Cashs Surgery & Mothers Day

This past Friday Cash had to have surgery.  Tyler was unable to go with me due to work scheduling.  He had a concrete pour scheduled for 3 am Friday morning.  My mom came into town so I wouldn't have to go by myself.  I am so thankful for her.  The 3 of us went to Dallas on Thursday and stayed the night.  We had to be at Children's Surgery Center at 6:30 am. 

Poor little guy couldn't have anything to eat after midnight and nothing to drink (clear liquids) after 4:30am.  We got to the surgery center at 6:30am and we found out his surgery wasn't scheduled until 9:00am.  I felt horrible that he couldn't eat.  I am so thankful that Cash was preoccupied with everything else to remember he was hungry.   

Cash had an undescended testicle that needed to be moved out of his abdomin and into...well I think you know where. ;0) 

Cash loved exploring his crib. 

He looked to stinkin cute in his gown. 

Cash was given some relaxing medication to help him not care that he was hungry and to help with any separation anxiety he may have had.  He was so excited to have a cord attached to him.  He played with it for at least an hour, non stop!

This was Nurse Shannon.  She was Cash's OR nurse.  She was AMAZING & Cash loved her.  I gave Cash a hug and kiss and when I handed him to her I started to tear up.  She told me he was in the best care and hands.  She carried him to the OR.  I was so glad she carried him and didn't wheel him away in the crib.  The surgery took about an hour.  I called Tyler and told him I would let him know as soon as Cash was out.  Dr. Jacobs came in and let us know everything went well and Cash had done great.  Now we just had to wait for Cash to get out of recovery. 

Here is my sweet boy in post op.  It broke my heart when he came in all wired up and crying.  As soon as I picked him up he calmed down and fell back to sleep.  He did well taking his liquids.  We were able to go home about an hour later. 

Cash slept for almost the entire drive home.  When we got home he had a bottle and played for a little while before taking another nap.  We alternated Tylenol & Motrin every 3 hours for the first 48 hours.  My mom and I took turns with the night doses.  That way not just one person was up every 3 hours.  The next day you would never have known Cash had had surgery. 

Cash didn't wear his helmet during his surgery or the following day. 

Sunday was my very first Mother's Day. 

I was so excited to spend it with my son and my mom!  I honestly can't remember the last Mother's Day I was with my mom. Living in different states makes it hard.  

Cash & his daddy got me flowers.  

After church we went and had an amazing brunch. 

The rest if the day we were lazy and just relaxed. It was a great day! 

Helmet Adventures!

We had another special delivery this last week.  I was so so excited to find Cash another book about plagiocephaly.  This book is so well written and I love how it sparks imagination & adventure.  I am so grateful to have this book to read to Cash when he is older to help him understand and know why he had to wear his awesome helmet.     

Cash was super excited to get his new book.  We read it together before bed.  

And then Cash had to taste the book!  LOL everything goes into his mouth these days!

You can order this book here on amazon.com.

One more month

Cash had his 3 month scan today.  We were running late today, so we didn't get to see Mr. Dwain. Instead we saw Ms. Libby. Cash loved her and her name tag. ;0)

We had to take an appointment selfie. 

Cash played while we waited for Ms. Libby. He sits up so well now. He has also mastered how to go from sitting to crawling (still army crawl) and from his belly to sitting. Such a big boy. 

The red is his intinal scan and the blue is the scan from today. His little head is rounding out nicely. 

He started at 9.9 mm asymmetry.  At his 2 month scan he was 4.3 mm asymmetry and today he is at 3.5 mm asymmetry. Our goal is to get as close as we can to 0. 

I love seeing his progress over the last 3 months. 

The image on the left is from his initial scan and the image on the right is from today.  The flatness across the back is getting better!  He has gone from 103% to 96.6% to now 95.5%.  (The % is the ratio between the length (front to back) of his head to the width (ear to ear).)  Our goal here is to get as close to 90% as possible. 

Ms. Libby recommended that we continue treatment for another month. I want to get the best results possible.  We got back May 23. He will turn 9 months on the 23, be in his helmet 4 months on the 23 and hopefully graduate.  

I have found lots of helmet mommas on Instagram and one of the ladies just wrote a book inspired by her sons adventure with his helmet.  Today it is available on Amazon.com. 

I just ordered it and I can't wait for it to arrive next week!!!! I am so happy to have  special books to read to Cash. :0) 

This boy loves his helmet! 

Cash loves to FaceTime with his daddy. 

Busy, busy.

Cash found his helmet. At first I was worried that it was bothering him. He was touching and pulling at it a lot. But every time I took it off to check, there were no red marks.  Not much else has been going on with the helmet.  We go back in 2 weeks for a scan & hopefully graduation.  I am done.  Senioritis. It's so close I can taste it. I know it is selfish, but I can't wait to not have to have a bath every night.  I am so ready to not have to smell alcohol.  I am ready to cuddle and kiss and love my babies round, beautiful head.  His hair is growing in and I love to kiss and smell and rub my cheek on it. 

Cash has been very busy the last few weeks. 

He finally got to meet his Aunt Casey!! 

It was love!!! ❤️❤️❤️

And his cousin Sebastian. 

He had his first dentist appointment. 

*it looks like he wasn't happy having his teeth cleaned...he was. It's just the picture.  I had just laid him back and tried to take a picture real fast and that's what I got.*

He went to his first ball game. 

He loved watching the batters.  

He went to his first birthday party. 

Our very good friends turned 4!!  Cash loved loved loved the balloons. He has an obsession with strings (hoodies) and was in heaven with all the balloon strings. 

 

He has started pulling up on things. 

Busy busy. 

And here are a few of my favorites from the past few weeks. 

**sorry for any typos. Mobile post again. 😉

Huge Progress!!

Let me start by staying that we woke up on time and Cashs appointment was great. 

I think he looks so cute in his stocking cap.  Mr. D put this cap on so he could get a nice smooth image of Cashs head. I still was unable to get a picture of Cash in the scanner. I hold his hands while Mr. D runs the machine. 

Cash played while we waited for Mr. D to run all the numbers and to show us the comparison picture.  I was shocked. 

It was so much better than I thought it was going to be.  The red is Cashs head at the initial scan and the blue is from the scan today. His asymmetry started at 9.9mm and was 4.3mm today!! That is over 50% improvement.  His cephalic index started at 103% and is now down to 96.6%.  A perfect head has a cephalic index of 80%; a % lower than that is a long/narrow shaped head and a % higher than that is a short/wide shaped head. A few weeks ago Cashs head was finally longer than wide. (Longer being from front to back)  Cashs total head growth since 1/13/14 was 16.2mm. 

Mr. D said he wants to keep Cash in his helmet for another month (thank goodness). He thinks we could see some more growth over the next month and get his numbers down some more. He said that if there was good growth we would continue treatment and if not than Cash will be done on our next visit.  So we have at least one more month. We have been going for visits every 2 weeks and now we will go 4 weeks.

We had lunch at In & Out Burger. Oh how I love an animal style double double.  I had a few guys give me a hard time about his St. Louis Cardnals sticker. Rangers fans are everywhere. ;) 

Cash zonked out on the ride home. I was glad for that. These trips are so hard on him so I was glad he got some good sleep. 

Cash is super excited!! He gets to meet his Aunt Casey & cousin Sebastian tomorrow!!!!! (I'm super excited too!!) 

Again excuse any typos!! ;0) 

I'm so excited....and a little nervous

Tomorrow Cash has his scan. I am so excited and nervous. Like the night before school. 

I am excited to see the comparison from his first scan. I am excited to have In & Out for lunch. I am excited it's supposed to be warm.

I am nervous that Mr. Dwain will say he is done with treatment. (I really don't think his head is ready) I am not ready for him to be done. I feel like his head will deflate like a flat tire.  It's a bad dream I keep having.  I am nervous my alarm won't go off and we will be late and then we can't have the scan I have been looking forward to.  I guess those are both silly things to be worried about. 

A fellow plagio momma posted this in the Facebook support group tonight. 

I love it.  We get asked these all the time and sometimes I just want to hear how cute and handsome my baby is. ;) 

I read today that Chase Pistone (NASCAR truck series) will be racing to support Plagiocephaly Awareness on Saturday. This made my heart so happy. 

I also learned about the Noggin Roundup this week. www.plagoawareness.com  It is a 5k/fun run to support plagio awareness. This year it is September 6 at Midland Collage in Midland Texas. We will be there. I guess I need to get to running.... 

My little guy started sitting up on his own yesterday.  

Pleae excuse any typos or misspellings. Blogging on the iPhone tonight. :)