Helmet Free

These are the last two pictures you will see of Santiago wearing a helmet because today we got the great news from Dr. T that he doesn't have to wear it anymore. Hector and I took Santiago to two appointments today - one with Aaron at Dynamics and the other with Dr. Teichgraeber who did Santiago's operation. We met with Aaron first so we could have a scan done of his head in case we needed to have another helmet made. He also did a few adjustments on the current helmet to make it last a little while longer (he thought Santi may last another 2 weeks in it if necessary). After we left Dynamics, we went and picked Travis up from his work so we could go to lunch with him to celebrate his 30th birthday. We went to a fabulous restaurant called the Red Onion. It is a Latin Fusion restaurant and it was delicious.

After eating we went to see Dr. T. He wasn't out of surgery yet so he hadn't made it to his office yet. That made for a waiting room full of patients and an hour wait, which really wasn't that bad. I always enjoy talking to the other moms there and sharing stories or listening to or offering some comforting words. Santiago also enjoyed flirting with a 5 month old little girl who was sitting with her mom two chairs down from us. They enjoyed smiling at and talking to each other with their baby talk. It was very cute! When we were called back the first thing the nurse always does is weigh and measure Santiago. So we removed the helmet and weighed him. Guess how much he weighs now? 18 pounds and 9 ounces! He is growing like a weed! He measured 27.25 inches long and his head was 42.25 cm. Dr. T was very pleased with the progress Santi's head has made and said we are ready to go without a helmet. Hector and I are very pleased, excited, and overjoyed to see and hold our sweet boy without plastic on his head but we are both just a little apprehensive about not having it on. The plan was to wear a helmet for 2-3 months and we did just that - Santiago wore it for about 2 and half months. Dr. T said that we have accomplished everything we could with the helmet and now its time to let Santiago's head grow and do its job by itself. His head is way more symmetrical than before surgery and his forehead has rounded out a lot. His bones are still separated at the coronal suture where the surgery took place but they have begun to close. They are expected to close about 6 months post-op. Dr. T is very happy with the way the upper section of Santi's forehead looks but Santi still has a little flatness right above his right eyebrow bone and that bone still needs to come out a bit more. It is not very noticeable and if you didn't know that Santiago had to have surgery, you may not even notice this. So for now we are helmet free and we will go back in 4 weeks so Dr. T can check Santiago and make sure we don't need to go back in the helmet.

Dr. T also recommended for us not to let Santiago lay on his back alot because we need to avoid putting pressure on the back of his head. We are going to have to be extra cautious about how he sleeps at night and not allow him to play on his back on a play mat much. He needs lots of tummy time and I think we are going to buy an exersaucer so he can play in that too. The last thing we want is for Santiago to need another helmet for positional plagiocephaly (flatness in the head) after all we went through with surgery. We are very thankful to be on the other side of all this and feel very blessed to have a happy and healthy boy with NO HELMET!