At our appointment, the clinician took a bunch of “before” photos from all different angles of Samantha’s head. Everyone loved her outfit and thought we had dressed her up especially for the photos haha. Then, the clinician showed us how to put on Samantha’s helmet and had us practice. She had Samantha wear the helmet for about a half hour in her office just to make sure everything fit. Samantha didn’t seem bothered by it at all and only fussed toward the end of the appointment when she was getting tired. I think I was the only one who cried at our appointment…it was just so sad seeing her with this giant white boxing helmet on her head! I have a feeling she’s going to get a lot more snuggle time for the next few weeks since we feel so bad for her!
Samantha seemed to be pretty oblivious to the helmet for most of the day, except at nap time. She fought sleep more frequently than usual and hardly napped at all. I’m not sure if it was the fact that she didn’t get a good morning nap while she was at her appointment that ruined her sleep the rest of the day, or if it was just hard for her to sleep with a big foam boxing helmet on her head.
For the next few days, we are supposed to take her band off every three hours, just to check for any red spots from the pressure or weird skin reactions. Today, she had a few small pressure spots, but all of them went away within ten minutes. The band is surprisingly lightweight and doesn’t seem to cause her trouble when lifting her head at all. It definitely makes her warmer than normal, which the clinician said would happen, so she recommended dressing Samantha in light clothes and keeping her out of the sun and out of her car seat whenever possible.
Poor baby Samantha! She is still cute as ever. I hope the time with her helmet goes by fast for you.