Unknown Territory

This last month has been a whirlwind for us. While at Layne's 9 month checkup, I asked his doctor about his head shape. ( He has a flattened spot on the back of his head on the right side. At birth he had a hemotoma there because he came out at an angle.) His doctor recommended that I take him to get his head evaluated. I was terrified about what the results of this evaluation would be. Back in January at his 6 month appointment, I had stressed concerns over his head shape as well. The doctor told me that if it didn't change drastically by his next appointment that we would look at our options.

Two weeks ago, we took Layne to CCHS to get his head evaluated.

After a not so fun scan of his head and a jackass of a practioner, we walked out of there frustrated, pissed off, and in tears. ( I was in tears not Matt...) The practioner told us Layne has plagiocephaly. He blamed us for not bringing him in earlier and told us that his head would never been perfect, that his ears are misaligned and that he will probably have terrible vision!!

Matt and I just couldn't bear to go back to CCHS. We called Layne's peditrician and wanted to see if there was anywhere else we could go to get a second opinion. His doctor recommended us to a different practioner and we set up an appointment. This past Friday we went in for an evaluation. The practioner was alot more helpful and didn't blame us for Layne's head problem. He told us that it isn't the worst case of plagiocephaly that he has seen but it also isn't the mildest case he's seen either. He recommended that we have him wear a Starband. I'm not too excited about this but I want to do what is best for Layne. We are going back later this week to get a cast made of Layne's head so we can get his helmet made.

It is undecided how long Layne will have to wear the helmet. The practioner said it could be for a couple of months or it could be longer. Layne will have to wear the helmet for 23 hours a day. However we can take it off for special occasions and such. I hope that this will help Layne's head shape greatly.

Here is some pictures of before and after pictures of children who have had plagiocephaly and have been treated. I will keep updating about this as we go through this process.

What a Day

Today has been quite the day. Layne did not sleep very well last night. He got up about 5 or 6 different times. He rarely does that. Today he was very irritable. Besides being irritable he was just not himself. This afternoon he did not want to play with anything he just wanted to be held which is very unlike him. When we went outside, I put him in the swing and he immediately fell asleep. That is so UNLIKE him. He usually is fully of energy and just plain "wild" outside. When we got home from daycare I checked his temp because he was really sluggish. His temp was 101.3 . I called Matt and he came home immediately to drive us to the acute care. When the nurse checked his temp at the office it was 100.2 . They drew some blood and did an RSV/Influenza test on him. His blood count was normal and he doesn't have RSV. However, he does have influenza b. The doctor couldn't prescribe him anything but nebs but did recommend that we give a small dose of zyrtec. The doctor said that he could have this for about 7-10 days. I just hope that he gets better before that. I'm just glad that he didn't have RSV. Hopefully we won't be up all night but I have a bad feeling that we will. Please keep Layne in your prayers that he will get better soon and that neither Matt or myself get sick with this!

Weekend Trip to Omaha and an Update

This past weekend, Matt, Layne, and I took a quick trip down to Omaha, Ne for the weekend. We had a blast!! We stayed at Matt's cousin's Mike's house while we were down there. Saturday after we went to the zoo. Layne had so much fun. He loved looking at the water falls in the Jungle area and the sharks and stingrays in the aquarium. On Saturday night, we went out to eat at the Upstream. It's a brewery in Omaha. Matt said the beer was really good. On Sunday we went shopping at one of the malls and then went out to eat with Matt's friends, Laura and Jesse and their son Miles. ( Miles is just a few months younger then Layne.) Layne had so much fun playing with Miles. It was a much needed quick trip and we all had a blast. Now it's back to our same old routine again.

Pretty parrot that was in the jungle exhibit.

Meerkat in the desert exhibit.

Layne and Miles posing for a picture.

Layne posing for the camera while Miles tries to "taste" him. Too cute!!

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Yesterday I went to the dr. office because I was having some female issues. It's nothing serious thank god. I'm on some medication for about 5 days and everything should clear up on it's own. If it doesn't I have to go back into the dr. for more testing. However the dr. thinks that the medication should do the trick. Hopefully he is right!!

Worried

I've been having some female issues for the last month or so. I'm going to the dr. today. Hopefully they will have some answers for me. I will fully explain after my dr appointment this afternoon. Hopefully it is nothing to serious.

I've got a problem...

Layne is a great baby. He sleeps through the night. (From about 7pm to 7am) And he's such a good eater. My problem is that he will NOT nap during the day. He gets crabby about 10am or so and I give him a bottle. He'll fall asleep while drinking it but as soon as he's done he's wide awake again. He does the same thing in the afternoon. I don't know what to do with him. I can tell he needs a nap during the day because by the time we leave my parents house he is crabbier then hell. I have no clue what to do. He's been doing this for a couple of months now. Does anyone have any ideas??

Pet Peeves

I don 't know what's been going on lately with me. Maybe it's the fact that I've been couped up inside for far to long because of this nasty weather that I've been getting irritated easily by things. Here's some of the things that have been bothering me lately:

A Messy House: The fact that our house goes from being in perfect order to a complete disaster area in no time flat really bothers me. I am absolutely embarrassed if my mom or mother in law come to our house when it is a complete disaster. They keep such clean, tidy houses and then they walk into mine and it looks like an atomic bomb just dropped! It seriously bothers me and I just don't know what to do about it anymore!

The Snow: I was excited for snow to come back in November. I love to watch the snow fall and see how gorgeous the trees and everything look outside with the snow and frost on them. However I have had my fill. I'm ready for spring so I can take walks outside with Layne instead of being couped up inside and feeling like I'm trapped inside my house because the weather is either nasty out or it's way to fricken cold!!

Daycare Kids who can't keep their clothes on: Okay so this past week, one of our daycare kids seriously won't leave his clothes on! Yesterday He stripped completely out of his clothes and pooped in the playpen during naptime. Today he did the same thing! It is seriously driving me insane!

My Husbands Lack of Helping Around the House: I love my husband to death. He's a great guy and works long hours at two jobs so we can have enough money for everything we need. The one thing I wish is that he would help out around the house more. I cook, I clean, I do laundry, I do the grocery shopping, etc. He comes home, plays with Layne a little bit, watches TV and goes to bed. It's wishful thinking to think that he would help out a bit more but I doubt that will ever happen.

Stressful Times

I love Christmas time. It's one of my most favorite times of year but along with it comes the stress. It seems this year I have more than ever. Money is tight this year but I still want to be able to give gifts to our families for christmas. I've come up with some ideas for some great homemade gifts ( will share pictures later) but I still feel guilty for not being able to actually buy them something nice. Besides the gift issue, Matt is being "layed off" for two weeks over christmas and new years. The company he works for that makes grain trailers is ahead in their productions and is everyone off for two weeks to try to slow production down if that makes sense. It sucks because Matt will not have been there 90 days yet and his vacation days won't be effective yet so he is only getting paid for 1 day during those 2 weeks. Not good for us. Needless to say I'm extremely worried about how we are going to pay for everything this month. Sorry for my ranting...I needed to get that off my chest.