Baby Mug Shots

This week has been the first one I've had to deal with a less than perfectly healthy baby. A week ago, Liam got a slight cough, and had that for a few days. Then Monday he started sounding snotty when he breathed. Saline drops and the humidifier have been our best friends since then. He's not any worse, but it hasn't gone away yet, either. Thankfully he hasn't had a fever at all and is acting and eating normally, except when his nose gets too snotty for him to breathe well while drinking. Will and I have also been somewhat sickly this week as well, Will much more so than me. It's like my body knows it can't be sick and pitiful right now. Plus, I haven't been sick at all since last November, so I kind of forgot what to do to take care of myself when a cold comes up. I've kept him home all week (except for the event described below), which means we missed Mom's Connection and International Friends.

Monday, I took Liam to his evaluation to get a DOC band (wrongly referred to by myself as a "helmet). They took photos of his head from every angle and determined that he has moderate to severe plagiocephaly (flat head), and that he will need a band to correct it. They don't treat mild cases of it. Anyway, I was told it was mostly caused by his position in utero. He turned head down and engaged early on, and that caused the flattening on the back of his head. Once out in the world, his head continued growing that way instead of rounding out. He got the flattening on the left back side of his head because he favored turning his head to the left while sleeping the first couple of months. I never knew I needed to make sure we switched the way he faced each night, otherwise I would have done that. Since he was 2 months old, and the flatness was brought to our attention, we made sure he slept with his head facing right, and that did help to not make the flattening worse than it is. He does have some slight asymmetry on his face and one ear is slightly lower than the other, but you have to really be looking for those things to see them. The therapist said he should only have to wear the band for 6-8 weeks since we're starting very young and his isn't THAT bad. It is covered out of network by my insurance. However, my out of network deductible is the same as the total amount for the band, so we still have to pay for the whole thing, and it is not cheap. We're talking thousands of dollars here. Money we don't have. But we can pay it off in monthly payments, so I'm hoping we find the money each month somehow. Hopefully he can be fitted for the band in the next week or so. It takes up to two weeks for the band to come back. Thankfully, they just do a 3D scan of his head to get the right fit instead of a plaster mold like they used to have to do. If he gets it in the next few weeks, I'm hoping it will be off for good by Christmas!

These are a couple of the pictures they took of him. They're poor quality because I just scanned in the paper they were printed on.

Don't they look like baby mug shots!? So you can obviously see his flat head on the side shot, but he looks pretty normal from the front. Cute face! He was mesmerized by the toy the photographer was waving in front of him. He did so well at his evaluation and was smiling and even giggling for all the ladies. Talk about a flirt. When the therapist was talking to me and not looking at him, Liam kept making noises to get her attention.

And that's been our week.