Give a dawg a bone!

Wow, time sure is flying! Walt has already made it three weeks in his helmet and honestly, things couldn't be any better! Not once has he acted uncomfortable or agitated. 

We went for his checkup on Friday and he is progressing very well! The specialist was really impressed with his head growth over the last three weeks. There are so many different calculations involved with tracking plagiocephaly. Overall circumference, vertical and horizontal measurements, distance from eyes to ears on both sides, etc. To sum it up, the numbers are looking great! Jerry (Walt's specialist) did mention that it is common to see a lot of progress early on and then it tends to level out and become more of a gradual progression. We came down 3 numbers over the last three weeks and he anticipates coming down half a number by the next visit in three weeks. So we went from an 8 to a 5 and our goal is to be at a 4.5 next visit, 4 the next, and so on until we reach our final goal of 0-2.

 Physical therapy is going well. Walt is doing better with his torticollis. We have noticed that he has gained a lot of neck strength, and although he still "prefers" his head tilted to the left and looking to the right, his range of motion is much better and he is doing better keeping his head centered as opposed to tilting when pushed up on his arms while on his tummy.  Celia, Walt's Physical therapist, seems to be pleased and says that we may try to go from once every week to once every two weeks and see how he does. 

We are so proud of our little man and praying each and every day for the remainder of our journey to be just as successful as the past three weeks have been! 

Walt's three bones to represent the three weeks in his helmet! (We are hoping we won't have too many of these, even though they are so cute! ;) haha) 

Sweet little monkey!

Oh yea, I turned 5 months old last week! All smiles :)

XOXO until next time, 

                                  The Gibbs Family 

Stickers are in!

Walt got his stickers for his helmet today! We weren't thrilled with the way they went on, but they still look great!! A special thanks to DDP monograms and gifts in Thomasville for working with us on making Walt's helmet one of a kind. And thanks, Grandma, for picking them up for us today!! :)

Here are some pictures of the final product.

We chose a "4" because Walt is the fourth. And although not pictured, we are MOST excited about the bone stickers we had made!!! We will place one bone sticker at the end of each week to signify being one step closer to graduating from his helmet. Our little bulldog is going to be too cute!! 

Today was day four in the helmet. He was required to wear it for eight hours with a one hour break and then again until bedtime. Walt doesn't seem to mind it a bit, aside from putting it on and taking it off. As long as we are not messing with it, he does amazing. We have, however, noticed a couple of spots that are really rubbing on his forehead and leaving redness with a bit of a raw appearance. We contacted the orthotist and have an appointment tomorrow to check the spots on his skin and possibly do a bit more trimming if necessary. Walt will soon be in his helmet 23 hours a day, so for now, we will continue to get all of the head sugar we can possibly get! :) 

The start of something new...

Walt has been attending physical therapy for 8 weeks to treat the Torticollis, and although we were hoping to avoid cranial orthoses, it is ultimately necessary in order to fully treat the Plagiocephaly. After several trips to the Hanger Orthotic Clinic for measurements and tracking progress, Walt was finally fitted for his helmet on September 27th. We decided to go with "Georgia red," and decorate it to look just like a Georgia bulldog helmet! We are still waiting on some of the decals to be custom made and so excited to see the finished product! :)

As any parents would be, we were a bit apprehensive at first. Would he be uncomfortable or in pain? Would he scream his head off every time we put the helmet on? Rest assured, being the happy baby that Walt is, he hasn't skipped a beat! At least not yet. After all, it has only been 36 hours or so.