Blade’s First Graduation!

Our Sweet Number 5 graduated from his DOC Band about a week ago – woohoo! He was in his band for just under 3 months and they flew by. Miss Kylee went along to help us celebrate :]

My sweet boy and his first certificate!

Yay Blade! He’s a clapper as of about a month ago ;)

Although I was very impressed with the technology Cranial Technologies used when the quads were in their bands, they’ve upgraded yet again and the imaging resources are amazing. This is just one of the many pictures we have of his DSI images, the left being before banded and the right picture now. When in the office, the pictures can be rotated together on the screen giving you a phenomenal look at every last angle of the baby’s head. So cool!

Here’s some of our own before and after pics…

one more before…

…and the best after I could get. This dude moves non stop these days! Huge difference and Bret and I are super happy we decided to band him.

A look back at the quads’ DOC Band graduations. Baxlyn, Korbin & Kylee…

…and our Broman after his long journey with his bands. Oh that hair!

For those of you that are the least bit concerned about your baby’s head shape, I encourage you to go visit our friends at Cranial Technologies. An evaluation is completely FREE and I promise you won’t feel forced to band if it’s truly not needed! We’ve been nothing but happy with the company and the results, well, they speak for themselves :)

Banded Blade

Looks familiar, huh? Our little buddy didn’t quite escape the DOC band after all. We fought a little bit of torticollis (tightening of the neck) when he was just a couple of months old and it resolved, the head shape, not so much.

Although it’s not horrrible, he does have noticeable flattening in the back, known as brachycephaly and a bit on the side (hard to capture in picture) known as plagiocephaly. For those of you who have followed us since the quads were itty bitty you know they all dealt with plagiocephaly as well. This is the, count ‘em, NINTH DOC band to enter our household. Mr. Brody broke records with his multiple bands and was in his cranial helmet for nearly a year.  Most babies are “banded” for 6-8 weeks, depending on their growth. Those who grow rapidly, allowing the head shape to improve quickly are in for a shorter time than those with slower growth. Blade will go back weekly to every two weeks to track his progress and alter the band as needed. Here’s a few pictures of his noggin…

Not only is he starting to sport the duck hair that Brody once had, he has a hemangioma just like his big brother too :] (back of his ear)

Our happy dude didn’t mind at all when he had to wear his sock for imaging! No worries, this “sock” type of mask is totally harmless and totally breathable. They wear it to help get near perfect digital images of the skull shape.

Click here to see the not-so-fun time we had with the quads when they had their imaging. Bret and I couldn’t help but join in the misery that night ;)

Each DOC band is made special for each baby and their exact head shape. We went a week later to get his helmet and my rarely sad baby was indeed sad. For those of you who thinks he never cries, check out these crocodile tears… poor buddy :(

It took some time but he adjusted and is doing fine in it now. He wears his band, which weighs approximately 6 ounces, 23 hours a day. We take it off when he’s being bathed or when we’re cleaning the band itself (which is a quick rub down with a cotton ball with alcohol). To my surprise his first night in it was like any other night. It took the quads a bit longer to adjust so I’m thankful he got over it quickly!

Here’s a look back at the quads before their DOC bands. Can we say WOW?!

Here’s a good look at Brody’s poor head. He literally couldn’t lay on his back and look up without his head rolling to the side… Rarely are babies’ heads this bad, because of his prematurity, being the gate holder in utero AND a shunt on the opposite side of his head causing him to want to look the other way his torticollis and flattening got bad, fast.

Cranial Technologies has been great over the years and although we’re not thrilled about Blade having to be in a band, we are grateful they’re an option for babies with flat heads like ours! The staff, same as back when the quads were there, is great and we feel like we’re back at our second home once again! To learn more about plagiocephaly and brachycephaly, visit Cranial Technologies by clicking here. Their website explains everything in detail, shows additional pictures of head shapes, ways to help prevent needing a band, reasons why babies are in them…etc. If you question your baby’s head shape at all, I strongly encourage you to go in (they have facilities in many locations) for a FREE evaluation. Although helmets are NOT cheap, insurance companies usually cover some of the cost. For sure worth looking into!

Take a look back at the quads’ journey to rounder heads by checking out these links:

http://coxquads.blogspot.com/search?q=DOc+band

http://coxquads.blogspot.com/2009/09/hello-helmets-goodbye-plagiocephaly.html

http://coxquads.blogspot.com/2009/07/our-cranial-tech-visit.html

We’ll keep you posted!

My Little GRADUATE!

7 head molds and 8 helmets later we said good bye to Cranial Technologies forever! All four were "diagnosed" with moderate to severe (severe being Brody) positional plagiocephaly in July of 09. Baxlyn, Kylee & Korbin graduated out of their DOC bands back in November and yesterday was Brody's long awaited BIG day! Most babies wear their bands from 4-8weeks.... Brody sported his for nearly a year. Poor dude broke records with his and has worn it more than half of his life! Brody has a total of four molds that we were able to keep. It's amazing to hold and literally feel in your hands what his head WAS like and what it IS like today - huge difference!

My Big Man with his Certificate! Congrats Brody!
When Brody grew out of his last helmet we questioned whether or not to do another. His head surely needed it, but the question was is his head still moldable enough for the helmet to help. We thought the helmet could only help and it was (thank God) covered 100% by insurance so we went for it - helmet number 5. Just weeks after he got the new band we went on our vacation to Kentucky. While there we spent A LOT of time outside in the blistering heat therefore Brody didn't wear the DOC band. Once we got home we put it on him and within minutes he had figured out how to take the dang thing off. After many attempts at making him wear it we came to the conclusion that it was time to throw in the towel... Brody's DOC days were over.

Below are some images of Brody at the beginning of his DOC band journey (on the left) compared to this week at his final appointment. Although his head isn't anywhere near perfect it is MUCH MUCH MUCH better! (Ignore the random finger. Brody had torticollis as well making it nearly impossible to hold his head straight.)


In the pic below if you look to the bottom left of his head, you can see his shunt. The shadowed part on the right side of his head was significantly flat and caved in which now looks much better!
and a view from the top!

When the others graduated I got a sweet little group picture of them sitting together with there certificates... THIS was all I got this time around... ridiculous man! We tried and tried and tried again to get them to stay still and it just didn't happen!

Our last goodbyes to our friends at Cranial Technologies. Baxlyn leading the pack with a big wave!
Thanks to all of the staff and therapists for taking such good care of our babies over the past year! We GREATLY appreciate everything you did for us!