Charley's Head- Exit Pictures

Like I mentioned in the Thanksgiving post, we had an unexpected surprise when we went for Charley's final band adjustment the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and they said she was done!  She was going to wear it one more week but we noticed that she was getting some red spots which is a sign she was growing out of it.  Since we weren't going to make a new one just for one week, she got to graduate early!  I was so excited to have one less thing to worry about on our trip.  But of course I worried more about her still being on her back a lot.  I mentioned that fear to her therapist several times but she said it shouldn't be a problem.  Usually kids are just getting the bands at 5 months and wear them for about 4 months so when they exit, they are rarely on their backs.  Well, Charley JUST turned 5 months so she is still on her back a lot!  And she still sleeps on her back most of the time.  I was told to do the best I could and that her skull was not as moldable now as it was earlier.  Of course, I still worry.

 

Here are more scary pictures of her head with the sock on for before and after.  I can't tell what I feel about these picures.  I know that they say she is done and I can't really argue with that.  I just wish it was glaringly obvious that it looks much better.  Some of it does but some look the same to me.

 

In this first picture the focus is on the bulging over her ears.  The lower right picture shows less of an upside down triange and more of the oval it is supposed to be.  Nothing crazy here but I can easily see the difference.

 These side view pictures are interesting to me.  She looks MUCH better from the side as she really got that bump to come out on the bottom.  I was worried about the flatness above that and the therapist said that a lot of kids have that and it can't be fixed because those bones fuse at about 2 weeks old. (Some kids come in for treatment and can't get any because their bones have already fused and they wouldn't move.  Luckily, that wasn't the case for us!)  I think I can tell the biggest difference in this set of pictures.

 This last picture is the one where I don't see much of a difference.  The top right does show a more rounded head shape than the left but it's not super obvious to me. 

We are thankful that this process was pretty easy and FAST for us!  Charley is happy to have the band off too!  They say that the babies don't mind it and it shouldn't affect their sleep.  Bryan and I both think she's happier without it.  I can't blame her!  The night she got the band on, she started waking up 5-6 times a night.  The first night with it off, she only woke up twice and she's been waking only once or twice a night since then.   I would be happy to have it off too!