we finally, finally, finally got to see the cranio-facial specialist today. it has been almost 2 months since aida, the physical therapist, said that we might want to look into getting maggie a helmet. in those 2 months her head shape has improved immensely, but i wanted to go just to get a professional opinion. and, as mom and i have discussed, there is this bump on the left side of the nape of her neck, and you never know... what if it were a tumor or something? i definitely needed my mind put at ease.
he thought her head looked great. he said he could see where there was still a bit of flattening on the back right, but that it was very mild and nothing he would ever recommend a helmet for. he said he can see some misalignment in her ears, but that's improved so much over the last 2 months that i doubt it'll be noticeable at all in another 6 months. he also didn't think it was worth worrying about. he said he didn't see any asymmetry in her eyes, and that her adorably crooked smile is either from the muscles being a bit tighter on one side of her mouth from the torticollis, or genetics, or both, but not a big deal and nothing he could do anything about anyway. he said to keep on doing the physical therapy and the positioning we're doing at night (which is getting her to sleep on her left side only by putting her to my right so that she has to lay on her left side to nurse and cuddle with me, which she wants to do ALL NIGHT LONG. at least i can say that i'm doing it for a good reason this time instead of being too much of a softie to let the kiddies cry it out).
and the nape of the neck lump, he says, is not a lump at all. it's actually that the right side is flat. the
sternocleidomastoid muscle anchors there at the base of the neck, and that's the muscle that was tight, causing maggie's tilt. so, this tight muscle pulled harder on the right nape of maggie's neck, causing it to be a bit flatter. he said that part of the head won't change too much, but once all that baby fat is gone it won't be too noticable. it's so minor that we wouldn't bother about that even if there was something we could do. i just wanted to be sure it wasn't a tumor or something. isn't it amazing how moldable the skull of an infant is? who know a tight muscle could affect so many things.
so, yay! maggie's beautiful, fuzzy little head will remain helmet-free. he congratulated me on doing such a good job with maggie's PT and repositioning and said that's why her head is so fabulously round. maggie, if you hate me for whatever reason when you're a teenager, at least remember that i kept you out of a helmet as an infant you little ingrate. HA!
in other news, i meant to write much sooner but we're still fighting this bug. it's really lingering, and it's been sapping all of my energy in the evening. we're all mostly better, but nina did run a fever and then throw up all over the bathroom last night, so we're not out of the woods yet. she'd been eating blackberries too, it looked like someone had been murdered in there. that flowergirl t-shirt that erik and isabelle gave her at their wedding is totally ruined (or is it? i'm going to try oxi-clean, we'll see what happens. right now it looks tie-dyed. that's all i'll say about the vomit except that it also stained the cabinet under the sink. oddly, the stain turned blue after i tried to clean it with bleach, so no one would ever know it's vomit. except all of you of course).
ok, one of the kids is crying every half hour or so (like my old roommate sara davidson says, it's like whack-a-mole. put one to sleep, another pops up), so i'm going to run off while they're both still down. goodnight!
