The Crocket Family Blog: Twins and Cranial Orthosis

So the helmets are officially on! It has been a gradual transition the last few days. Today the girls have 8 hours on and 1 hour off until bed time, then they officially go to 23 hours per day.

I've been reading a lot about this now that it is our reality, and especially when things you never would have thought about become an issue, like - how do we put clothes on the girls now?? (answer: onesies with buttons at the neck and button up shirts).

I have also learned that this is incredibly more common with twins, as their movement in the womb is limited much earlier on than a single baby. Alexandra was tucked into my pelvis for the last few months and I am sure that contributed to this issue as hers was noticeable at birth. I've also learned that this issue is more common in "good sleepers" and yes our girls have been sleeping 12 hours a night since they were about 14 weeks old, and LOVE naps. (YES we know we are BLESSED!) We are treating brachycephaly, not the more common plagiocephaly, which is why the helmets have a small opening at the top, unlike some of the pagiocephaly helmets that have a large top opening.

Getting scanned!

They looked like little dolls with the socks on their heads!

So how are they doing? The girls seem totally unphased. These girls blow my mind over and over again with how awesome they are. I really need to start giving them way more credit. Josie immediately figured out that she could hit her head against the wall (sigh) and Alex is clacking her toys on the side of it to make a good noise. They really dislike the helmet going on and off (and so do I, its so stiff and the narrow part down by the neck is really hard to pull over their little faces and ears comfortably). They slept with the helmets on last night and I didn't hear a peep from them. We've got this, mom!

And how are mom and dad doing? I was very very upset about the helmet idea but now that its happening, I am dealing with it in my usual positive can-do way. I've read a lot about the helmets and the super success stories where parents were proactive and kept the helmets on for the full 23 hours per day. Apparently too many breaks is very common and can lead to longer wearing or no results, so we will be avoiding falling into a habit of taking them off.

I am a bit sad to cuddle the girls and feel the helmet in the way, and not be able to shower them in kisses while I bottle feed them. Even worse, I've been in the way of some head butting that has been less than pleasant.

And the public? I thought the helmets would deter people from talking to us, but quite the opposite. The other day at the mall we got all of the typical "are they twins" questions (one lady asked me how far apart in age they are - what the heck lol lol) AND a ton of "what are the helmets for" questions. We got a lot of "AWWW SO CUTE!s" so that's good!

And do you have any cute pictures and videos of them in their helmets? Yup!! Here are a few pictures and videos!