My New Project

Since Noelle has been in the NICU she has favored sleeping and turning on her right side more than her left. This has caused a flat spot on her right side. We've tried and tried turning her head for her but it always ended up on the right side. For months of going to the doctor, he, along with a lot of others, kept saying that it would even out and not to really worry about it. Most babies heads go flat but even out with time. Well a little over a month ago her doctor saw her and everything was fine except that he saw her head and told us that she needed physical therapy. I didn't really know what this meant except that if her head got much worse and we didn't do something about it she would need a helmet to re-shape it. So last week we went in to see a physical therapist. It's a good thing we did too. If we had just gotten her a helmet her head shape would have been fixed but none of the underlying problems that caused it to be that way would be fixed. So we found out that she has what is called Torticollis and Plagiocephaly. If you don't know what those mean (as I didn't) here ya go - Torticollis, in short, means a tilting of the head to one side. Plagiocephaly is a flattening of the back of the head, in Noelle's case the right side. So the physical therapist did a lot of different tests to see what else was going on. Her vision is good and her body shape is good and even on both sides. What she did notice, which led to the diagnosis of torticollis, was that her right neck muscles are really tight and it makes it very uncomfortable to turn her head to the left side. Lots of other things were said and we learned so much. So the physical therapist gave us some home excersizes and stretches to help fix the problem. We have to do this consistently and many times throughout the day. That is why she is my new project. If we work hard enough her head will re-shape on it's own and she won't need a helmet. Within a month or two we should know how we are doing and how her head has changed and if she will need a helmet or not. This should be fun especially with Noelle's stubborn, yet cute attitude. Wish us luck! Noelle sleeping next to Dad.

Noelle has learned this spitting thing. It's really cute and I think she does it to get our attention.