A littel update...

Here is an email I sent out to some friends and family I had email addresses for. I will put more pictures up soon because I know this is against the blogging rules. :)

Friends and Family,

Just wanted to give a little update about Little Flat Head. Some of you don't even know what I'm talking about so I'll explain a little. At Mabry's 4 month well check our pediatrician said that she had a little bit of a flat head and to make sure she was getting enough time off her back. She also said that there were some corrective measures we could take and if we wanted to do that we needed to do it sooner than later. So, of course that's all I could think about for the next couple of weeks. Then I met Jessi's friend at Central Market whose son had on this band to correct his flat head. I asked her some questions and decided to go ahead and get a consult just to see if she needed it or not. Yesterday we went Cranial Technologies (www.cranialtech.com) for a consultation where they took pictures of Mabry's head at different angles. The clinician then came to go over the images with us and basically she is a candidate for the DOC Band. You've probably never noticed this with Mabry because she has so much hair and it does a good job of hiding the true shape. If you go to the website you will see that there are mainly 3 conditions of "flat head" and hers is called Brachycephaly, which means it's flat in the back with some asymmetry. (This really has nothing to do with the brain, it's the bone growth). The head grows in the areas of least resistance. So, if a baby lays on the back of their head for long amounts of time the head has a harder time growing that way because of all the resistance. And you're thinking, don't all babies have to lay that way??? Anyway, what the DOC Band does is provide resistance in the areas where we want to hold the growth, and promote growth in the areas her head needs to grow. The Band is worn 23 hours a day anywhere from 8 to 12 weeks, depending on how fast her head grows. The older a child gets the longer it takes. At this point, this is the best option for Mabry for a couple of reasons. The way a babies' head grows depends on two factors: genetics and environment. Since we can't change her genes, we have to change her environment. If she were few months younger we might be able to correct this without the Band by repositioning her when she sleeps and during other activities. But, now that she is sitting up and becoming more active it's unrealistic to keep her in the proper position long enough to make any changes. Also, it's not likely that it will correct itself at this point either. Her head is just going to get bigger in the shape it is. So, all the tummy-time in the world is not going to make her head shape better - it's just not going to make it worse.

So, the next step is to see what insurance says. We are concerned about the price of everything, but it's not a make or break factor. Also, the maintenance of this Band requires weekly or bi-weekly trips to the office for adjustments. She can probably stretch it to two weeks since we are moving, but that might still be hard. The only locations in Texas are Dallas and Austin.

Keep us in your prayers as we navigate this! I think it will be harder for Jeremiah and me than it will be for Mabry. But two months of her life is a very short time for something that will benefit her for the rest of her life.

Love you all!

May

I just posted that Mabry was 4 months old, and in 9 days she'll already by 5 MONTHS old!! This is going by so fast.

On May 3 we had a little baby dedication ceremony with our home group. Jeremiah and I committed with some of our closest friends in Keller to raise Mabry the way God desires and calls us to as parents of the wonderful gift he's given us. We're sad to leave these friends but they will always have a special place in our hearts because of the time we spent and life we share with them.

ExerSaucer Love

Uncle Ty is a little more rough than she's used to.

"A-Choo!"

More Love...
Funny little weeney dog.