The Freeman Family: Ainsley's helmet

We got Ainsley's helmet on Wednesday afternoon. It took about an hour for them to cut it down and adjust it to fit. One of the ear holes was fabricated wrong, so we'll be getting a different helmet in the next few weeks. She didn't do too bad during the fitting, and only cried once and that was because she was hungry and tired.

In the waiting room waiting to get fitted for the helmet

Daddy got a few pictures of the Orthotist making adjustments before cutting it down. One thing's for sure: the helmet makes her cheeks look even chubbier (if that's possible!)

Figuring out where to cut the holes

That toy was magic!

Notice how much bigger the face hole is in this picture? They have to measure it and cut out the face and ear holes, etc.

All done and ready to go home with the helmet.

The first day she wore it for one hour on and then had it off for an hour, and repeated that all day. The next day was two hours on, one hour off, etc. We're up to 6 hours on and 1 hour off today. She's done really good with it and doesn't seem to mind it. She doesn't like it when we have to adjust it, but it's still a little big, and slides down on her face sometimes. I've been putting bows on it and she loves playing with the bows, especially when she's taking her bottle and is tired.

Happy baby!

I already miss kissing her head and cheeks. When she's upset, you can't really cuddle with her, or put her head on your shoulder....at least it doesn't feel the same. I know have a hard plastic helmet burrowing into my shoulder/chest instead of her warm little head. The end results will be worth it in the end, but it still makes me sad.

Grandpa Bill came to visit and check out the helmet.

While I'm typing this, Ainsley is laying in the floor playing for the hour while her helmet is off. Joel just said that she looks so different without her helmet on. It's true...we're already getting use to the way she looks with the helmet on and she's going to look so weird in 3-4 months when she gets it off after wearing it all the time. With or without the helmet, she's still our precious baby girl!

She fell asleep for the first time in her jumperoo yesterday. She loves her jumperoo, but was so tired. She would nod off and then bounce a little and wake herself up. She would do that 4 or 5 times and then finally fell asleep. Of course, the camcorder was completely full so I couldn't get very much of her falling asleep, but I did manage to get a little bit on video.