McKenna news!

So I don't know if anyone has noticed, but our sweet McBaby's head shape seemed a bit..."off"...

Where do I begin??

*It all started at McKenna's 4 month check up:

Me: McKenna's head shape concerns me.

Doc: It's a little flat. Let's see how it changes over the next couple months.

Me: Ok.

*At McKenna's 6 month check up:

Me: Her head shape still looks weird to me.

Doc: It's still a little flat. Let me refer you to a plastic surgeon.

Me: Thanks.

(This is kind of how the conversations went. :))

So we went to the plastic surgeon and he tells us she's quite flat and would definitely benefit from a molding helmet (which is just what we expected). He explained to us that if her head shape hasn't fixed itself by now it probably won't. So, he refers us to a prostheics office where they did a laser scan of McKenna's head and gave us a severity rating of 3.5-4 (based on a scale of 1-5; 5 being the worst). So we decided to move forward with the treatment and get her head "fixed." They made a custom fit helmet that is "tight" in the spots we don't want her head to grow bigger in, and it's open where we do want to head to grow and fill in. Here are some bullet points of our thoughts and maybe some FAQs you may have:

• Do we feel like "bad parents" for not doing as much tummy time and repositioning as we maybe should have? Uh- maybe don't ask that...
• Insurance does NOT cover this treatment because it's considered purely cosmetic. We are calling this her very expensive princess crown! :)
• Are we vain to want it fixed or just good parents to want to give her as much of a chance of normalcy later in life as possible? You can decide.
• We're slowly working up to getting her to wear it 23 hours a day for the next 2-3 months.
• The helmet cannot get wet, aka- take it off for baths and swimming.
• We must wash her hair everyday, and wipe the helmet out with rubbing alcohol daily.
• If McKenna ever gets a fever we stop using the helmet until she returns to full health.
• She will sweat a lot at first until her body acclimates to having something cover her head all the time.
• Limit outside time during the hot summer months because she may overheat.
• Her first adjustment will be after 5 weeks of wearing it. They will track progress by doing another laser scan and comparing her symmetry numbers from the first scan.

Here are a few "before" pictures of her head. It's hard to see just how asymmetrical it is unless you see her in person. But it was worth a shot.

They put a nylon cap over her head to do the laser scan so her hair wouldn't get in the way. Super cute!

Here she is at her first fitting. I couldn't stop giggling after the doctor first put it on her.

Not so sure...

To make sure people still know she's a girl, I put a piece of velcro on the helmet so I can rotate bows onto it.

Side shots

Back- holes for ventilation.

She's getting used to it and is still a happy girl! She's our little storm trooper, lego person hair, whatever you want to call it. She is still darling to us!

ALSO- In other McKenna news, the same day she got her "princess crown," she cut her first tooth! It was her bottom left incisor and we had no idea it was coming. Now that we're paying more attention to her mouth, I'm pretty the sure the bottom right incisor will follow shortly. We'll get a picture when they come up a little farther.