Helmet time

On Monday Kenton and I went to the Head Shape Clinic at the UofA to get Wrennie's head casted for her helmet. Rachel had given us a head's up that it is not a pleasant experience for some babies, so we were prepared for a scream-fest. She did scream, a lot.

Here is how the process went:

A photographer comes in to take pictures of Wrennie's head from different angles. Things were going fine until she did something cute, the photographer and doctor burst out laughing, and she got startled and cried. (If this has happened to you while holding her, you can see it literally happens to everyone.) Things sort of went downhill from there. There is an array of choices for helmet colour, all of them I hated, of course. You get to pick a first and second choice. You would think they would have ones without a pattern...sheesh. They had a solid pink, so that was our first choice. For our second, we went with a turquoise background and sunflowers.

Then we brought her into the casting room where the doctor and nurses were going to put the pieces of wet plaster covered fabric onto her head to make the mould. However, they first have to put a sort of sock/netting over her head so that plaster doesn't get in her eyes. They cut out a hole for the mouth, but her eyes are covered. You guessed it, she was immediately not impressed. She had to be held down to stay still and allow the doctor to apply the pieces to her head and smooth them on. She screamed. I broke out in a sweat. Once they had it all shaped on her head, everyone had to blow on it to dry the mould enough so that when they went to take it off it would hold it's shape. Poor little thing hated it all. Finally when it was dry enough, (probably not even 5 minutes), they pulled it off and handed her to us and we took her into the first room to bathe her and clean off all the plaster. The worst was over!

Now the cast gets sent away for the helmet to be made and we will be getting a call to come back in about 2 weeks time for the fitting. They said that some babies aren't a fan of that either because they have to wear the helmet for 30 min while they are there and it gets tweaked and changed...This is because in 2 weeks time, her head will have already grown again and the helmet won't fit perfectly. Once we have that appointment for the fitting, I will be going back there every 2 weeks for them to carve out parts of the helmet as Wrennie's head grows.

To be honest, I am a little overwhelmed with the commitment of all the helmet appointments, and physio to do with her. But the doctor said that even if we chose to not put her in the helmet, we wouldn't have ruined her life. So I think we will do our best and it will be fine.

If you aren't sure what a baby helmet looks like, just google "baby helmet" and something like the one Wrennie is getting will come up.

What would a blog post about Wrennie be without a couple of pictures?

When she doesn't want to nap. she finds other things to do. I come in when it gets all quiet suddenly and I find this.

She loves her Uncle Jordan, see the little hand hanging on? That is to let all the ladies know who he belongs to.

Wrennie and Daisha giggle together.

Looking out the window.