October 21

Someone is excited about her new helmet!!! (Technically, the helmet is called a cranial band. But there is nothing band-like about it...it is definitely a helmet!)
Isla gets a huge A+ for cooperating with the helmet today. For the first day, she only has to wear it for one hour and then she gets an hour off, then back on for an hour and off for an hour...and so on. She ended up wearing it for several hours at a time already today, because it wasn't bothering her at all. She even took two naps wearing it, and according to her helmet initiation schedule, she doesn't have to sleep with it until Day 4. So she is doing great! She really doesn't seem to notice it at all, except for when we are taking it off or putting it on.

For me, the helmet looks better on than I expected. I was really nervous about seeing her in it for the first time, but it wasn't so bad. It will take some time to get used to seeing her in it. But since she will soon be wearing it every day, 23 hours a day, I'm sure that won't take too long.

One thing I don't like is that it squishes her cheeks and pulls down her eyes. We need to work on adjusting the helmet and getting it to sit straight on her head. I think it is a tad crooked in these pictures and could look a little better with a bit of adjustment. We will go back to the orthotist next week, and she will refit the helmet and cut off more of it around her face. I think it will look even better when there is not so much covering her forehead and sides of her face.Isla made her big public debut tonight at a church staff party. It was a good first outing, because most of the people there already knew about the helmet. We didn't have to explain it to everyone. Tomorrow, we are going to an apple orchard and a pumpkin patch. It will be the first test to see how people in the general public react to her helmet.

It's funny how much my thoughts on the helmet have changed over the past two months. When we first found out about it, I was terrified. I was positive that we wouldn't go out in public with it on and that we would take it off for all pictures. Now, that just seems silly to me! We've already been out in public and taken pictures, and we have only had the helmet for about 9 hours.

I'm trying to be very vocal and open about all of this. More than anything, I just want people to understand what is going on with Isla's head and why we chose to put her in a helmet.(I need to take official "before" pictures that we can use to compare Day 1 with Day ??? at the end. I will do that soon!)