Hellobee

We waited six weeks between making an appointment with the craniofacial center and actually being seen.  That time both stood still and flew by, which was kind of nerve wracking. I was anxious to find out our next steps and to help our daughter; at the same time I felt like we were wasting time and felt completely helpless.

Meeting the doctor was kind of intimidating and not at all like I had expected. Charlotte was taken to be weighed, and then we met with a doctor which I wasn’t expecting at all, since we were only scheduled to see the nurse practitioner and the surgeon. He was bubbly and great with her. He measured Charlotte’s head with a caliper and looked in her mouth for evidence of cleft palate, which she doesn’t have, then started asking questions about my pregnancy.

The surgeon came into the examination room next and remeasured Charlotte’s head, and started asking more probing questions about my pregnancy. Did I have a rough delivery? Was she breech? Was it a vacuum assisted birth? I had a planned repeat c-section even though I was a VBAC candidate and Charlotte was in a head down position. They even looked at her ultrasound pictures – and there were plenty – and came to this conclusion: she was head down for a very long time, longer than most babies normally are, and stuck on my pelvic bone, thus causing the divot on her head, the torticollis and the plagiocephaly.  He said over time her head would grow and the divot would pop out, and at five months of age that’s exactly what it’s done.

And suddenly, everything made sense. Her fetal position explained why I had severe pelvic pain and could hardly walk. I always felt like my pelvic bone was cracking in half, and now I know it’s because she was putting pressure on it for close to 20 weeks. I was diagnosed with cervical verices at 16 weeks and bled a lot my entire pregnancy, but couldn’t understand why I bled so much even when on bed rest. Even when laying down, she was still putting so much pressure on my pelvis. In the later half of my pregnancy, I could feel her position and I always told my husband she felt stuck. She never moved freely from side to side, I always complained of right hip pain and half-jokingly said she was wedged so deep in there she’d never be born vaginally, but now I kind of wonder… was this some sort of intuition that I had to have a c-section?

The surgeon said he couldn’t guarantee anything but if he had to guess, Charlotte wouldn’t need helmet therapy. Her head measured with a 9mm assymetry and with vigorous repositioning and physical therapy, he was confident we could correct this on our own. He said to get her off her back as much as possible: use the bumbo, use the ergo, carry her, do more tummy time (he suggested once an hour), and even letting her sleep on her belly on our chests as long as we were wide awake to supervise.

These were all really great suggestions. Charlotte was almost three months old and such a great sleeper. At this age, I could count on her taking a 3-4 hour long nap and sleeping 6-8 hours at night.  That’s a really long time to be flat on her back, and knowing how to position her in her sleep was a huge help for us.

Next, we met with the nurse practititioner. She measured Charlotte’s head a third time and reviewed stretches and early intervention with us. She said with the back to sleep campaign, 80% of babies have plagiocephaly. Some of them, like our Charlotte, are born with it due to positioning in the womb. It’s amazing, she said, that I even caught it this early because her assymetry is ever so slight  and barely visible to the naked eye – but she did point out forehead bossing, cheek protrusion, and ear unevenness. After she pointed it all out, we were able to see it clearly. She said they don’t pursue helmet therapy for assymetry under 6mm.

The NP spent the most amount of time with us. The doctors were amazing and  answered all of our questions, but seemed to be there only to make a diagnosis while the NP seemed to have more of a focus on how to correct things now that we have a one.

Next up – navigating EI and the frustrations of their protocols.