It's helmet time

Kale met with the orthotist last Monday to get his head measured. It's flat on the back right side of his head, and his ears aren't lined up exactly like they should be on his head. You wouldn't know by looking at him straight on! He has what's called asymmetrical brachycephaly (flatness on one side of the head). He is getting fitted for a cranial remolding helmet on Friday of this week. The orthotist is confident that after 4-5 months in the helmet that Kale's head will round out in the back. It's going to be extra work for me and Adam, but we figure Kale is worth it:) The first 4 days he won't be wearing the helmet full-time. Day one he'll be in it for 1 hour and then have it off for an hour - and not on during naptime or bedtime. Day 2 it's on for 2 hours and off for 1 hour, and not during nap or bedtime. Day 3 its on for 4 hours and off for 1, on during nap and off during bedtime. Day 4 it's on for 8 hours, off for 1, and on during nap and for 1/2 of his night sleep. By day 5 he'll be wearing it for 23 hours a day. During the hour that we can take the helmet off we need to give him a bath, specifically to wash his hair. We also need to wash his helmet every night. This will put a little kink in things Adam and I can plan, but we'll work around it. We ordered him a light blue helmet, and Adam ordered some MN Twin's stickers to decorate it. Kale will hopefully adjust just fine to the helmet. I know it's going to be hard on him and me and Adam, at least at the beginning. It's tough to have to do things to or for your kids that you know aren't comfortable. We just have to keep in mind that it will help him! The orthotist said we should see significant improvement between 6-8 weeks - that's when they'll rescan his head. Kale has to be in it for sure until he's 8 months old, and anything after that is upon the recommendation of the orthotist. The orthotist would like to see at a minimum a 5% change in shape on the right side of his head. Babies need to be at least 4 months old before they get a helmet, and even then some kids have to wait because they don't have enough head control yet. We're lucky that Kale is as strong as he is, partly because of the physical therapy appointments and extra work we do with him. He started rolling from his back to tummy in the last few weeks, and now we can't put him down anymore without him rolling all over the place. This past week he started rolling over in his sleep, and his new sleeping preference is on his belly. He's been sleeping really well - last night he went down at about 6:20 and didn't get up until 8:10 this morning!

Nolan is as busy as ever. New this week in his vocabulary is bampa (grandpa), izza (pizza), seeping (sleeping), piwwo (pillow) and dite (light). He also loves to say "oopsie" to everything - for example, when a football player get tackled! I took him to swimming this morning. It takes him about 5 -10 minutes to warm up to doing anything, but once he did I was impressed. He learned how to scoop the water (doggy paddle) on his belly, and really kicks well in his back float. He even lets me dunk him under at least once during the class. It helps that there are bath toys to play with in the pool. He especially loves the toys that shoot water!

Adam is ice fishing with his dad today. I'm feeling pretty good because Kale has been napping since 11:30 and Nolan since 12:15! I'm sure it won't last much longer, so I should enjoy it while I can. My dad watched the kids yesterday for us so we could attend the funeral of our brother-in-law's mom. The kids were pretty good, even if Nolan only napped for 2 hours and Kale needed to be held most of the day! Hopefully they didn't make it too hard on him, because we'll probably need his help again sometime soon!