um, no, my baby is perfect! ha, ha. but in actuality, once he pointed it out, i did notice that his head was a little funny. and we also noticed that salsa always turned his head to his left and hardly ever to the right.
well the plan was to do some neck exercises to stretch that muscle. the pediatrician felt that his head was flatter on one side because of how he was positioned in my pelvis, which would also explain his weakened neck muscle and tendency to look one way over the other. we thought that the exercises coupled with his brain growth would naturally help the flattened part to correct itself.
well, that would have been nice if it had worked. his neck muscle is much better and he looks both ways now without favoring one side over the other but his little head is still misshapen.
we were referred to a place in dallas that specializes in cranial bands. it is called a doc band and looks like a little helmet. (you can google doc band and see what it looks like) we went for a free evaluation and no surprise to us, he is a perfect candidate. they put a stocking over his head to get an accurate image from this huge imaging machine. he was not a fan of the stocking. he doesn't like anything on his head, which could be quite an issue!
here are his funny little pictures from the imaging machine.
you can see how the left side of his head (his left) is higher than the right and then when looking down on the top of his head you can see how it is flatter on his left than on his right. his is a moderate case so i am hoping that translates into a shorter treatment time.
on a side note: don't you just want to squish those cheeks?
after much deliberation and conversation, (this will be the single most expensive accessory we have EVER purchased), we decided to move forward in the process. we go back this monday to have official measurements taken, and then his custom band will be fabricated in arizona and then shipped back here. we are scheduled to get the band on february 5. we have to go back to the dallas office for the measurements, but the good news is they have a satellite office in fort worth that we can go to after that for the fitting and all the adjustments.
the big brothers were initially disappointed that salsa will have to wear this (well we all felt that way actually) and were concerned that he would look "dorky." after talking about it for a few days, noodle said in the car on the way to school one morning, "salsa is so cute that he is going to make everyone want a helmet like him." sweetness. and i couldn't agree more. he is quite delicious!
the band itself is just a plain white, 6-ounce device, consisting of an outer plastic shell with a foam lining. sounds boring, right? well just wait till you see what people do to decorate these things! there are facebook pages and pinterest boards full of ideas, and there is even a company in dallas that will wrap the band with a custom graphic for FREE! this company does the vehicle wraps but as a way of giving back to the community they have a party once a month to decorate these bands. isn't that cool? their next opening was in march (the february one was already booked) so we signed up for that with the hopes that maybe an opening will become available in february. otherwise, we will just do our own decorating with stickers until we can get the professional custom wrap.
so just when i thought all the medical appointments were going to slow down, we will have appointments EVERY week with this thing. and i have email reminders to schedule his next cardiology appointment and his 6 month well check appointment. and i won't even tell you what's going on with me! i need a secretary!
so if you think about it, would you please pray for salsa? pray that this would be an easy and smooth transition for him and that it would not interrupt the sleeping patterns we have worked so hard to attain? he and his parents thank you! :)
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