Tomorrow is a BIG day for our little guy!!
Because Hunter was in the NICU for so long, and because he laid on his back for so long, and since it takes preemies a little longer to hit milestones such as sitting and rolling over, Hunter ended up having Plagiocephaly and Brachycephaly that developed over the first couple of months after he came home.
In short.... he had a flat and wide head.
;-)
When Hunter was first measured for his DocBand, we were told that he would wear it for 12-14 weeks.....
(He wasn't too thrilled about the DocBand fitting process....)
The standard DocBand is plain white and well, it felt and looked way too medical and harsh for such a handsome boy....
So I had it painted.....
MUCH better!!
(Disclaimer... Joey was not completely involved in the designing process; boys get to be all sports and dirt for their entire lives so I took the only opportunity I might ever have to claim my Mama's Boy ;-))
Hunter and his sweet friend, Jennings overlapped on their DocBand treatment! I just LOVE these sweet heads....
Hunter wears his band 23 hours a day and is supposed to get a one hour break per day so we can bathe him and clean his band.... we don't have the most tolerable patient ever so he actually wears it 24 hours a day and we clean him and his band every other or every 2 days. Gross, I know.... and even though their heads get super stinky, it's better this way... trust me ;-)
As of tomorrow, Hunter has had his band for only 8 weeks...
And tomorrow he will GRADUATE!!
Such a quick DocBand treatment is very telling of how quickly and how well our sweet boy is growing.... and that is the very best news out of it all ;-)
Tomorrow we will say 'goodbye' to Hunter's DocBand and will say 'HELLO!' to his perfectly round, sweet-smelling head!
It is very difficult to snuggle with a DocBand-ed baby and I simply CANNOT WAIT to snuggle his new head....
And I'll post pics of it as soon as I can!
AND... We'll be posting one prayer request later this week.... it might seem small to everyone else, but to us it's huge... and we just know it will end with one more miracle ;-)
** We firmly believe that there is nothing we could have done to avoid Hunter's Plagiocephaly and Brachycephaly, due to ALL of the factors that played into his first months of life! BUT.... though we have always known that Tummy Time is important for infants, I'm not quite sure we ever knew exactly WHY it was so important. Now we know....
I know it's annoying when doctors emphasize something that most babies aren't too thrilled about.... but please, if you have a young baby, don't skip Tummy Time!**
Oh my, can I just say how much I enjoyed all of those pictures of that sweet little man of yours! How handsome is he? He has the most adorable smiles. I bet his laughter is pretty adorable too. And he has the cutest little helmet I've ever seen, but so glad he doesn't have to wear it much longer and you can get back to really snuggling your little man. :-)
ReplyDeleteHip hip horray! No more doc band! I love love the idea of painting it. I have never seen anyone do that. I can't even tell you how many I have seen and never seen it painted!
ReplyDeleteI am just ecstatic to see all the pictures of Hunter! Such a sweet smile! I just want to smootch him! Lol.
I can not remember if I told you what was wrong with our almost adopted son we are fighting hard for right now. He was born addicted to heroin and was diagnosed with septo optic dysplasia, missing his septum palladium, Schizenchaply and recently cerebral palsy on his left side. They said he would be blind never walk talk etc. he does. A little slower to walk at 17 months but he practically runs now.
So happy for hunter today!