DOC Band Exit Appointment

We had Baby Bear’s exit appointment last Tuesday – meaning he no longer needs to wear his DOC Band!  He’s within the acceptable “deviation” is I think the term they use.  

It is nice to have the whole process completed and to be on the other side!  Wow!  He was a little guy trying to master sitting up when we started the process.  Now he’s walking/standing obsessed!  It is his FAVORITE thing to do right now.  Forget toys, forget singing, forget attention from Jr.  He just wants to walk.  Look out world!

Pictures from our last day:

Last Trip

Waiting for his turn

Enough is Enough

Success!

Preparing

Complaining

Taking Photo Study Pics

Here are his updated pics up close:

 

Amazing difference, don’t you think?  We didn’t notice back in the day what a Charlie Brown head he had.  It’s seriously, like, perfectly round!  Now it is very proportional and we’re really happy with the results!

Weird Day

Today was so weird. Ever since we got Baby Bear’s DOC band, we’ve treated it like no big deal. Maybe it’s just my personality, but I think mostly because it is no big deal. So he wears a helmet for a couple months – who cares?! After that time we’ll look at it as a distant memory. And as we’ve taken Baby Bear out it’s been no big deal – to us or to anyone in the stores. But today was just WEIRD.

dt took Jr to The Clone Wars while I walked around the mall with Baby Bear. It was a super busy day at the mall – probably because it’s Back to School time here in Austin. (ya think?!) As I’m pushing the stroller I pass a family and hear, “There’s something wrong with him.” Not in the normal curious way… like, “Ohh… I wonder what’s wrong with that little baby.” It was a harsh tone. Like, “Eww.”

Lame. But whatever – just keep walking and be glad I’m not them.

Then I walk past a couple of teenage girls. One of them literally stops in her tracks in the busy hallway, points at Baby Bear as we’re walking by and says, “What is THAT?!” I hear from behind me her embarrassed friend say, “Um, a baby.” Always one to take too long in processing things, I continued walking and thinking, “Did that really just happen?? Yeah. Yeah, that really just happened.” If I thought a little quicker on my feet I would have just turned around and bitch slapped her. It would have been worth the assault charges.

So obviously at this point I’m kind of starting to feel The Mommy Claws come out. Who do these people think they are? He’s a sweet little baby! And the helmet isn’t even a big deal! He’s barely even going to wear it, but even if he wore it the rest of his life – what the hell do they care?? I certainly don’t! He’s adorable with it and without it, beotches!

The whole rest of the time at the mall, I swear, I get more looks than I have ever gotten the entire time he’s worn the DOC band. People turning in their chairs to see him, stretching their necks; poking the person next to them, glancing over and whispering to their spouse. But I tell myself that I’m just being sensitive because those other two “freak” occurances happened. I just try to ignore everybody and have a good time with my amazing little Baby Bear… but all the while I can’t shake the feeling that wherever I go I’m the elephant in the room (or rather, Baby Bear is). As my time there goes on I kind of get a sense of defensiveness. I hold my head higher and I squeeze Baby Bear a little tighter. I try to smile and look at him in a way that he knows his mom thinks he’s adorable and 100% perfect – in case he’s sensing anyone’s bad vibes. Silly, I know.

As I’m walking I see a family in front of me. The mom is pushing a specially designed stroller and they have a little girl with Cerebral Palsy. I wonder what looks they must get.

The movie ends and we meet back up with dt and Jr in one of the department stores. I didn’t say a word about anything… I was just listening to Jr tell me about the movie when I hear dt say, “That’s weird.”

“What?”

“That lady just looked over with a weird look.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“She looked over, looked at Baby Bear and scrunched her nose like she was disgusted!”

No way. I couldn’t believe it. I said, “This has been the weirdest day! People have been acting SO weird about him here!” and I told him the rest of my afternoon. I don’t know if it’s because there were just more people out and about so it was more likely to run into total a-holes or what.

I get doing a double-take. I get asking (politely) why he wears it. I get giving a look of pity – since I figure those people think he’s had brain surgery or something much more serious than a flat spot on his head. But I do not get treating him or any child with any sort of obvious or not-so-obvious issue like he’s damaged or broken or less-than or gross. I’m so glad that I’ve surrounded myself with friends and family who would be just as shocked as I was about today.  Because, people, there are apparently a lot more freaks out there than you realize.

Gross or Cutie-Pie: You decide

I pray I can remember the feelings I had today and extend love and acceptance to the parents who may not have a short stint of curious looks and uncaring words. The defensiveness they must feel stepping out of the house… never knowing if people will be rude or not. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

“Be kind to each other. You don’t know what battles each have faced that day.”

I’m guessing tomorrow everything and everybody will go back to normal. But today…. today was just weird.

New Photo Study Pics!

Click to see larger.

Here are some pictures from Baby Bears last Cranial appointment.  They wanted to take pictures to see the progress… and hey, we don’t mind!  We love them!  Is it me, or is he seriously the cutest baby ever.  I don’t think it’s because I’m his mother – He’s just stinkin’ cute!  There may be a gerber commercial in his future.

Anyway, the left sides are from his first appointments when he was a wee little 6 month old.  Look how grown up he looks at 8 1/2.  And all his nice hair coming in.   I think the progress looks awesome. Look at that great head shape! I guess they just want to get a little bit more length in the back and he’ll be wearing it another 4-6 weeks.  (We’re all hoping for 4, of course.)

Enjoy the pics!

Baby Bear’s New Cranial Digs

We drove into Austin on Monday, got settled into a hotel, woke up and went to Baby Bear’s DOC Band appointment in the morning. Pretty crazy, if you ask me. We were all a little wiped out (still are) and didn’t want to get in the car even for a short ride. But it was good to see where we’d spend our weekly visits. Baby Bear was excited to find another car for him to play on. You can tell in the pictures that he loves them. We’ll have to get him something like that one of these days.

Downtown by the Hospital

Baby Bear with his girly car

Nothing passes time like a good game of “I Spy”

“…and then monster says, ‘Don’t be such a lame duck.’”

More Giggley Cuteness

Baby Bear only drools in Continents.

He really is getting used to his helmet now. We could tell it would irritate him in the beginning (naturally) and really enjoy the time he had it off. Now during his hour break it’s no big deal whether it’s on or off.

btw – how do you like the new look?? Me likey.

…and we’re back…

Yea! We have internet connection! We’ve missed you, sweet internet.  You have no idea how excited I was when dt said it was finally connecting.  THIS IS AWESOME!

We have a lot to catch up on! First things first, here are some of the pictures of baby bear’s decorated helmet. After scoping out the available stickers for easy decoration before the move we decided to go with this cute little zoo motif with stunning blue paint. There were some cool Rock Star stickers, Skater ones, etc that we considered… but they didn’t seem like baby bear at all. He’s way too much of a cuddly, mellow baby for that. It just wouldn’t fit his sweet little personality. So we went with something a little more babyish. He obviously loves it.

Back

The process:  First paint, then stickers, then a very manly glitter, then Mod Podge to seal it all together.  We love it!  It’s funny because people are so curious about the helmet (DOC Band) and we always get looks and people staring.  Sometimes I smile, sometimes I give them the bird.  I’m kidding.  I never smile.   No, people are always very nice.  At the grocery store Saturday one lady assumed it was so he didn’t hurt himself in case he fell down and thought it was a great invention.  Like I couldn’t stand it if my baby got a bump on his head. lol  I had to explain that it was actually a medical device to help shape his head.

Anyway, more posts coming soon.

Phoenix, We have a helmet

The day has finally arrived!  Baby Bear finally got his DOC (Dynamic Orthotic Cranioplasty) Band - or as we call it “The Helmet”.  I’m excited to get it so we can get the 3 1/2 months over with!

Innocent Baby Bear

3-d imaging, shot 1

3-D imaging, shot 2

Walking up to the Medical Center

Getting my Mommy Instructions

Distracted by pretty colors

The most handsome baby helmet wearer ever!

Uh oh. Whining.

We meet again, boat.

Complaining to Daddy

Why… why???

Bad Joke

Taking a break

Exhausted from a busy morning

The next two days we take it off every 3 hours and wait for the redness to go away.  His skin gets irritated in certain areas.  Then we just put it back on and wait another 3 hours.  Saturday we should apparently be able to start leaving it on 23 hours a day!  Just enough time for bathing.

I’m planning on doing some design on it… but can’t decide.  I was thinking a cool blue color to bring out his eyes.  Maybe a blue camouflage design.  Or a solid blue with surfing stickers.  Those are the favorites right now.  Any ideas…?  Pass them our way.  Just try to include blue somehow.

I have a couple more pictures I’ll add later.

Dynamic Orthotic Cranioplasty… here we come!

It’s official… we had Baby Bear’s appointment with the Cranial Technologies people and he has to wear one of those cute little helmets.  He officially has “Brachycephaly” where it flattens in the back, but has some flattening on the right side, as well.  It was created due to his torticollis I mentioned awhile back.  (They were THE nicest office staff I’ve ever dealt with btw – SO warm and friendly.)

Given his age, he should have to wear it for about 3 1/2 months.  We are getting it made and fitted here in Phx, then will have our files forwarded to their office in Austin.  Did you catch that?  THEY HAVE AN OFFICE IN AUSTIN!  They don’t have them just anywhere – how lucky are we!?  If they didn’t have one there, we’d have to take a weekly road trip to Dallas.  Just like everything else with this move, it’s all lining up… and before we even realize lining needs to be up.  Wait, what?  Anyway, God is so good and we are so thankful!

We are not sure if our Insurance will cover it.  Many try to weasle their way out of it and say it is cosmetic… would you be praying that it would be covered?  At least partially!?  We will find out tomorrow from the Cranial Tech staff.  The cost of the helmet is $3600! And I don’t even know what the weekly appointments would cost.  Anyway, prayer would be greatly appreciated!

Here are Baby Bear’s Glamour Shots… I mean his Photo Study. 

 

Cutest Cranial Photo Study Ever!

Baby Bears’s Hitchcock Pics

More Views

…coming soon to baby bear’s head…

 

From their pamphlet:

The DOC Band is fabricated from a 3-Dimensional model of each individual baby’s head.  Weighing just 6-oz, it applies mild holding pressures to redirect growth.

While worn 23 hours a day, the band is carefully monitored every seven to 14 days, the baby’s skull growth is checked and correction of the deformity evaluated.  A second band may be recommended when the severity of the patient’s plagiocephaly requires longer treatment.