It's on

It's on. It's official. Yesterday we picked up B's helmet.

Somewhere in my silly mind I thought we'd walk in- they'd slip in on like a little hat and go merrily on our way. HAH! The helmet is custom made to the child's head but needs several "trimmings" during a fitting to make sure it fits 100% perfect. They send them a little snug so that there is room for adjustments. I was unaware. So when they put (ok, so squeeeezed) this helmet onto B and he couldn't even open his eyes and his ears were folded my heart fell into my gut. It looked so much worse than I imagined and he looked like he was in pain. Then I found out it needed trimming. Phew. They marked it for adjustments, pulled it off (which I was 99% sure at the time was going to break his neck, I swear) and trimmed it. Came back and tried it... still needed additional trimming. This happened SEVEN times. B screamed every time the helmet went on and every time the helmet came off. Arching his back and thrashing his arms. It must be tricky to trim because it needs to be tight enough to apply pressure to the misshapen parts but not rub too hard. Also, due to B's severe torticollis- his helmet was rubbing his neck/shoulder so we needed more adjustments than usual. In between trimmings I rocked him, he held the strap of my shirt with a death grip and did that gasping-for-breath-from-crying-too-hard baby cry. I felt like as soon as he got calm they would come back in to jam on the helmet. You know that feeling where your tears are building up and they're super hot but you promised you wouldn't cry, so you open your eyes wide, give some quick blinks- maybe blot the corners with your fingers? Uh huh. The othotist commented that I was "doing very well, it can be pretty upsetting to watch the baby cry like this". Yep, doing well... on the outside ;) Then I got a lesson on how to put it on. As I had mentioned, I was appalled at how they kind of had to cram it on his head. Ummm it's pretty much your only choice. I hear it will get broken in and easier to put on but whoa is it hard to do. He just looked at me and screamed. I just kept saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry". After an hour and all the adjustments we opted to wear it home and he slept the whole way.

People always say how I have my hands full. It's true but some days I don't know how I'd make it without Justin. When we walked in the door he said, "Mama! Look!!! Look at Brandon's blue hat! He wants to play hockey! Cool!" Love him. What do people say? "From the mouths of babes"?

Getting my craft on always makes me feel better so I applied his sticker kit right away.

I'm so proud of him. He seemed pretty unaffected. Just a little frustrated that he can't get to his "go-to" flat side as easily. Like I said, I'm proud, but not surprised. Brandon is just about the sweetest baby on the planet. He's always looking at me with the biggest grin and those huge brown eyes. He melts my heart.



For the 1st day, B wears the helmet on 1 hour, off 1 hour. Then the 2nd day; on 2 hours, off 1 hour. By the 5th day we're at 23 hours of helmet. The helmet has to be cleaned with rubbing alcohol every time it comes off. I am sweating with no helmet on so I can't imagine how hot he must be after 2 hours of wear. Well... you can judge for yourself...