Graduation Day

Today was a big day for Hannah Riley! After only 8 1/2 weeks, she completed treatment in the DOC Band and now has a round head. We are so pleased with how well and quickly treatment went and hope that Hannah will someday appreciate her symmetrical head! We are so grateful to Cranial Technologies in Dallas and especially to Hannah's physical therapist, Robin, who is holding Hannah. You are all so wonderful!

What Hannah's Getting For Christmas

We got surprising news at Hannah’s seven week checkup at Cranial Technologies. Her physical therapist, Robin, said that Hannah’s head was basically corrected and that she would graduate from her band at her next appointment! Robin adjusted Hannah's band one last time, and Chris and I are expecting her to outgrow it in the next two weeks.

We've been really amazed at how quickly her treatment has gone. In fact, Hannah will have only been in the band eight-and-a-half weeks by the time she graduates. And since we were fully expecting her to be in it the full estimated 12 weeks, this is a nice surprise. Robin said that it makes a huge difference when babies are treated as early as possible since they are constantly growing, which has most definitely been the case for Hannah. We're very grateful we did this sooner than later.

So here is a list of some of the things I'm looking forward to post-treatment:
• washing Hannah's hair with smelly-good shampoo again
• kissing my baby's smelly-good head without a stinky band in the way
• snuggling with Hannah without a big, hard helmet in my face
• showing off Hannah's beautifully round head

Merry Christmas, Hannah! Mom and Dad got you a round head.

(By the way, Hannah's wearing a stocking on her head not because she's about to go rob a covenient store. It is actually used to smooth her hair down for us to get a better look at her head. Her hair has grown a lot lately and it's looking reddish!)

We're Half Way There

We just finished Hannah’s fifth week of treatment in the DOC Band. My mom got to go with us for this week’s appointment since Chris was out of town. So she got to see for herself a model of the way Hannah’s head looked prior to treatment compared to her round head today. The transformation is incredible!

This appointment went well, as they all do. Hannah’s doing great considering she’s been in the band such a short time. The average Joe can barely detect any flatness now! I’m so anxious for treatment to be over and done with and to see Hannah’s perfectly round head.

They do a growth adjustment at every appointment, which is now every other week. Basically what they do is adjust the size of the band, carving out some of the foam lining to allow her head to grow in specific areas. This controls the growth, helping her head to round out.

At this point, we can see where the foam is getting fairly thin in some areas and we’ve wondered how many more growth adjustments we have in this band before she outgrows it. Our physical therapist, Robin, said she guesses that she could do about three more adjustments before there’s nothing left to adjust. This would mean Hannah has about six more weeks in the band. Of course this all depends on how quickly or slowly Hannah is growing, so it’s definitely subject to change. The good news is that it doesn’t look like she’ll need a second band. So maybe Hannah will graduate from her band by Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Hannah! You’re getting a round head. : )

Hannah's Newly Designed DOC Band

Check out Hannah in her newly decorated DOC Band, courtesy of East Texas Engraving and Wrapz, Inc. It has been hard to get a good picture because this big girl is mobile!! So here are a few candid shots.

Hannah has gotten so many compliments on how awesome her new band looks. And I think it makes her a little more approachable. Since she started treatment, I noticed on occasion a few stares or quick glances from people who weren’t quite sure what to make of the big white helmet on her head. But now that it’s decorated and it even has her name on it, we’ve actually had a few folks smile at her and say, "Hi Hannah!"

We can’t thank you enough East Texas Engraving and Wrapz, Inc.! Kristie, the graphic designer, did such a great job! And Fernie did such a great job applying the wrap, having never before wrapped a band. Thanks to you all! We'll be sure and post better pictures when she sits still long enough! :)

Hannah's Third Week in the DOC Band

Decorating Hannah's DOC Band

We’re in the process of getting Hannah’s band decorated. There’s a business in town called East Texas Engraving and Wrapz, Inc., and they are going to apply a customized sticker to the outside of the band with a fun design. We wanted it done locally and inquired if they were even willing to do such a small job. And not only were they willing, they were so generous to do it for free. We didn’t expect that in the least, and we are so grateful! Now Hannah can get her “crooked little head” fixed and look cool in the process! Here’s what the design will look like:

Hannah Gets A New Hat

A month after her initial consultation and the week she turned 6 months, Hannah received her custom band. And just one week after wearing it, we have seen change already! It took her no time at all to adjust to wearing it. It’s as if she’s pretty unaware that she has something on her head. Here’s a video of her trying it on for the first time.

I do have to say that while I know it’s important to undergo this treatment, I’m ready for her to be out of it. She has to wear the band 23 hours a day, only taking it off long enough for bath time. First of all, it’s hard to snuggle to your sweet baby’s head when it’s wrapped in a hard shell. In fact, I have this new found fear of her busting me in the face and knocking out a tooth! And secondly, the band isn’t the most attractive piece of headwear I’ve ever seen. In fact, it’s plain white. So it has this sterile, cold look to it. We’ve actually had a few stares from folks because they don’t know what to make of it. I have to be honest, though. I always wondered what they were, too.

Hopefully she won’t have to wear it for very long, though. Because infants are constantly growing, we expect rapid change in the shape of her head. Our clinician told us she should only have to wear the band as long as she still fits in it and her head is as round as it can be.

Hannah's Crooked Little Head

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, placing a child to sleep on their backs decreases their risk of SIDS. So of course when Hannah was born, we’d do exactly that. However, we knew that this sleeping position would also increase the chances of her head developing a flat spot, so we’d do our best to turn her often. But little Hannah always favored sleeping on her left cheek. And we found that her head began to flatten on the back left side of her head.

At each of her wellness check-ups, our pediatrician would instruct us to have Hannah spend more time on her tummy, not only to strengthen her upper body, but to help her head round out as she grew. Despite our efforts and all of the tummy time, it didn’t help. Her head just wouldn’t round out and she continued to favor sleeping on her left cheek. Honestly, we didn’t think much of it, believing it was something she would eventually grow out of.

At Hannah’s 4-month check-up, our pediatrician pointed out to us the effects of this flat spot -- it was causing slight asymmetry in her face. Being the adoring parent that we are, I can’t say that we had ever looked at her head objectively, looking for anything out of the ordinary. So when our doctor pointed this out to us, we were quite surprised and honestly a little skeptical. But when she told us that continued growth creates the possibility for the asymmetry to become even more apparent, we just imagined Hannah as a young woman, completely self-aware of any flaw and realizing it was something that had the potential to be corrected at some point. And we were convinced to explore what else we might be able to do to correct what I affectionately call her “crooked little head”.

Upon our pediatrician’s referral, we took Hannah to Cranial Technologies in Dallas. There they did an evaluation of her head, taking pictures and measurements and asking questions. She was quite a trooper and smiled and talked to all of the staff, who was very nice. In our consultation, the clinicians concluded that Hannah preferred sleeping on her left cheek because she had torticollis -- stiffness of the neck muscles -- and her neck muscles had yet to be stretched out properly since birth. And as a result of this stiffness, she developed a condition called plagiocephaly, which is a common, treatable condition often caused by external forces applied to an infant’s soft skull. We learned that it ranges from mild to severe, causing effects such as skull deformation, facial asymmetry, misalignment of the ears and bulging of the forehead. Possible long term effects could affect more than just her appearance, but it could cause jaw and vision problems or make it difficult to fit her for a bike helmet or glasses. Hannah’s condition appeared to be mild to moderate.

So Cranial Technologies prescribed in-home physical therapy for us to stretch her neck daily. And within a day, we noticed increased mobility as it made it easier to flip back and forth from her backside to her tummy. Also, they determined that Hannah was a great candidate for orthotic treatment in which a device customized to her head would be placed on her head called the DOC Band.

The DOC band is a 6-ounce device consisting of an outer plastic shell with foam lining that looks quite similar to a helmet. It works by applying mild holding pressures to the prominent areas and encouraging growth in the flattened areas.

Because treatment can take a few months, Chris and I were uneasy about putting her in a helmet for that long. After talking it over and checking with our insurance company, though, we decided to move forward with treatment for Hannah. We knew that she would probably be fine without it, but if we were able to provide her with this option, we should do it.

So we scheduled a follow-up appointment to have her head measured for the band. Cranial Technologies uses a machine called Digital Surface Imaging® that takes a complete 3-D image of an infant’s head. Hannah did so well at this appointment. Before her head could be scanned, they put a mesh stocking on her head that covers her face. This enhances their capability to get a smooth 3-D image. We weren’t quite sure how she would take to the stocking. In fact, we had just heard a child scream bloody murder during his scan just because of the stocking. Yet, Hannah seemed to think it was the funniest thing ever. The scan was fast, and she charmed the pants off of all of the clinicians.