This was my baby girl, 2 weeks since having her head cut open, her skull removed and reshaped and then put back, as if recovery from that was bad enough she also caught an awful case of flu!
At first we weren’t sure whether it was flu or she had contracted some kind of infection from surgery so it was more trios to the hospital to be checked out. She was given antibiotics just in case, on top of all the other Post-Op meds she was already taking. I try and do everything as naturally as possible and don’t give strong medications unless absolutely necessary, I thought it was most likely flu since my mum also had it but I decided to play safe rather than sorry and give her the antibiotics. But she was so poorly that she couldn’t stomach anything other than my breastmilk and all medication was making her projectile vomit. So in the end we gave up and just tried to keep her comfortable and trust that my breastmilk would give her everything she needed and help her fight the flu.
Recovery was hard, I had no idea what to expect, everyone said the babies just bounce back to their normal selves and the surgeons said to just go home and back to our normal routine with regular paracetamol, well she couldn’t keep that down and so her pain was pretty bad. The nights were the worst. The back of her head had been completely broken and remoulded, in fact supporting her head when lying her down was awful because I could feel the bits of bone moving beneath my hand, it was soft and made me feel really queasy any time I thought about it. We soon realised that lying down caused her great pain and so she spent 3 weeks permanently attached to one of us, the only way I could put her down was sat up on the sofa with a pillow behind her head. At night she screamed as soon as she was put down and so she spent weeks sleeping on my chest and I slept – if you can call it sleeping – sat up in bed. I would like to point out that this is not a safe way to sleep and in no way am I recommending this, but I’m being honest and sharing how we personally survived the first painful weeks of recovery. I propped myself up in the centre of the bed with pillows supporting my arms so I wouldn’t drop her and my husband slept at the foot of our bed as that was the only space available to him. I was very much aware of Zoey while she was on me and not once did she fall or roll off me and as soon as she stirred I was awake and responsive to her. Eventually as she got better from her flu and the pain started to subside I was able to place her down next to me for some of the night with a pillow beneath her head, again pillows are not recommended before 18 months but we had to do something to help ease the pain for her and I was also very aware of her.
Her scar healed incredibly fast and the stitches just fell out We had to wash her scar every day for the first few weeks and I used nice natural baby shampoos to wash it with, at first it was hard feeling her squishy and healing head, and her scar, it felt strange as i had got used to her little sagittal long shaped head. Soon her head was feeling less soft and she was able to bare weight on it when lying down and things really started picking up, not only did we see our little girl bounce back but we saw a noticeable difference now the pressure had been lifted off her brain. She was happier and less uptight and her eyes shone brighter than ever! Oh and Daddy was aloud to sleep next to us in bed again and Zoey went back to nursing to sleep next to me without a pillow for her head.
She came on leaps and bounds in her development and became less sensitive to the noisy world around her.
These babies truely are incredible! They do bounce back and they are amazingly resilient but it’s not without intense hardship, both for our little warriors (especially when they get struck with flu!) and the worn out parents looking after them!
If you have any more questions regarding Zoey’s surgery and her recovery, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!
Cranio Shaped Mama 