When my ears are taken away

Being deaf, I rely on others who can hear to "be my ears." Sometimes that falls on my daughter, but on a longstanding basis, that responsibility is my dog's. Technically, Chewbacca is not a hearing dog, but he definitely BARKS in ways to alert me that someone is at the door or that something just isn't "right." (Sometimes I wonder if he realizes his owner is deaf?)

This has been a big security for me. I don't have to worry about if someone is standing on my doorstep, pounding away and wondering WHY I'm not answering. And I can sleep peacefully at night with Chewie close by, ready to bark if there's an intruder or if someone knocks. (I've been told I'm a light sleeper, and all that moving around he does when he barks on my bed is enough to wake me up.)

But, lately, I haven't been able to sleep very well at night. I'm back to continually waking up at different times of the night and checking on my daughter, checking the doors and the house, because Chewie has not been with me in my bed at night. He has not been with me for about a week now.

No, he hasn't died. God forbid! But he has been forced to sleep in the kitchen with the door closed, because my squeeze, Jason, gets irritated from the dog hair on my bed and can't sleep very well at night when Chewie is there right in the middle, at our feet. I didn't put up a fight about this -- because, after all, it's not fair to him to keep Chewie there and have him suffer inhaling dog hair all night long -- but it's really starting to eat away at me, because he is deaf, too. The only person who can hear in this house is my 5-year-old child, and it is SHE we are to protect, not the other way around. Something could happen to her while we sleep, and we have no way of knowing, because we can't hear.

I've tried to come up with a solution to the dog-hair thing. Chewie IS a chihuahua, but he's part-poodle, so he's a little furry (like his namesake, haha). I wonder if giving him a good brushing shortly before bedtime would do the trick? Or maybe using a fan? I don't know. I wish I could figure out a way to resolve this problem so Chewie could sleep on my bed again, but so far, that's not working out.

I don't have the assisted listening devices that could alert me to any intruders or knocks at the door while I'm asleep. I DO have the Baby Cryer, from when Jen was a baby and needed to be fed at certain times of the night, but I don't know if it would be enough to help me sleep soundly once again, knowing I'd be alerted if something was wrong. (As it stands, I don't have a deaf-friendly smoke alarm!) Maybe I could look into what kinds of devices are out there. Or get me a bona fide hearing dog that wouldn't need to sleep on my bed at night, but would know how to awaken me if something bad DID happen while I slept.