Breech head?

"Oh look at his breech head"

This is something we heard countless times when we were in the hospital after Connor was born..  I never quite got it.  Never quite knew what everyone was talking about.  After all, as far as I knew he was only breech once we tried to get him out of there.  He was head down at all my doctor's appointments and when they started the induction.  It's only when the heat was on that he seemed to decide to flip over and try to stay awhile.  And aside from being a little larger (which he comes by honestly, unfortunately), I didn't really think there was anything that remarkable about his head.

At his 1st real doctor's appointment I asked my pediatrician about it.  She explained that his forehead was a little more prominent and that it was a little elongated in the back, but that that was from being breech - that he was probably breech more than we realized -and that it would round out.  I always had my doubts about that whole theory.  His head shape really didn't bother me, but I always found it hard to imagine that he was breech often enough to change the shape of his head, but would flip and coincidentally be head down for every doctor's appointment.  I should have known not to doubt my mother's intuition - in my opinion the greatest sense God has bestowed on this Earth!  Glenn on the other hand - his head shape bothered him!  He was always worried about it and wondered if he needed a helmet to round his head out.

On April 9th, 2012,  I took Connor for his 4 month appointment and Cadence for his 4 year appointment.  I had a list of questions about Cadence - we had an EEG scheduled, we'd changed Neurologists, I had behavior questions.  The whole appointment was really focused on Cadence and Connor's check-up, other than worrying about the shots and how much he'd grown, was never given a second thought.  So when my pediatrician told me she couldn't feel his soft spot I literally just laughed.  It also dawned on me for the first time that I could not remember the last time I'd noticed his soft spot - or really if I'd EVER noticed it.  So we were being referred to a neurosurgeon.  

I remember the day we got our appointment reminders from UVA - the same day we got our neurology reminder for Cadence and the neurosurgery reminder for Connor.  It was depressing and surreal all in one.  Not exactly what I pictured when I imagined being a mom.  

So on April 23rd, 2012, we took Connor to UVA.  I had done some research by now and was not surprised, though not at all happy, when he was diagnosed, pretty much at first glance, with craniosynostosis.  As my pediatrician suspected, his sagittal suture had closed forcing his head to grow front to back and not allowing it to grow side to side.  It results in a head that looks like this:

It was a whirlwind afternoon.  When the neurosurgeon came in he went right into explaining the surgery that was needed to correct the condition and the ultimate risks involved (you should never have to discuss things that could result in the death of your baby!).  We went from the neurosurgeon's office to the plastic surgeon's office and left with a surgery date - May 24th, 2012.  Everyone was so fantastic - and we are SO lucky that Glenn's niece actually works for the plastic surgeon, so I feel like we've totally got someone on the inside.  But I lost count of the number of times I cried that day.  Or of the times I've cried since.  

This being a parent thing is no joke!!  But I am oh so aware that this could be so much worse.  I'm so glad this was caught so soon, will be corrected so quickly, and that hopefully there will be nothing long term that we'll have to worry about.  So many parent's face things so much more catastrophic than this.  But I'm good if we're done with doctors and hospitals for a while after this!