eye starts rolling up. Maxim makes a few attempts to keep it open, which results in few wrinkles on his forehead. Than he realizes that he doesn’t have enough strength and he stops fighting the temptation.

But he is not sleeping yet. He is still falling. I can see his pupils moving under the eye lids. His hands are still moving a bit, trying to find something to get a grip off. He spends about five minutes in this state.

And than the last stage kicks in. His body softens as he is totally relaxed. His pupils freeze. And just before he totally falls asleep a miracle comes. Left side of his mouth moves slightly and forms a semi-smile. Than it moves back. Than it smiles again. It goes back and forward for a couple of times more and than it stays in the smily position. When it stops there, the right half of Maxim’s mouth just falls down (remember, his head is on my left hand) into a semi-smile of its own. And here we have it – a smile. A brief moment, which lasts just few seconds, but which makes my heart explode in joy. This moment alone is worth all the parenting trouble, all the money spend, and all the sleepless nights multiplied by a million!

And so he sleeps…

Sometimes I really hate my work. Now is one of those moments. While I am sitting here in the NOC, my son passed yet another milestone of his development – he rolled. Olga just phoned to tell me that Maxim was laying on his changing table when he rolled from back to his side even though he was wearing a size 2 Pampers. Damn it! Why did I have to miss it?

I am trying to reason myself with that he will be doing this sort of thing more and more over the next few days, but that doesn’t help much. All sorts of crazy thoughts are running through my head. Mostly they are of the nature: “If I missed his first rolling, how am I sure I won’t miss his first step, his first word, or whatever esle first thing he will be doing?”.