Training him early
While I was pregnant, we decided that I'd participate in any reasonable studies for which I was eligible. After all, research puts a roof over our head, and I still remember the how hard it can be to recruit research subjects. Research karma, if you will.
So I did a couple of studies. As it happens, two of them I completed just hours before going into labour - who knew??
And since Jakob's birth, we completed one tedious, onerous, and regrettable study at five weeks. Ugh. I've also responded to a few ads I've seen, interested in them because we could also benefit (to some extent) through Jakob's participation.
Such was the case with the study Jakob did on Friday. The hospital where he was born (and turfed out before being able to eat, mind you) brags that it is BC's largest birthing centre. Yeah, whatever. They don't do routine hearing screening of newborns. (They also apparently don't care whether newborns are capable of eating.)1 So when I saw an ad that promised, "Test your newborn's hearing while he sleeps!", I was eager to sign up Jakob.
On Friday, a crisp-ish and clear day, I bundled him up and snuggled him into his stroller to walk to the university. At the lab (with my lunch cooling off and going stale in the stroller bag), the researchers attached two probes to Jakob's forehead and another to the back of his head/neck. And, of course, as they finished this, he pooped. Very very loudly, and very very smellily. I changed him in the test booth, and then got into a rocker/recliner with him.
As I nursed him to sleep, they screened his hearing and determined that it is perfectly fine. Once he'd settled down to sleep, the researcher inserted two little buds into his ears; through these, sounds were piped into his healthy little ears, and his brain responses were studied. Twice his eyes popped open (the researcher told me that at those points she changed from one ear to the other). He quickly settled back to sleep. Otherwise, he slept soundly and was a highly co-operative test subject.
1 Yes, I'm still not over this. So very far from being over it. Don't know that I'll ever be over it.
So I did a couple of studies. As it happens, two of them I completed just hours before going into labour - who knew??
And since Jakob's birth, we completed one tedious, onerous, and regrettable study at five weeks. Ugh. I've also responded to a few ads I've seen, interested in them because we could also benefit (to some extent) through Jakob's participation.
Such was the case with the study Jakob did on Friday. The hospital where he was born (and turfed out before being able to eat, mind you) brags that it is BC's largest birthing centre. Yeah, whatever. They don't do routine hearing screening of newborns. (They also apparently don't care whether newborns are capable of eating.)1 So when I saw an ad that promised, "Test your newborn's hearing while he sleeps!", I was eager to sign up Jakob.
On Friday, a crisp-ish and clear day, I bundled him up and snuggled him into his stroller to walk to the university. At the lab (with my lunch cooling off and going stale in the stroller bag), the researchers attached two probes to Jakob's forehead and another to the back of his head/neck. And, of course, as they finished this, he pooped. Very very loudly, and very very smellily. I changed him in the test booth, and then got into a rocker/recliner with him.
As I nursed him to sleep, they screened his hearing and determined that it is perfectly fine. Once he'd settled down to sleep, the researcher inserted two little buds into his ears; through these, sounds were piped into his healthy little ears, and his brain responses were studied. Twice his eyes popped open (the researcher told me that at those points she changed from one ear to the other). He quickly settled back to sleep. Otherwise, he slept soundly and was a highly co-operative test subject.
1 Yes, I'm still not over this. So very far from being over it. Don't know that I'll ever be over it.
posted by Melanie A at 5:33 p.m.
1 Comments:
Oh, boy, have I been there. I wasn't really volunteering, though . . . (makes mental note to call GP to refer to audiologist, ENT, and speech pathologist so we have appointments when we get back to Canada, and not six months later) :?
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