Happy Valentine’s Day and some good news!

No, I’m not pregnant
So today Eli and I went to his 1 week follow up visit with Cranial Technologies (CT) to make sure our first week in the helmet went well and to do measurements. This morning, while doing our 1hr free time out of the helmet, I was picking Eli up out of his jumper and didn’t see the obvious flatness on the back when usually that’s the clearest I can see it—looking straight down from above him. I thought, “huh, that’s interesting, it’s like his head is improving already.” But then I dismissed the thought as I proceeded to get him dressed and head out of the house.
Well we get to CT and I take his helmet off so the lady can measure his head and shave down some more of the foam core on the inside (this allows for further growth in the flattened areas) and I noticed it again. His head did not seem as flat on that one side and the back was so much rounder than before! She measured it and commented how he’d had a growth spurt since last week’s measurement and that his head looked less flat also when comparing it to his photos. What perfect timing! I’m so glad we caught this growth spurt while IN the helmet. Woo hoo buddy! I should have known though. He’s been eating a TON, waking up twice during the night to eat, we had to raise his jumper up to the next notch and he’s just seemed so cumbersome to carry in his carrier—all just within this past week! I guess when I think growth spurt, I think weight and height, not head circumference. So, I’m super encouraged that the helmet is working, and I have my fingers crossed that he’ll be out of this thing well before 3 1/2 months as previously predicted. I understand that baby’s growth dramatically decreases after the 7 1/2 month mark and I don’t want to get my hopes up, but I reeeeally needed to see this improvement . *Squeeal!*

He’s growin’!

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Well it’s just me and the kiddo today for Valentine’s day. Daddy is in Vegas where he got offered a free trip to speak at a conference. (I know, lucky right?!) So we crashed auntie Stephie’s house today to have a visit.

How cute are they?!?! I love this pic. My little heart breaker. He’s a trend setter—rockin’ the one sock/shoe off 

Steph even managed to snag an unsolicited kiss out of him! Unbelievable that she gets it and not me, I’m jealous. It really was hilarious though because he just leans forward, plants one on her lips (it was at least a good 3 seconds long) and then licks her chin. Ha ha ha. I WISH I had gotten a picture of it! So funny. Love that kid. He also spoiled her by giving her a little foot rub. Oh uuuuuncle Piiiiibeeeee! Your nephew is setting the bar high for you on this Valentine’s day. Top that.

That’s all. Have a good one ladies and gents.

-Linds

Eli’s spiffed up Doc band…

Not gonna lie. I feel sooooo much better about Eli’s helmet now that it’s painted. The stark whiteness of it, made it seem like there was something wrong with my baby. Each time I looked at  him in it, my heart broke a little. I couldn’t explain it but it made me sad. Kind of like seeing your kid in a cast, I would imagine. I guess it just made me go down that pity road of “what if…” What if Eli did bang his head against stuff? What if he did crack his skull open from a fall? Gah! I just can’t bare the thought! As a parent, we naturally just want the best for our children, plain and simple. I once questioned if I was even cut out for having children of my own because I’m very sensitive when it comes to hurt feelings or seeing a child fall/get hurt. I don’t want to hear about Eli getting bullied or shoved down or have him break an arm—all of which are just about guaranteed to happen at least once in our lifetime, right? I mean who out there has never had someone tease them, or hasn’t broken a bone? Ok enough depressing thoughts. Lets move on to the good stuff.
Now the big reveal. I love it. I did end up stealing the “just fixin’ my flat” idea because it makes me laugh every time. I also had to do an airplane for obvious reasons. I envisioned the plane in the little bump out area over his forehead and the plane spelling out his name in loop-d-loops. Can you picture it yet? Also from the instant that white helmet went on, I thought how much more I’d “like” it if it were baby blue. So baby blue it is . I’ll admit I was shakin’ in my pink slippers worrying I may ruin this thing. I guess my strong dislike for the white was stronger than my fear of jacking it up :/
So the front, I just free handed because I couldn’t find cute baby-like airplane stickers (what the heck people! I ran into the same problem when decorating his nursery. Somebody wanna get on that? You have a large untapped market to take advantage of and I’ll keep you in business ) And the back is using stickers.
So without further ado, the before:

Hello handsome

The, to me, much improved after:

Front view

Back view.

Now I’m not a gambler by nature (that would be my mom, Hi mom!) so I made sure to follow the tips and recommendations from Cranial Technologies on how to go about decorating it. Isn’t that funny that they encourage it? I was so surprised about that. Anyways they recommend using non toxic acrylic paint and mod podge to seal it. After I painted his helmet it started to chip just by applying the stickers! I was seriously worried about it’s ability to endure Eli playing and sleeping in it. But I did one coat of mod podge over everything, crossed my fingers, said a little prayer, and put him to bed and hoped for the best. I was so giddy to see it held up over night when I went to get him up this morning! Not a single chip! Woo hoo!

So, now I look at my widdle guy and see a cool new hat, not a medical device . So what do YOU think?

-Linds

Update on Eli’s head…

This post is for my silent lurkers, wondering whatever happened regarding Eli’s flat head mentioned ages ago…?
Ok so remember I had mentioned the “not so good news” about Eli’s head having a flat spot on the back right side at the 4 month update? Our pediatrician had given us a referral to have his head checked out for a free consultation with the head specialists . Well Aaron and I wanted to wait a bit and see if it would be able to correct on its own (and also wait until the first of the year to do it if it did indeed need to happen because I had jumped onto Aaron’s insurance after my maternity leave so late in the year and I wanted this bound-to-be-super-expensive helmet expense put towards THIS years deductible. Hey, I gotta be practical in this economy!)
So it DID improve a lot on it’s own since he is a lot more mobile these days and no longer tilting his head at night to suck his thumb attached to his short, stubby arm. (Grrr, still bitter about it since he did that for maaaaaybe 3 weeks tops—enough to do permanent damage.) His head is less “cone-y” but it still has an undeniable flat spot that is there to stay, unfortunately. So we had his head photos taken today and did the consultation and we’re pretty certain we need to do this for him. They are going to get back to us in the next day or two regarding insurance coverage and potential cost.
Here are Eli’s mug shots. I laugh out loud each time I stare at that face in the first slot. Aaron wanted to photo shop it and put “wanted” above it. Ha ha ha. Mommy loves you sweet pea

Some of the pics make it difficult to tell because he’s tilting his head or leaning forward but it’s there. She said that this flatness has lead to a slight shift in Eli’s forehead, and ear alignment. She thinks Eli will most likely need to be in it for 8 weeks. (Crossing our fingers that it’s shorter than that and NOT longer!)
The bummer of it all is that we’ll have to do weekly appointments initially, and then it’ll be every 2 weeks, but it’s out in Lombard! Waaaaah! That’s like 45 minutes away—(so an hour and a half in the car for you mathematically challenged peeps. ) Waaaaah! But she was telling me their furthest client drives in each week from Kentucky!!! Holy canoly! Ok. I’ll stop whining now.
You should check out their website if you’ve never heard of a DOC band *coughbeckycough*. They tell you what the DOC band is all about, how it works, and they show some pretty amazing befores and afters. Did you know that prior to the “back to sleep” campaign, plagiocephaly (the correct medical terminology for miss-shaped heads) was 1 baby in 300, but now post campaign its 1 in 10?!? The studies have shown that the rate of SIDS has dropped so significantly and that abnormal head shapes can easily be corrected non-surgically that they feel the benefits of back to sleep far out way this risk. Interesting huh?
Alrighty, that’s the update in a nutshell for now. Toodles!
-Linds
P.S
They made him strip down to his diaper for these pics, good thing he had on his fancy schmancy Huggies jean diapers . Dressed to impress, oh yeah!