Well, we went to the neurosurgeon to discuss his head and she diagnosed him with "mild to moderate plagiocephaly." She recommended that we try aggressive "positional changes" to keep him off of the right side of his head in order to see if we get any change. She thinks that with work, we can avoid the helmet, which seems to be a lot of work. You have to go to the doctor all the time with the helmet to check for skin breakdown and for fittings. So we are trying lots of things. The first step was to not swaddle him at night anymore. I know a lot of mom's probably stop swaddling their kids a lot younger than 5 months, but I was attached to him sleeping through the night and worried that he would have a rough time. Luckily, it was a seamless transition. He still sleeps through the night but now he likes to sleep on his side (his left side) and sometimes rolls onto his stomach so now he is not sleeping and putting pressure on that side of his head. I think this will help a lot. He spends lots of time upright in his bumbo or exersaucer. He is also "tripoding" now so he can hold himself sitting up on his arms for several minutes. I think in a few weeks he'll be sitting independently and this will also help a lot, too. We try to never put him on his back during the day, but he rolls a lot so he ends up there at least part of the time. We go back in 2 months for a follow up.
At his neurosurgery appointment right at 5 months he weighed 15 lbs 1oz.
He wants to crawl really badly and he can scoot pretty well and does a lot of push ups to move himself forward. He will be crawling after his big brother in no time!
He is a happy, vocal baby and has become quite fascinated with Matthew. He loves to look at Matthew and laugh and smile, and Matthew laughs and talks to him and Samuel smiles back. It is so precious to see my boys forming a bond and beginning to play together. Having children is just so precious. Time to bring in that sister....
Wow, I'm sorry about Samuel's plagiocephaly. At least the doctor didn't say it was "Severe" but rather mild to moderate. We'll be praying that he will heal completely from this and that there are no major long term effects.
ReplyDeleteThat's so sweet that your two boys are bonding so well! We'll see how long it takes for them to start wrestling and pushing each other over! haha!