Before and After pics of the DOC band

I wasted no time decorating the band.. there was no way I was going to leave it scary white!

On a side note, we are doing well with the DOC band so far. I say "we" because I think it's harder on me than it is on her.
When she's awake she doesn't even notice it, but once she gets tired she gets fussier than usual and gets super cuddly/clingy. Nora is not typically a cuddly baby (when she's tired she'd rather be put down), but now she only wants to fall asleep on my shoulder. It breaks my heart that she doesn't feel secure yet to fall asleep on her own in the helmet, but at the same time I am reeeally enjoying the extra cuddles.

Also, if I have her sitting up, her head sometimes falls foward (just a teeny bit) like she doesn't know how to handle the extra weight. (It may be mean, but I find this a little funny). The helmet only weighs 4oz but I wonder how that feels on her tiny head.

I didn't keep her in the helmet for the whole night because for the first 2 days I'm supposed to check her head every 3 hours for red marks. But for the few hours she was in it, she slept really well. So proud of my little girl! We had a very successful first day.

Just some cute pictures for the blog

Enjoying the last few days of her non-helmet head :)

Let the reshaping journey begin!

We found out a month ago that Nora has brachycephaly with plagiocephaly. (And no, I haven't attempted to pronounce them either). Basically, a flat head. It was evident very early on - I think it had something to do with the way she was laying in the womb. She couldn't move her head to the right, so she would always lay on the left side of her head. We were finally given exercises to do, which helped tremendously, but the damage was already done.

Nora will need to wear what is called a DOC band. For more info, the website is www.cranialtech.com. She will need to wear it 23 hours a day for about 8 weeks. I will be taking her today for her 'digital imaging' - sizing her for the band. A week later we will go back to pick up the band and start counting down the days to a nice round head!

We wanted to start treatment as early as possible. Cranial Tech starts treatment at 3 months, but our insurance won't cover it until 4 months. She will be about 4.5 months at the start of treament, so I think we got a nice head start! The website says if treatment is started before 5 months of age, you can start to see a difference in just one week.

The technician said there would be no major problems if we didn't go ahead with treatment, but it would mainly be a cosmetic problem. She would have trouble wearing glasses, helmets, etc as she gets older. So I figure, 2 or 3 months out of our lives will not kill us and she will thank us later for it.

I will need to take her to the office in Paramus once a week during this time, so they can re-shape the DOC band to fit, as her head goes back to a more normal shape over time.

Please keep Nora in your thoughts and prayers, that she will adjust well to the DOC band and not be bothered by it. They say 90-something percent of babies (I forget the exact number) don't even notice it after the first 5 minutes, so hopefully she will fall under that category.

The band is white, ugly and plain - but as you can see from the website, you can go to town decorating it. I'm sure I will be making a stop to Michael's for some ideas!