I'll take a new helmet over 6 month shots any day.

The radish had her 6 month check up yesterday which included 3 injections, poor little mite. The shots always mess her up for a few days.

Needless to say, she had been getting so good with the helmet, we'd worked up to the full day yesterday. The day before she had slept the whole night through in it, only waking once to eat and going to bed really easily. It was lovely, I was feeling all positive. Last night was kind of hard because of the shots. I think she started running a low fever in the middle of the night and so was very sad and there was a lot of crying and very little sleeping on everyone's part. I only figured it might be a fever this morning, after the poor thing had been in the helmet all night.

We were told by the orthotist (I think that's what they're called) that any time she's running a fever, to take it off. So it's been off today and she's still not 100% so we'll leave it off tonight. I feel crappy about it but at the same time, that's what we were told to do. She usually only has a very rough time the first 24-36 hours after the shots. Then she's just a bit more cranky than usual for a couple of days. So hopefully we can put the band back on tomorrow morning.

Anyway, the appointment was great (except for being poked with needles). She is now 24.5 in. long (50th percentile), 17lbs 8oz (80th percentile) and her head size is in the 80th as well. She's hitting all her milestones on track and we'll be having 2 meals of solids a day now. The other great news was that we only see the doctor again at 9 months and there are no vaccines scheduled for that appointment! Hooray! Six months until we have to deal with this again.

On another note, she tried prunes for the first time today and was quite revolted by them, but ate them anyway. I drank prune juice while I was pregnant and didn't really enjoy it either. She does the same little eyes-closed-shudder that I would do. Too funny.

Mommy and Daddy get to go out this afternoon/evening and have dinner and a movie. Quite excited. Hope she's good for her grandma. I wasn't sure if we should go or not, what with her being the the grumpiest baby alive, but grandma insisted. She's a star!

Here are some comparative pictures in celebration of the radish's half birthday.

One day old.

Six months old.

First night sleeping with the helmet...

Needless to say it was kind of hellish for all concerned (there is a reason helmet has the word hell hidden in it). She had a disastrous day napwise which never bodes well for bedtime. The poor nanny was at her wits end. But even though she was exhausted, Radish was still trying to be so sweet and would give me smiles and giggles all the way up to bed time.
It took and hour and a half to get her to bed (a process which usually takes 30 minutes at most). So poor mommy was as exhausted as poor radish, but she finally passed out. Luckily she managed to go 4 hours before she kicked up a fuss again and so I fed her and she went right back to sleep! Yesterday was a "4 hour on, one hour off" day so I had decided to take it off after the 4 hours if she was having a hard time. But I left it and she went another 4 hours! This time, her diaper had leaked (FML) so a 2am wardrobe change had to take place which means taking the helmet off. I just left it off, thinking that we'd gotten lucky with those 8 hours anyway and she might as well finish the night off well.
We started today at 6am as usual and she was bright and sunny and sweet. Today is a "8 hours on, 1 hour off" day and I'm feeling confident. We'll get through this rough patch I just know it. The child will probably become so attached to the thing, we'll have more trouble getting her to stop wearing it. Now I'm steeling myself for her 6 month check up and shots tomorrow... blerg!

This was dear sister's suggestion as a way to save money on the whole helmet process... nice.

We paid for the helmet ourselves, which stung a lot, as our crappy insurance would not pay, but more on that another time. I'm off to my last day of work, then it's summer vacation! Three lovely months with my little radish and her daddy. So excited!

Technology... yuck

Well, the helmet photo shoot did take place yesterday but wouldn't you guess that when I try to get the pictures from the memory card to the computer, it won't work. So I have one picture to show, the radish and the nanny at the fitting appointment.

(please excuse the buddah belly poking out)

She's doing so well so far, had to have in on for 2 hours this morning and she did fabulously. Taking (hopefully) a good nap now. Almost done with work, just a few more days, then it's mommy and radish all the time. Can't wait.

Day one of the helmet... our resilient little radish.

Well, we set off at 10.20 this morning to get the radish fitted with her shiny new STARband. I was a bit of a nervous wreck and I had been in denial all weekend, so I didn't get upset about the whole thing. She was such a little star and was just a little bit bothered by the whole thing. Getting it on and off is the hard part and she did make a bit of a fuss about that.

I had to go back to work after I dropped her and the nanny off but I can't say I got much done, my mind was on her all day. Apparently she did really well and didn't mind it much when she had it on. We're breaking it in so the time increments are still small for now.

I'm off to get her up from her nap (she is just stirring) and we'll put it on for another little spell before bath and bed time.

So begins my blog adventure, hope I can have some discipline and keep it snappy and up to date.

Maybe we'll have a quick helmet photo shoot...