P-L-A-G-I-O-C-E-P-H-A-L-Y

Emily has a flat head. It actually has a name - Plagiocephaly. I've been concerned about her head since she was about 2-3 months old when I noticed that she would only sleep on one side of her head. No matter how I tried to reposition her in bed she would always turn her head to the same spot. When Emily was 6 months old we got a referral to have her noggin evaluated. They took pictures and measurements and studied her. I was really caught off guard when they told us she was an excellent candidate for the DOC band (dynamic orthotic cranioplasty). It's a very hard thing to have someone point out all the imperfections in my perfect baby's little head. I thought for sure I was just being overly concerned about her misshapen head. Kayla slept a lot too as a baby and her head was a bit flat too but the doctor said it was just cosmetic and nothing else. After contacting my insurance company it turns out that we were going to be responsible for at least $2700 for the DOC Band. Yikes! We then called our pediatrician and asked for a different referral and found one that our insurance is contracted with. Better!

The second specialist we went to asked us on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being severe) how we would rate Emily's head. Alan gave her a "2" and I gave her a "5". Then the specialist explained that some babies have severely misplace chins and noses so I changed my number to a "3". After his evaluation was done he gave Emily a "3.5 to 4".

When we went in for the DOC Band fitting, the specialist, Mark, who is working with us asked if we wanted to take pictures. My immediate thought was, Why in the world would I want to document this? It didn't even occur to me to bring a camera. But once Mark put the head sock thing on her and it accentuated her beautiful chubby cheeks Alan whipped out his camera phone. We couldn't stop taking pictures because she was being so cute! Emily did really great. She did not fuss at all. Mark said that if she could sit through the fitting as well as she did then she would not have a problem wearing the DOC band.

"I'm ready for my make-over."

"Not everyone can make this look cute."

"Is this my Halloween costume?"

"What? Do I have something on my face?"

So for the next 3-6 months (hopefully not any longer than that) Emily will be sporting a light purple "helmet" with butterflies on it.

This is before her DOC Band was trimmed up to fit her better.

"Hey, who turned out the lights?"

"Can you take a little more off the side, please?"

"So, how do I look? I'm still cute, right?"