Holland Update

Thanks so much to all of you who have prayed for and checked up on Holland. We are blessed to have such amazing friends. The good news is that the Tortocollis is nearly resolved. That means that Holland's neck has loosened up considerably and her head is nearly aligned. She has great range of motion to the right and we will hopefully be able to start lengthening the time between physical therapy appointments. She is in the bouncy seat next to me as I wright this and she is trying to sit up! She is rolling over from her back to her tummy and vice versa. Overall, she is an extremely happy, healthy baby who is developmentally right on track. Praise God!

However, though the Tortocollis is much better, the focus has now shifted to Plagiocephaly...aka smushed head. As I mentioned in the previous blog about this, because she looked left for so long her lead flattened out on that side. Lots of people have funny shaped heads, but with plagiocephaly the facial features can be affected. In Holland's case, her ears are not even with each other and her right eye and cheek are bigger than the right ones. It's not that noticeable on first glance. But if you look at her closely it becomes pretty obvious. The PT and I were joking about how once you know what to look for, you start to see it everywhere! I was watching the red carpet for some award show the other day and an actress they were interviewing totally had plagiocephaly! Now, the actress was still incredibly beautiful, but it was pretty obvious.

All that to say, we are getting Holland's head fixed. We have an appointment later today for a CT scan of her head to confirm bone placement and later in the week we will be getting her fitted for a helmet. Now, I was dead set against this course of treatment at the beginning of all this. But I see now that this is really the least invasive method in the long run. The good news is there is a place in town who will do it. We had originally thought we would have to go to a clinic in Dallas for treatment, which would require trips every two weeks for adjustments. Our wonderful pediatrician has assured us that the place here in town will do just as good of a job, and will obviously be TONS more convenient. We've already decided we will decorate her helmet with flowers or something and she will be the cutest little thing ever in it! So, keep us in your thoughts and prayers. I'll post pics of my little helmet head soon!