Failing His First Test and Breastfeeding

Dylan was taken to the maternity floor and placed in the general ward, since Prince Charming MD had declared that he was fine.

Melissa soon joined him there. We had previously gone through the procedure of birth and the hospital stay with our first son, Ethan, so everything seemed normal. It made me feel better to see Dylan in the maternity ward with all those other newborn kids. After all they would only place him there if he was fine.

The following morning the next shock hit. As is standard, all newborn babies get a hearing test. Dylan had failed his hearing test in one ear. The audio technician told us that it could be nothing, plenty of kids fail the test on their first try and then pass when they get retested. It could be fluid buildup, a false negative, or any number of reasons to not pass the test. She told us that he would be retested the next day.

In my mind, a small little panicky voice started to say that this could be more than just a false negative. Combine the ear tags and the failure of the hearing test and there could be something seriously wrong here. I just had no idea how seriously wrong it was going to be.

Melissa then tried to breastfeed Dylan. Our older son, Ethan had been very successfully breastfed until he was 6 months old and we both hoped that Melissa could do the same for Ethan. (You save a ton of money on formula). For those of you who don't know, there really is no way to tell if breastfeeding is successful other than weighing the baby after each feeding. Dylan had some difficulties latching onto the nipple but he could occasionally manage it. We knew that babies can take few days to successfully latch onto a nipple, so his first 2 days of difficulty didn't worry us too much at that point. Melissa would continue to try for him to latch on for the next few days with very little success. She was beginning to get a little frustrated.

Dylan once again had his hearing tested and once again he failed the test. The tech once again told us that it didn't mean anything and that we should have him retested in a few weeks to get a definitive answer. That panicky little voice inside me got a little more panicky.

As is standard now for a natural birth, 48 hours later, Melissa and Dylan were going to be released and sent home. I hate hospitals, so this was an incredible relief for me to be able to take them home.

Little did I realize that this could have led to my sons death....