She did it!!!

Caroline rolled over (back to tummy) for the first time last Friday!!! Easy as:

1...

2...
3...nothin' to it!!

On Friday, I had just finished giving Caroline her morning bottle and put her down on her playmat so I could go wash it out. When I came back into the room, Caroline was on her tummy. I flipped her back over, grabbed the video camera and was able to record her second roll. I'll post the video as soon as we figure out how to upload it to our computer (apparently, we bought the most complicated video camera ever created). Anyway, since Friday, Caroline has become a lean, mean rolling machine. She won't stay on her back anymore and is even rolling over in her crib and sleeping on her tummy.

I was really relieved to see her roll over. We've been practicing really hard...let me explain why. When Caroline was only 3 weeks old, I noticed that her head always rotated to the right side no matter how we positioned her. Despite our best efforts at TONS of tummy time and always repositioning her in our arms, changing table, crib, etc...she continued rotating to the right side and her head started to get a flat spot in that same area. I was so upset/frustrated by the time Caroline was 8 weeks old because it was only getting worse and we were doing everything we could think of to help. My pediatrician referred us to a cranial center to have her head/neck evaluated. To make a very long story short, it turns out that Caroline had/has a really tight neck muscle (a.k.a. torticollis) and that muscle continually pulls her head to one side. The flat spot on her head caused by the torticollis is called plagiocephaly. By the time Caroline was 3 months old, we had received 5 professional medical opinions (consisting of 2 physical therapists, 2 orthotists, and one nurse practitioner who works at the plagiocephaly clinic at Children's Medical Center). All of them recommended a cranial band (which looks like a helmet but is open at the top) to help correct Caroline's head shape and also physical therapy to help loosen her tight neck muscle.

Obviously, this was really hard on Matt and me. As Caroline's parents, we wanted to be able to help her ourselves without the use of this band! However, we knew it was best to listen to the medical professionals. We have been doing exercises with Caroline for the past 1 1/2 months to help her neck. We also decided to do the cranial band but had to wait until Caroline was 4 months old so that her neck would be strong enough to hold up her head with the band on. Well, when we went to our pediatrician for Caroline's 4 month appt, our doctor thought her torticollis and head shape had significantly improved. He recommended that we wait to get the band for one more month to see how much more Caroline's head shape will improve on its own. This was good news but also frustrating b/c I feel like we keep going back and forth on the decision to get this helmet. We have decided to give it one more month and make a final decision on September 4th when we see the pediatrician for her 5 month appt. We're having Caroline's head rescanned (more about this in a later post) on September 3rd so we'll know just how asymmetrical her head is when we see the pediatrician again.

What does all of this have to do with rolling over ? Well, because of the above mentioned situation, Caroline has not "played" on her back since she was a few weeks old. When she's been awake, we've either kept her on her tummy or sitting up. I feared that she would be really delayed in rolling over for this reason. So we've been "practicing" this for the past couple of weeks. I was so excited to see Caroline do it by herself. One of the best things about it is she is sleeping on her tummy and is off the back of her head. This should really help!! So we'll see what happens on September 3rd. Either way, we will do whatever is best for Caroline, and I'll keep updating on the blog.
(sorry for the long post :-)