Story time!

I feel like all I do on here anymore is just ramble... I'm fine with that. 

Well, Kaden has had quite the couple of weeks! We took him to a baby wellness check-up (he missed his last 2 check-ups because of dumb insurance problems) a few weeks ago, and he was passing with flying colors until Dr. Sullivan  checked out his head. And for those of you who don't know, doctors like to keep a pretty close watch on babies'  heads just to make sure it's shaping correctly and what not. Dr. Sullivan expressed concern about the shape of his head not being as round as it should be for his age. So she sent us to a rehabilitation/physical therapist for kids. 

So off we went! Josh and I had no idea what to expect, and we weren't prepared at all for what they were going to tell us. 

First, let me tell you that this rehab/PT  appointment was during Kaden's nap time. Not a good idea. I have no idea what we were thinking. 

I kind of started freaking out the minute we walked into the waiting room. There were a lot of kids in there who had obvious and very serious looking health problems (kids with walkers and leg braces, kids with extreme developmental delay, etc.) and so as a mom I naturally start panicking, wondering what is wrong with Kaden, hoping it's nothing too terribly debilitating. But I kept my cool...on the outside at least. 

But anyways, we get called in and the therapist guy starts evaluating Kaden, measuring his head, seeing how straight his neck is, how well he sits up/lays on his tummy and all that. And let me remind you that all of this is during Kaden's nap time. So he was cranky. And Kaden is naturally a very shy baby so he was really hating this strange man holding him and manipulating his head and neck. So Kaden is crying and crying which made me want to cry (I did cry actually). 

Once I got Kaden to calm down (he was clinging to my t-shirt, scared that he was going to have to be handed to the therapist again, the poor guy), the therapist told us that Kaden has Torticollis and Plagiocephaly. 

Torticollis is when a baby's head is tilted to one side and turned toward the opposite side. It's caused by having tight muscles on one side of the neck and weak muscles on the other side. Kaden's case is very mild. I honestly couldn't even tell he had a problem with his neck. The therapist gave us some stretches for us to do with Kaden to help correct it. We will have to go back for quite a few more visits before the Torticollis is completely gone. 

Now, Plagiocephaly is when a baby's head is not shaped correctly. Plain and simple. For this, Kaden has to wear a helmet to help round out his head. The therapist didn't outright say what caused this but when I told him they had to use a vacuum during my delivery, he did the whole "ohhhh, okay" thing. So I'm guessing that was a contributing factor. 

He will have to wear this helmet for a good 3 or 4 months or until he grows out of it. We'll get the helmet within the next couple of weeks. 

Could I have prevented both of these things? Probably not. These kinds of things just sometimes happen.

Did I have any mommy guilt after we found out about all of this? You bet I did. 

But what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right? 

Won't he look cute with a little helmet?! Maybe we'll make him a little football player for Halloween since he'll already have the head gear...