Liam and HIs Band: 3D Scan Time

Yesterday, I took Liam to Cranial Technologies to have the 3D scan done of his head. They will use the image to make a model of his head and also his DOC band. This is much better than the way they used to do it, which was with plaster. Imagine having to hold your child still while people make a plaster cast of his head. Not fun. Anyway, this way is much easier, faster, and less traumatic.

I am THE WORST at asking to take pictures when I think it might be even slightly awkward to do so. Therefore, I don't have any pictures of this process. But, I'm posting a link to a video on the Cranial Tech website that shows how it's done. I should have at least taken a picture of him with the stocking over his face.

The DSi Scan

Did you watch it? Hopefully so. That's pretty much how it went, and Liam, of course, did awesome. He did look down at the last second a few times, though, but it only took about 5 minutes to get a set of pictures they could use. It takes a bunch of pictures at once and creates a 3D image. After they processed the pictures, we went back in the room and looked at the 3D image of his head. The technician then said it would take 5-8 weeks of wearing the band to correct the flatness, depending on how fast he grows. The band essentially directs growth of his head instead of putting pressure on it to try and remold it.

In the waiting room, I talked to two other mothers who were there getting their childs' band adjusted. I asked them how their children adapted to it and if it seemed to bother them. Both of them said it didn't bother them at all after the first few minutes. I was glad to hear that! Liam will be getting his band next Thursday, October 13th. That's the day before we take him on his first trip to Louisiana, and I'm hoping the band doesn't make him ornery for the trip.

While we were in the room by ourselves waiting to have his pictures taken, I did take a few pics of him in his skivvies.

Looking at the dog dressed as a clown that was painted on the wall. I would be confused too.

That camera. Again.

Some tummy time while we wait.

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.

Who Does Liam Look Like?

These first two pictures are of Will and me when we were around 6 months old. Who does Liam favor more?

Baby Will

Baby Jennifer

And here are pictures of us around a year and a half old. I wonder who he'll favor more then? I had curly hair at that point!

Time to Break out the High Chair

Liam had his four month appointment today, and he is a healthy little baby! He is also a big boy.

His 4 month stats:
Length: 26 3/4 inches (97th percentile)
Weight: 16 pounds, 13 ounces (90th percentile)
Head: 16 1/2 inches (40th percentile)

Since his 2 month appointment, he grew 2 3/4 inches and  gained 4 pounds, 6 ounces. (I think he got Will's height and my weight...ha!) His head is 1 1/2 inches bigger.

Speaking of his head...it's official. Liam will get a helmet to correct his flat head. Since he was two months old we've been trying to correct the flat spot on the left side of his head with positioning and more tummy time. I don't think it's gotten any worse, but it hasn't gotten better either. Hopefully he'll have an evaluation for the helmet in the next few weeks. Supposedly, the earlier they start wearing it, the faster it works. I'm fine with him having a helmet. He'll have to wear it a few short months and then he'll have a nicely shaped head forever. Good trade off in my opinion.

The pediatrician said we could start him on rice cereal and even some real foods now. He said to start with yellow and orange vegetables. I'm hoping to give him a little bit of rice tonight and maybe start solids in a week or so. Maybe it'll make him start sleeping through the night again!

He also got his pentacel vaccine. He screamed for a second and then smiled at the nurse. He smiled at everyone! No adverse reaction so far.

All in all, perfect check-up. The doctor was impressed with his strength and his standing up ability. Go Liam!

And just because I think this post needs a picture...

A Third of a Year

Happy Four Months to Liam today! Time flies when you're having fun, and he has become a lot of fun.

His four month check up won't be until next week, so I don't have his official stats yet. I started volunteering teaching ESL at church on Wednesday mornings, and had to reschedule today's appointment because of that.

At four months, he has become an excellent tummy-timer, but does eventually start protesting. He is pushing up all the way on his arms some now and kicking those legs. I don't think it will be too long before he accidentally rolls himself over. He will occasionally roll over from his back to his front, but he usually prefers to roll up on his side and stay there...and nom on toys. Speaking of nomming on toys...teething has come upon him, and it is no fun. No fun at all. He went from sleeping 8-9 hours at night to waking up screeching every 2.5 to 3 hours during the night. And then of course, there's the random crying out in pain throughout the day.  Thankfully, it doesn't happen every day. And last night, he slept from 10 pm until 5:30 am, woke up and ate, and went back to sleep until almost 8 am. Maybe there is hope after all! So far frozen pacifiers rubbed over his gums and biting on my finger wrapped in a cold, wet washcloth have helped. We've also used teething tablets, and I've found they work better if I dissolve it in water and rub it on his gums with a q-tip. I've ordered an amber teething necklace, and I'm really hoping that will help a lot. He also has a Sophie the Giraffe teething toy. This is just the beginning of our teething adventure!

Liam is a strong baby; he always has been. He's really good at standing and putting weight on his legs. We love to pull him from a laying on his back position to standing up by holding his hands. I'm hoping to get an exersaucer or maybe one he can jump with soon. I think he would like that. I work with him on sitting up just holding on to his hands. His body is still a little wobbly, but he has excellent head control. One of his favorite things to do now is arch his back up. He has almost flung himself out of his bouncy seat doing that. I'm hoping to phase out the bouncy seat soon. Perhaps we'll start using the Bumbo more.

He's also a happy baby (when his mouth isn't hurting). He loves to give us big grins and he's giggling more and more.You wouldn't know it by looking at pictures of him, though, because he still stops smiling as soon as he sees the camera!

This rattle ball is not good for nomming, but I will try.

I love my Sophie!

Look at those cheeks! And the flat head...gonna talk to the pedi about a helmet at his appointment.

Drooling on daddy.

Yeah, I'm four months old..so what?

I can't believe that camera is in my face yet again.

I am amused.

Liam Giggling

 

Caught this little video on my phone yesterday, which explains the sideways-ness. Liam adores Will, and in this video, he's doing whatever it takes to keep him giggling. So cute!

Someone's Growing Up Way Too Fast

I figure that will be my sentiment until he hits college. I can't believe I'll one day be the parent of an adult! Now I'm just getting way ahead of myself. Sometimes it's hard to believe that he won't be a baby forever, and it's hard to imagine him at different ages. I wonder what he'll be like? I have no idea, so let's focus on what I do know: what he's like at this current age.

That current age is 14 weeks and 6 days to be specific. Hitting the 15 week mark tomorrow. I love that he was born on a Saturday. It makes figuring out how many weeks old he is easier for me since it's not some day in the middle of the week. Digressing again...focus.

Ok, Liam has been up to all kinds of things recently. Last Sunday, he spent his first hour in the nursery at church. I wasn't really apprehensive since I know the ladies who would be taking care of him, and I knew they'd do a great job. When I picked him up, they said he did awesome! No crying or fussing. Baby high five Liam! Sunday was really just a warm-up for Tuesday. I joined Mom's Connection at church, so Liam went to the nursery during it. Only this time it wasn't just one hour, it was three. I had no idea how he would do for that long. About halfway into the meeting, I started feeling really anxious about being away from him for so long. But I suppressed the anxious feelings, and I was successful at doing that for awhile. However, I was watching the clock towards the end of the meeting. I couldn't wait to see him again! Finally the time came to go get him. The ladies told me he was a really good baby. He apparently didn't eat much while in there, but they said he only started fussing a little bit about 5 minutes before I picked him up. He even took a nap in there. So leaving him in the nursery has been a huge success this week!

Yesterday, Liam rolled over for the first time. He rolled from his back to his front. He has shown tremendous improvement with tummy time recently, but he still doesn't like being there. So while he's on his stomach, he's too busy protesting to think about rolling from his belly to his back, which I think is what normally happens first. He is starting to hold his head up for much longer periods of time now and starting to push up on those arms more and more. I'm sure he'll be really happy once he figures out how to roll from his belly to back because it will mean he won't have to put up with tummy time too much! He'll just roll over once he gets tired of it. So the rolling from his back to his belly came about gradually. He's been rolling from his back to his side for awhile now, and just staying there. He will occasionally take a nap lying on his side. Even if he doesn't sleep the whole time on his side, just putting him on his side makes those eyes droopy fast. It's crazy how fast it makes him sleep. Alright, back to the rolling...So he's been rolling to his side lately, but not really going further until this past week. Then if I had put him on his side, he would roll over to the front and face plant. He couldn't get his arm out from under him, though, so I always had to roll him back over pretty quickly for breathing and such. So now he could do both halves of rolling over, but he never put it all together into one motion...until yesterday morning. Yay Liam! Of course, that arm still stayed under him so I had to roll him back over. He hasn't rolled completely again since, just back to doing the two halves separately. However, yesterday when he rolled from his side to his front (face plant), he did start lifting his head and working on getting his arm out from under him. So now when he does that, we just do a tummy time, and he seems to handle it much longer that way.

He is a very strong little boy, and we've found that when we do challenge him on physical stuff he will try and try until he does it. We also recently started not swaddling his arms down at night, and now he sleeps in a sleep sack. He did fine the first few nights, but then had a rough couple of nights of waking up every three hours starving. I don't think it had anything to do with his arms, though. I think maybe it was somewhat of a growth spurt. He still hasn't gone back to his 8-9 hour stretches of sleep yet, though. And getting him to sleep has been tougher the past few days. We had gotten used to him falling asleep easily around 8:30 and sleeping a long time. I think he might have started having some pre-teething pain this week also. So the combination of that, growth spurting, and free arms have messed up sleeping at night this week. It hasn't been absolutely horrible or anything, but I'm hoping he returns to is normal pattern soon. I can hope, right?