2 Months Old!

SuperTanner is 2 months old!  We're so glad that he is finally feeling better!  Tanner loves to lay in his crib watch his mobile or to lay on his mat and watch the lights and music.  It's so cute to watch him get excited and kick his arms and legs when we turn them on.  He is is 10 1/2 pounds and in the 20th percentile.  I think that makes him my biggest baby.  The dr is impressed with how well he's grown considering how sick he was!  

If you look at previous pictures, you'll see that these are some of the first ones where he is not looking to his right side.  When I took him to the dr when he first got sick, she noticed that his head was looking a little lopsided and referred me to a physical therapist.  It turns out that he has torticollis.  Basically it means that he has tight neck muscles and isn't able to turn his head.  We had noticed that he ALWAYS looked to the right, but never really gave it much thought.  But apparently he was this way in the womb and that's what caused this.  

We went to his first physical therapy appointment in March.  His therapist's name is Lisa and she is very sweet.  She took measurements of his head in two different directions.  The difference in the measurements was 15 mm, which is considered severe.  Our goal is to get that measurement down under 10 mm, at least, by 6 months of age.  Helmets are not an option until they are 6 months old, so we have a good 4 months to get his head back into shape!  The therapist taught us some exercises and stretches to do at home-- just simple things like helping him look to his left, and bending his left ear to his left shoulder.  We also have to increase the amount of tummy time we do.  After just the first few days, we noticed a difference!  Tanner was laying in bed with me and Brent one morning just a few days later and we saw him turning his head back and forth looking around the room!  Before he would just move his eyes as far to the side as he could to look left.  We were so happy and proud of him!!  It's like a whole new world opened up for him!  

We started out going to physical therapy once a week, but now we go every other week.  He's doing great looking both ways when he's laying on his back.  We still need to work on looking to his left when he's being held and also on his tummy.  Last time we went to physical therapy, she measured his head again.  The difference between the sides was down to 11 mm!  He's making such great progress and I'm hoping that we can avoid having to wear a helmet this summer!