Day 6- Night 1

Today was 8 hours day/ 8 hours night.

8 hours day went very well.

We went to church for the first time in his helmet.

The response was fine.  Not that I was expecting any different from my wonderful church family.

Helmet was on from 8-4

and on again at 7:45.

He nursed in his helmet tonight and I laid him down for bed...when normally my quiet baby drifts off to never never land...but tonight, up pops his little head in that big blue helmet.

I walked out of the room and the crying began.

It was short lived. 

3 minutes at most.

Right now he's asleep so we're hoping he stays that way.

IF by some chance he doesn't,

I'm blaming it on the snotty nose and the teeth about to make their way through. 

He was a little fussy tonight and didn't sleep worth a toot last night (without helmet) so I don't think we can blame the helmet IF he does wake up!

Here's hoping to a good night's rest.

Day 5

More of the same today.

Today's schedule was 6-8 hours on 1 hour off, twice.

Well...we kinda make our own schedule today

He wore from 8am-4:15pm

and

5:15pm-7:30pm

Today was our first 'outing'

He's worn it to school all week but today was the first day in stores.

We went to Hobby Lobby, Target and Joann's.

I didn't have any strange comments.

But...I have discovered there are 3 different kinds of people

The NO LOOKERS- you KNOW they see you, but they look beyond you at all cost, not knowing

whether to smile or cry...so they just don't look

Then you've got the LOOKERS- these people look...but they look at you pitiful like they feel really sorry for you/and baby

Then you have the ACTIVE LOOKERS- these people WANT so bad to look that they strike up a converstaion with you about how cute your baby is and what a pretty smile he has or how sweet his eyes are...all the while really wanting to say 'why does he have that helmet on?'

It's funny, everyone I made eye contact with I wanted so badly to say, 'there's nothing mentally wrong with my child, he's perfectly fine- see he can wave, clap, smile on command, he's just got a flat spot on his head and we're fixing it'.

But, I can't. 

I just smile and hope they see that we are happy!

And don't need any pity. 

:)

Happy Saturday!

Day 4

Today went well.

Today was 6 hours on 1 hour off, twice. 

Because of our schedule, we did 6 hours and 5 hours.

7am-1pm

2pm-7pm

Naps were a little off today.

He took 2 back to back short naps and no afternoon nap so he was a little fussy tonight.

I considered pulling the helmet off to see if it was bothering him, but I restrained.

He just needed a little extra TLC tonight.

Also, his head is a hot sweaty mess when the helmet comes off so we're gonna have to go back to baths every night.

When we took his thinkin cap off...we REALLY could see a difference. 

He did have a pretty definite straight line on the top of his head, but tonight it looked a bit rounded!

HOORAY!

So, all in all, 4th day was a success.

Day 3 with 'my thinkin cap on'

I've decided that I will lovingly refer to his helmet as his 'thinkin cap'. 

Dang. 

That would have been a good blog title. 

Oh well...we're fixing a flat head so no use back tracking now. 

So, Day 3 went like this:

Today was 2- 4 hour segments with his helmet on.

Daddy put on his thinkin cap this morning.

It took twice to get it on where it wasn't sitting funny on his brow.

He wore it from 7-11 and napped from 9:45-10:25 {this is normal- he's not a big napper}

He wore it again from 12:30-5:00. 

 He napped from 12:35-1:30 and took a small cat nap in the truck on the way home.

He's really adjusting nicely to his helmet.

Ms. C at school is very impressed with how well he is doing with it.

She said today "I really thought Easton might scream all week, but he's perfectly content."

In true Easton fashion, he goes with the flow.

Moving right along.

Tomorrow is 6 hours!  Man, that's a long time!

Helmet- Day 2

Day 2 of the Helmet went good.

Today he wore the helmet 3 times for 2 hour increments each.

He wore it from:

7:00-9:00am

10:30-12:40pm

2:30-4:30pm

My first attempt to get his helmet on this morning wasn't pleasant.

I couldn't get it open wide enough to get it on his bean.

The first attempt brought screams.

I took it off and tried again in a few minutes.

The 2nd attempt went well.

Both times at school he did great.

It was nice to have it off for the night so I could snug his little head!

Soon enough I won't get to snug that head as much as I want too.

Temporary...this is only temporary.

Helmet- Day 1

Today we picked up Easton's helmet.

Here is Easton's BH (Before Helmet) pix.  The side view is not as bad as the top view.

Easton has Brachycephaly.

Brachycephaly in a nut shell is where is head is wide and flat across the back.

Easton's Cephalic Index (ratio of width of the head multiplied by 100 and divided by it's length) is 97.222

100 would be square- same width as length.

BJ's goal for Easton is 81. 

His other measurements are pretty normal.  We won't see much change in the facial measurements.

The measurement across the top of his head (front left to back right and front right to back left) is only 7mm off.  He's seen them as bad as 30mm. 

That would be plagiocephaly.

Plagio is the asymetrical distortion (flattening of one side) of the skull. 

So, Easton has Brachycephaly.

His helmet will have a hollow point in the top back of his helmet.

The 'pressure' will be on the sides of his head where it's a little wider.

There really is no pressure, just the foam of the helmet touching his head.

The contact encourages growth to the hollow part of the helmet to round out the flattness.

BJ brought out the helmet, without any cosmetic adjustments.

He then wrote on the helmet and cut it to fit around Easton's face, neck and ears.

At this point the helmet was VERY snug.

Now, after the cuts were made it was less snug and fit better around his face.

He's not crying here, though it may seem that way.

He's got a new smile where he scruntches his whole face up!

SO,  he's still smiling, even with the helmet!

And, he's STILL Easton, even with the helmet!

He did really well today.

BJ does a transition week to ease him into wearing it 23 hours a day.

Today it was recomended that he wear the helmet 3 times, an hour on and hour off.

We did 4.  4's better than 3 right??

In the helmet:

9:10-10:10

11:10-12:10

1:15-2:15

4:40-5:40

He did really well.  A few times he'd tug on it or let out a holler but never cried about it.

It is a little snug around his face but BJ will adjust next week when we go back for our follow up.

It bothers us more than him.  It kinda makes his left eye look 'off' but it's not.

SO, all in all Day 1 was not so bad at all.
I had my fears, but they were all for nothing.

Hopefully Day 2 is just as successful!

A Head in Pictures

Birth- 3-18-10

VERY coned head

3-30-10

Nice & Round

5-10-10

5-28-10

Little flattening happening

7-5-10

Looks pretty good from this view

8-15-10

Almost 5 Months Old (Just sitting on his own- still sleeping on his back)

This is where it gets noticable

We asked our pediatrician SEVERAL times about the shape of his head.

He said 'as he sits, rolls over, plays on his tummy, etc it will round on on its own. 
Oh, if we only knew then what we know now.

8-22-10

Ped says 'symetrically flat' not to worry.

10-27-10
Can roll over now.
Sleeping on belly at 6 months.

11-15-10

11-30-10
Started Crawling at 8 months

12-15-10

12-31-10

1-26-11

Now, this is a great improvement over what it WAS at it's worst.

It did round out, but it's still flat.

It's almost as wide as it is long, and that puts his percentages way up.

They prefer your percentage to be around 81%.  That's BJ's goal for Easton.

His is about 97%.  100% is 'flat'.

These pictures will be a good reference point to measure where we've been and where we go.

MIGHT I ADD- THIS IS THE CUTEST KID EVER (CKE)----flat head or not, helmet or not!

Helmet tomorrow.  Mixed Emotions.