The Taylor Chronicles » Taylor

I’m ONE! I’m a BIG boy now!

taylor — Fri, 07 May 2010 19:08:11 +0000

Today I am 1 year and 3 days old. This time last year I was spending my first full day home from the hospital. I didn’t do much more than eat and sleep in those days. Now I’m a very active little guy. I turbo crawl everywhere. I’ve started pulling up on everything…including the stairs. I’m not quite ready to start cruising but it’s coming!

I really want to share my birthday cake video with you. Last Saturday everyone came to celebrate my birthday at my house. Mommy made me a monkey cake!! It was yummy….and lots of fun to play with!

Growing More Each Day

amy — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 01:55:16 +0000

Taylor amazes me every day. It’s wonderful to watch him try new things. He has been trying to climb over me a lot lately. Today he used this new skill to pull himself up on a stool for the first time. I was in the other room and just caught site of him standing just before he fell down and hit his head. I’m so proud of him!

He’s been standing at his music table a lot. Here is a video showcasing his talents:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-xYrIZYM-c

Taylor’s Newest Adventures

amy — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:08:57 +0000

Taylor has been growing a lot on all levels. He is very curious and he is exploring all of the nooks and crannies of his play space.

Taylor’s play mat converts into a tunnel. He has been trying to climb under everything lately and keeps getting stuck and frustrated. So I decided to put this together for him and he love’s it. Especially when there is something fun on the other side!

Taylor is also vocalizing for and more each day. Yesterday he let out a DaDa rant. No sign of MaMa yet but we’ll get there in time. I’m still trying to catch one of his vocal rants on video. He tends to stop when I pull out the camera. Oh well… I may have to be sly about it.

Taylor is also getting more efficient with his crawling. He’s not fully up on hands and knees yet but we saw a short glimpse of him do it yesterday. But today he is on a mission to go places.

And of course Taylor enjoys laughing, especially when his parents are making fools out of themselves.

I’ve also found that this stage of life is much easier to capture on video than in photos. He just moves too much and that makes getting good pictures a challenge!

Taylor’s New Look

amy — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:47:24 +0000

Today Taylor got his STARband Cranial Remolding Orthoses (aka helmet). This will help to correct his plagiocephaly. He has been a great trooper with it so far. He only had to wear it a couple of hours today. The time will increase each day until he is wearing it 23 hours a day! It will only come off for bath time, swim time and PT. He will wear it for approximately 3 – 6 months.

Taylor seems to be adjusting really well to having the helmet on his head. Here is a video of him getting around.

Fun with food

taylor — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:21:36 +0000

My Mommy is adding new textures to my diet. I may not have teeth yet but I really like puffs and crackers. Today my Mommy gave me something new…Peas! Here is what I thought of them.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypD2rEtA9Og

Always perfect…

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:01:37 +0000

As I’m sure pretty much any parent will tell you (especially first timers), we always think our babies are perfect. It’s so hard to spot small abnormalities in their appearance or behavior, because it’s all so new and incredible to behold. Well, in this case Amy and I felt we needed to give other parents a look at how that cognitive hole can end up coming back and causing issues later.

First off, Taylor is completely fine (and that is not me being in denial). He’s progressing against his developmental milestones very nicely and is a wonderful, happy little guy. I wanted to point that out up front so nobody gets freaked out.

At around his four month checkup, our doctor noticed that Taylor’s head was slightly deformed, in that he had a flat spot on his left rear side and his right rear side had become pronounced. He also noticed that his face had developed some slight asymmetric characteristics, in that his left eye was slightly larger than the right. He immediately recommended that we get X-Rays of Taylor’s head to rule out a serious condition known as craniosynotosis, where the gaps in a baby’s skull close prematurely. He was fairly certain this was not the case, but wanted to rule it our for sure.

Thankfully, the X-Rays proved our doctor’s position correct; Taylor’s skull was fine. This meant that Taylor was diagnosed with a condition known as positional plagiocephaly. Basically, it is a deformity of the skull caused by a baby’s tendency to remain in a particular position, thus putting pressure on a certain part of the skull more than others. Because an infant’s skull is soft and malleable for many months after birth, this pressure causes the skull to be rounded in an unusual way.

We had previously noticed that T tended to sleep with his head turned sharply to his left, with his chin titled upward. But we didn’t make anything of it; it was just one more lovable quirk about our little guy. It turns out that this was due to a second condition called torticollis, which is a stiffening of the muscle and tendon tissue connecting the neck to the shoulder, causing T’s head to be pulled off center. Most likely he was either born with this or it was exacerbated by his vacuum delivery; regardless the doctor explained it as being somewhat like a semi-permanent charlie horse. This caused his tendency to remain in one position, which in turn caused the deformity of his skull.

So fast forward five months later. Taylor has been being seen by a physical therapist once per week and has made tremendous progress. He can now turn his head both ways with ease and is displaying neck strength pretty much on par with where he should be (just look at the most recent pictures on this site). We’ve also been strict about changing the position he sleeps in, from both sides to his back, and even sometimes his belly (mostly at his own choice). But despite all this, his skull has not completely returned to a normal shape. Even though I would bet that most people looking at him would never notice, his left-rear side is still somewhat flattened, with an equally subtle pronouncing of his right side.

So because of this, his PT has recommended we pursue the fitting of a cranial orthotic, or basically a fancy molded helmet that will gently help realign his skull in place. Treatment will last between 3-6 months, with T wearing the helmet for up to 23 hours per day. Insurance some times does not cover this treatment, which would mean we would have the awful choice of either putting a significant dent in our emergency fund (the helmet costs about $3,000) or possibly leaving our little guy with a problem that, while it may turn out to be nothing more than cosmetic, could cause issues down the road. Needless to say if that decision comes to us, we’re choosing for Taylor’s best interest.

So why, you ask, am I writing about this? Because I hope that our experience will help other new parents to remember that while your little one may always seem perfect in your eyes, it’s also important to keep an objective (as possible) eye on their behavior and appearance. It turns out that since the advent of the “Back To Sleep” campaign, which without a doubt has had tremendous positive impact on the rate of SIDS, this condition has increased significantly. If we had noticed Taylor’s knack for sleeping and holding himself in one way earlier, the condition could well have been prevented or at least resolved without the need for expensive medical gadgets.

And by the way, helmet or no helmet, we still think our little guy is pretty damn special.

Some good resources on positional plagiocephaly:

http://www.cappskids.org/

http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/sleep/positional_plagiocephaly.html

http://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/positional_plagiocephaly.cfm

Exploring my world…

amy — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:45:51 +0000

Taylor hasn’t started to crawl yet. He can spin in circles and scoot backwards but that’s about it. However, he is finding toys to be very interesting. Here are a couple of videos of his interaction with them.

Here he is drumming on a toy box with Mommy

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGBBfV8hVIA

Here he is checking out a frisbee

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHOlcmcv_jM

Here he is trying to find the baby in the mirror

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyQ6eKoRbag

I also go this great toy from the Peters for Christmas. I play with it a lot!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW0X4lYocYI

He is so much fun to watch and videotape!

Taylor’s First Christmas

amy — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:50:10 +0000

We spent 10 days in Connecticut with my parents over Christmas. We drove up the night before the big snow storm hit the East Coast. Pennsylvania got dumped on. My inlaws got more than two feet of snow. We got about 8-10 inches in Ashford bringing Taylor his first big snow…

We were very glad we drove up the night before. Otherwise we would have been stuck in PA with no food in the fridge for a couple of days.

We did a lot of different things while we were in New England. We cheered for the Patriots. Even Taylor got excited.

We gave Taylor a bath in the kitchen sink. As always he loved his bath. He has since transitioned to the big tub and home. He is such a water baby.

Gramzee put him in a Santa hat. Here he is hamming it up for the camera.

He also took some flying lessons with Gramzee.

He also became Bugs Bunny…. “What’s up Doc?” Nom, Nom, Nom. At one point he had both carrots in has hands. It was pretty entertaining.

We also went up to Josh’s grandparents house in Beverly, MA just north of Boston. He got to meet some new friends. Here he is with his Great Aunt Pat. He was being quite a flirt.

Auntie Jane and Aunt Pat brought their dog Molly and Taylor got lots of puppy kisses. He responded very well to all of the doggie attention.

Here Taylor is flirting with Great Auntie Jane.

All of that flirting can tire a little guy out. He took a nice long snooze.

I gave Taylor a laundry basket to play with for a little while.

And all of that was before Christmas morning. Here are some great shots from Taylor’s first Christmas.

Here’s the whole family by the tree.

Taylor by the tree before he saw the presents…

Here he is after he found the presents…

Rody was a present from Santa. Taylor thinks he tastes good…

Taylor also had some fun with Tante Karen

and Unkie Junkie J

He also got to spend some time with his Great Grandma Cookie…oh yeah and a spoon. He has one of those most of the time now.

Taylor even helped Gramzee bake me a birthday cake.

We had a great holiday and are looking forward to next Christmas when Taylor understands the meaning of presents!

I’m working really hard!

taylor — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:57:33 +0000

You know, his crawling thing is hard work! I haven’t mastered how all of my parts need to work together to get me where I want to go. I’m spending a lot of time and energy trying to figure it out.