Helmet Hair

For the past three months, we have been keeping a close eye on little Janie's head shape. We started to notice a little bit of flattening on one side of her head when she was a month old. She always seemed to prefer to sleep with her head facing to the right. We saw our pediatrician and at the time the flattening was mild so we were going to try repositioning at home.

Janie's head shape had continued to worsen and we even started noticing a preference for other things, such as rolling over and sitting as well has her head position. Two months and two visits to the pediatrician later, we were referred to a physical therapist and Cranial Technologies for a Doc Band consultation. She not only had the flattening but also some cranial shifts.

This was the best picture I had saved,

...about 2 1/2 months old.

We've been doing stretches and strengthening exercises with Janie at home and at school to help with her neck and core strength as well as her muscle tightness. We have seen some great improvements in her preferences but decided to also move forward with her Doc Band treatment to make sure we were doing everything we could to help Janie out.

This past week, Janie was fit for her Doc Band. She now has to start wearing her new accessory 23 hours a day until her head fills out in the correct places. Although we are checking it more often these first few days, the idea is that she will only take it off to bathe and to clean her helmet each day.

I will admit that I cried when I saw her in it for the first time (and many times before...). The Doc Band looks so cold and foreign on my sweet little baby. I am afraid of the ugly things that people will think when they see my beautiful baby. I know it doesn't matter what other people think or say, but I want to protect my baby from any cruelty she may encounter! I will admit though, she is rocking her new little helmet!

Since her head is covered and she will get warmer and be unable to regulate her body temperature as well, she is no longer allowed to sleep swaddled or in a sleep sack. This was a bit of an adjustment for her since she was sleeping all swaddled, warm, & snuggly until a couple days ago.

All things considered, I think she did very well the past couple of nights. I think the un-swaddling has bothered her more than wearing the helmet. She has waken up a couple of times and only needed the pacifier to get back to sleep. We are going to work on her self-soothing skills in the next week or two so that she can get herself back to sleep without mom or dad having to come in and give her the pacifier.

So now, we are going to weekly physical therapy appointments as well as weekly helmet fittings, at the very least. This is one reason why Janie's well-visit had to be rescheduled! With me working, Justin out of town, doing stretches and baths every day as well as having Nora running around, you can see how our lives got a bit busier! One of my students made me this card which is fitting (though he really has no idea what is going on...)

I know it's a little all over the place, but..

"Dear Mrs. Peipert, 

You worked so hard you should get 50 million [dollars]."

I agree.

Hopefully after about 6-8 weeks, we will be finished with all therapies and treatments for her little head and muscles!

I am now trying to decide how to jazz up her helmet so that she doesn't look as "white" and scary...