Round 2

April 3, 2012

Well, I guess our plagiocephaly journey isn’t over just yet… After Ben graduated from his first helmet, we went for a follow-up appointment with the craniofacial surgeon. To say the very least of a VERY emotionally charged appointment, he ended up recommending another band to help continue balancing out the bossing on his forehead, and to hopefully gain a more “round” shape instead of the oval one he has now. While he said it wasn’t completely necessary anymore, and that all of the FUNCTIONAL implications of his asymmetry had resolved (risk for TMJ, asymmetrical facial features, etc…), he felt that one more band might get him a little bit closer to a rounder shape.
While the bigger, “protective mother” part of me wanted to be done and not have to have him go through anymore treatment, I understood the opinions of others of “just giving him a chance”, and in the end, we will now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we have done everything we possibly could for him. In my mind, he is such a perfect little boy just the way he is, but I know someday he will look back on this, and only remembering it through the pictures that I have used to document his journey, I am sure he will thank us for doing this for him. And that seems to make it all ok…
Karin
If you’d like to look back on his previous plagiocephaly posts, here are the links:
http://blog.beachfamily.us/2012/01/our-new-reality-for-while.html
http://blog.beachfamily.us/2012/02/graduation-already.html

I love my new playmate!

April 30, 2012

I found the coolest guy the other day in the mirror, and I LOVE playing with him! (He looks pretty cool in HIS helmet too!)
-Ben

Happy Mother's Day!

May 13, 2012

Happy Mother’s Day to all you special mommies & grandmas out there! We love you!
-Abby, Emily & Ben

We spent the day with our mommy having a special picnic at the lake by our house for dinner! What did you do to celebrate your mommy today?




The girls did some rock climbing, tadpole catching, fishing, and soccer playing with daddy…
 


 


Mommy enjoyed watching us play, but I think she enjoyed the peace and quiet with Ben a little bit more! He LOVED laying with her and watching the trees blowing and the airplanes flying in the sky. It was such a beautiful day to hang out outside with our mom!




Good thing he still has his helmet… It makes mommy feel better about his getting thrown in the air! He sure loves it though!




We all hope you had a great Mother’s Day too!

Graduation Day... For Real!

June 8, 2012

Let’s try this one more time! Today I finally graduated from my second helmet, and my plagiocephaly journey is officially over! After a total of 14 1/2 weeks in two different helmets and a pretty stinky and sweaty head, I am helmet free! My new round head feels GREAT, that it took me almost NO time to get used to sleeping without my helmet this time! Mommy had a fun graduation day planned for me, and as always, it started with some pictures!!!!
-Ben
Here are links to my other plagiocephaly posts if you want to look back on my journey!
Original entry: http://blog.beachfamily.us/2012/01/our-new-reality-for-while.html
His “first graduation”: http://blog.beachfamily.us/2012/02/graduation-already.html
After getting his second helmet: http://blog.beachfamily.us/2012/04/round-2.html


I’m going to miss my cool Lightening McQueen helmet!

This is my second and FINAL diploma from Cranial Technologies:

I had to have one final set of images taken, so I had to wear that crazy net over my head again… but I kept on smiling!

Look at how much my head has changed since my first pictures taken in December! My torticollis is gone, so my head doesn’t lean to the right anymore, my whole head has rounded out, and my forehead “bump” is almost completely gone (you can see that in the last pictures the best)!



Mommy loved my Cranial Technologies therapist, Sue, so much, and we’re going miss seeing her each week! She was so gentle and kind, and helped us through every step of this long process. Even my big sister Abby loved her so much that she wanted to make a special thank you card for her today!

Thank you Miss Sue!

After my graduation appointment, my whole family headed over to the “Build-a-bear” factory to make two special animals for my old helmets to hang out on. My sisters loved making them for me, and they turned out so cute!

They got to pick out which animals they wanted to make, and Abby picked a floppy dog while Emily chose a fuzzy bear (well, she wanted Hello Kitty, but mommy said I might not like that one). Thanks mommy…

They helped push the button to stuff the animals full of “fluff”, and they picked out special hearts to put inside before they were sewn up!

 

Next, the animals got a “bath”, we picked out special clothes, and the girls got them dressed!




Abby picked doctor scrubs for her “Helmet Doctor” Dog, who she named “Patches”, and Emily named her bear “Happy” and picked out cool Lightening McQueen pajamas (after mommy said no to the Rapunzel dress… Thanks again mom)!
They turned out GREAT, and will be perfect for my old helmets!



Thanks everyone for all of the prayers and best wishes throughout this journey!