Week 38

  This week, Fisher got his helmet.  Most of you have heard me talk about Fisher's abnormally shaped head, something I noticed very early on when he was still in the NICU.  He has what is called plagiocephaly, where a child's head is shaped like a parallelogram-- flattened on one side in the back and bossed on the same side in the front.  It is an ever-increasing phenomenon due to the "back to sleep" campaign.  Babies that spend a lot of time laying on the back of their heads and that prefer one side end up with a flattened side.  Babies that were from multiple pregnancies and that were head down are more likely to have this created in utero, due to lack of space (being squished!).  Also, premature babies that spend more time lying down are more likely to have misshapen heads.  Poor Fisher never had a chance!   We attempted repositioning his head while sleeping for months, even propping his right shoulder up on an extra blanket to prevent him laying on the right side of his head.  After seeing no improvement, we sought help to correct his precious little noggin.  A few months of wearing this helmet will be worth him being able to shave his head when he gets older and not be self conscious about its shape.  Anyways, he will wear this 23 hours a day for the next 3-4 months, so you'll be seeing lots more of it!  He seems to be adjusting to it very well.  In fact, he doesn't even seem to notice it's there!  He slept with it on last night for the first time and it didn't interrupt his routine or sleep at all.  (Yay!)  Below is a picture showing his head pre-helmet.  Note the right side of his forehead sticks out a bit.  It is harder to see the flat right side of the back of his head from this angle.


Helmet on the first day---doesn't it look sad and lonely without decorations?

 

We found a really neat website that sells vinyl decals designed specifically for helmets.  A lot of the stickers bring a little humor to the helmets and just make them look a lot less medical overall.  I'm going to change them out for new designs every few weeks or so.  Front view and back view:

 

One of the last pictures without his helmet we'll see for a while:

 Me snuggling his little head as much as I can:

We are having record snowfall here in CT this year.  As in, January is the snowiest month on record EVER for CT, by 14 inches.  We have been getting hammered by storm after storm.  Just this past Thursday, we got another 10.5 inches.  It wasn't a full snow day for me--had to go in to work for the afternoon, but we did have a great lazy morning.  Kyle borrowed the neighbor's snow blower (love our neighbors!) and then Hayes went out to play.  Here he is literally climbing into the yard from the driveway: 

  

Here he is climbing on the "mountain" of snow created by shovelling at the edge ---and is taller than the light post:

 Kyle spent some time cleaning off the back deck today.  Check out how high the snow is next to his thigh!

He also climbed out into the back yard to see how deep the snow is:

Fisher is not so much a fan of peas:

 Making this dentist mama proud with not one, not two, but three toothbrushes in his mouth:

Hayes said some pretty cute things this week.  He first started telling us to "have a good dreaming" when we were going to bed/nap.  Also, McDonalds has previously been known as "Old MacDonalds," but Hayes dubbed it "the chicken nugget store" today.