The Berenstain Bears

A couple of weeks ago David & I bought a "lot of 42 Berenstain Bear Books" off ebay for $50. We figured:
1. Ashton needs to know and love Brother Bear, Sister Bear, Mama Bear & Papa Bear.
2. We are building his library.
3. Some of these books are out of print.
4. and most importantly David & I wanted to own them and read them all again!
 Satuday morning at 8:30 Ashton decided he really wanted to read a book. Here he is waiting patienly while his Dad tries to figure out how long he can sleep with Ashton in his arms.

David finally gave in.

Maybe Ashton wasn't so interested after all...
Thank you Stan & Jan Berenstain!

White Coat Ceremony

Sorry the pictures are small... they take too long to upload. David getting his white coat.

All the students reading the "Dentist's Pledge" or something like that.

David's parents.

Poor Ashton getting squished between us.

David, Joey & Adam. As they were trying to pose and look professional I thought to myself... "And this is the future of our dental health care." We trust them though... right?

Explanation...

Sorry I didn't mean to throw out a date about Ashton's surgery and not explain it to you.

So here's the story:
When Ashton was a couple weeks old we started to notice the back of his head was kind of pointed. The pediatrician just told us to make sure he was sleeping on the back of his head and that it would fix itself and if not around 6 months they would put him in a helmet to reshape his head. Well around the new year we started to notice his head becoming more pointed so I looked up some stuff on the internet and found out he had saggital craniosynostosis. I went in and told the pediatrician what I thought and she got a CAT scan to confirm it. Sure enough that's what it was... did I mention that I LOVE the world wide web?

Anyway craniosynostosis is just a fancy word to say that a suture of the skull has fused prematurely. When we're born the sutures are open to allow the brain to grow up and then they eventually close as a child grows. Ashton's sagittal suture (the one that runs vertically over the head) has been fused shut (we think) since before he was born. So instead of the back of his head growing normally it is growing out the back because it can't grow up. It's not super obvious for someone who isn't looking for it - but as he grows it becomes more prominent.

Long story short: A pediatric craniofacial plastic surgeon and a neurosurgeon on April 1st are going to go in and reopen up that suture and reconstruct the back of his skull. They won't touch the brain and there will be no brain damage. It's scary to say head surgery but like I said we have the best doctor and the recovery isn't that bad at all. He will spend two nights in the hospital and within two weeks his skull will be completely healed. He'll have no limitations after the surgery he wont even need to wear a bandage or a helmet over his head.

We just feel super grateful we caught it early, that we have insurance, and great doctors. And Ashton is such a trooper we know he will be just fine!

Some pictures...

I told my mom I'd post some pictures for her. So here they are.


When I was pregnant my parents sent me a card that looked like this. I loved it so much that I tortured David & Ashton trying to re-enact it.

Just chillin. Ashton loves his hand... he has found his thumb quite a few times. We can't wait for him to become a regular thumb sucker so we don't have to keep putting the binky back in his mouth.

He loves to sit in the boppy.

He's a smiley guy. His favorite place is actually the changing table. It doesn't matter what is going on once we put him up there to change him he starts to coo and smile.

Can't you tell they're both thrilled to take this picture? This was taken on a "break" from trying to take the feet picture. My 2 models earned a rest but notice their feet are still in position.

Other than that nothing too new. Ashton got his shots on Monday and was pretty fussy that night so David & I took him on a walk - although David kept trying to go "off roading" with the stroller. Also we found out our little chunk is in the 90th percentile for weight at 13 lbs and 3 ounces. And 75th percentile for height.

His head surgery is scheduled for April 1st we are anxious to have it done and over with but resting calm knowing that our doctor is pretty well known and one of the best in the craniofacial field.