Luke's Helmet Appointment

Today we went to Chicago to Luke's helmet "casting" appointment. We had to leave at 730am in order to get to our appointment by 11:00. Lane came with us today and both boys were absolutly angels in the car. Luke slept alot and Lane watched movies, colored, played trucks( I saved certain trucks for over a week and hid them telling him I didn't know where they were so they would be special when he got restless in the car and at the doctors office and IT WORKED:) He was very happy to see them!) I was so proud of our 2 year old for waking up and 15 mins later being put into a 3 hour car ride then have to be "tame" and behaved in a waiting room, and doctors office, then back in the car immediatly after! He was PERFECT!! We did stop at the outlet mall in Aurora on our way home (but he was then confined into a stroller immediatly so that was just more sitting!!) Finally on the last strip of the mall and out to the car he walked holding our hands(they got sweaty fast) and he was on cloud nine! Kicking his little feet saying "wee" and swinging and enjoying his partial freedom! Then...back in the car!! And he STILL did great:) Then as soon as we got home it was lots of playing catch and rough housing for 45 minutes until he settled down! :) We love our little mister!! Ok now on to our little helmet guy:) The people at the office were SOOO NICE! We got there early and said we'd go take a walk if they weren't ready but they were fine with us being there and got us in fairly quickly. While I was waiting to check Luke in I saw an adorabe little girl(probably about 5-6 montths old) in a purple butterfly helmet! She was such a cutie. Then we met a mom with a just turned 3 year old(who brought a car and a truck with him and Lane and him were instantly buds) and her 8 month old son Dylan who had a helmet on. The way Dylan laid in her womb made his head misproportioned and neck weak so he is wearing one for a few months. He also looked soo cute. She said her son Quinn asked for one for his 3rd birthday!! (So he got a bike helmet instead:) When we got in to the room they did lots of messuring and he explained that Luke would be wearing it until his next appointment with Dr. Reid (which is in Decemeber so Luke will wear it approximatly 5 months). He was VERY impressed by Luke's healing and ecspecially his scar. He couldn't believe he had surgery only 7 weeks ago!:) :) :) We LOVVEE to hear that ecspecially from people that are in this field and are very knowledgeable in his situation. So the room (of course) was bright colors, had toys, mirrors, fish posters ect...so Lane was in heaven and wasn't even effected by the 3-4 minutes of crying from his brother. He did look over at him a few times but I quickly distracted him and he didn't think a thing of it! Matt had to hold Luke down wearing just his diaper as they put vaseline all over his neck(to prevent any of the soft fiberglass from sticking to his skin), then they put a white stocking/panty hose over his head. It looked exactly like the black one they use in movies for robbers or something like that with the little knot on the top of it. IT WAS SOOOO CUTE. Of course he hated it but he was so adorable....it pushed his little nose up and his eyes look Chinese and with all his rolls he looked just like a sumo wrestler. I so badly wish we could have taken a picture!!!! Then they wrapped a few layers of that wet soft fiberglass mesh on his head and then he pressed on his head in certain areas helping it mold...then he had to sit there a couple minutes. Then he cut off all the material and I got to swoop him up and make it all better:) We wiped all the vaseline off him and we got to pick out the design on his helmet. Matt picked Camo for our 1st pick ( I think a little army man for his first halloween may be in order:) and then a white one with race cars and trucks on it for the second pick and blue race car/truck one for our 3rd pick. Guess we'll see what we get:) We didn't have as many options as I expected....well actually there was alot of designed options just not alot that were our taste. And the only solid color I think they offered was white.(Which we could have done with stickers but I thought that'd get pretty dirty:). They then told us that they would send it to our insurrance to see how much they will cover and let us know. It should be ready in about a week or two and then we will get to go to naperville to retrieve his helmet and continue our appointments there. It sounds like he will need it fitted every week at first and then later on every 2-3 weeks. We are just thankful that they have a naperville office and that will take a good hour(and lots of sitting in traffic) off of our time:) PRAYING that we will be able to see him on Mondays(Matt's day off). The guy we saw today said that Tom in Naperville who we will be seeing is actually his boss and specializes in the helmets amongst all of the other equipment they deal with. So that was very encouraging and good to hear we will be working with the cheif of this situation. During the adjustments it sounds like they will be shaving off areas of the helmet(from the inside of course) to make it tight in the areas it needs be(his temple area) and expand the other areas that need to grow. He said that he will be cutting out the area above his ears because he wants that area to expand to let it catch up with the protruding temple spot. They ensured us that kids have no problems wearing these helmets. They don't usually ever seem bothered by them and sleep just fine. He will need to wear it 23 hours a day(the other hour is for batheing him and cleaning the helmet). We will get to work up to that 23 hour a day mark the first week of having it here...an hour on and hour off two hours on two hours off ect.... Here are a few pictures of the day....

Here is the boys on the way to chicago...Lane watching a movie and Luke just chilling. :)

Here is Luke after he pulled his carseat canopy down so he could look out the window at the busy traffic:)

Lane being a good big brother staying seated in his chair as wait for the casting to begin

After the casting....his little arms were soo pink from Daddy having to hold him so tight and still! Everyone did a great job:) He's soo cute:)