Ari's Helmet Day!!

Ari's Helmet Day arrived!!! And it went pretty well, I have to say.

We drove to Gillette's at Regions Hospital, went straight to the specialty equipment area again and met with a man who specializes in fitting infants with CranioCaps.

First he went over what we could expect, explaining that we should be patient with results since Ari is already in his 7th month of age. He said it could actually take more like 4 months, but that we'll just wait and see. The earlier you start the CranioCap treatment the better, because the rate of growth slows down as infants get older. Next he gave us a sheet that detailed how much time Ari should wear the cap on the first, second, and third days, and how by the 4th day Ari should be wearing it the full 22, or so, hrs a day. Finally he explained how to clean the CranioCap, and then put the cap on Ari and proceeded to make adjustments.

He drew on the cap with a marker to indicate the places that needed to be shaved down more, for example to make more room around the ears, and went into a back room to do the shaving while we waited in the room. He came back and did this several times until he was confident that the cap fit correctly. He also removed the cap each time to see if there was any "blushing" on the skin from where the helmet was pressing too hard, and marked that as well to adjust. After he was done, he asked us if we had any questions and we were on our way. You can see some pictures below of us waiting, and of Ari in the fitting room right after we were done.


We will go back in one week to have a followup appointment, and then every two weeks until we are finished. The same fitting/shaving process will happen each time as Ari's head continues to grow.

I went straight to my Mom's house afterward, because I was feeling slightly stressed out from the whole ordeal and didn't want to just go back to an empty house. I felt like I was doing okay, but after I fed Ari was when all the emotions finally came tumbling out. I was burping him, went to kiss his neck, and I couldn't reach it because there was a helmet in the way! I didn't even realize up until today how often I do this. I tried again, and it still didn't work. So I started to cry. I cried for about five minutes while Ari crawled around on the floor with his helmet, happy as can be, and then I felt a little better.

I took several pictures of Ari in his helmet so that you can see what it looks like. As you can see, it is still very possible to have fun in a CranioCap. ; ) We haven't decided if and how we're going to decorate it yet. Check back; I may put a poll up to see what you think we should do with it. = )

Thanks again for your support! I'll try to keep you updated on how it's going. = D