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Astronaut? Hockey player? No, just Corban.

After 9 months of enduring hockey player jokes, being compared to an astronaut, a football player, a helicopter pilot or a creature from outer space, Corban is FINALLY able to put away one of his many hats. Well, really his only hat for the past 9 months.

With cranial molding helmet in hand, he braved the heat of a scorching hot summer, sweat great drops of sweat every other minute, endured nasty stinky hair matted down to his head with a perma-wave sticking up on top, trudged through the embarrassment of his mother taking him out in public... NAKED,  suffered through staff infections, sore spots on his scalp, hair being pulled out accidentally and many other tribulations due to this unusual hat of his.

So it brings me (and Corban) great pleasure to announce today...... he's done! The day has finally come! Corban is finished with his helmet. And while his head is not PERFECT, it is a far cry from where it was 9 months ago.

To show you, I have constructed a before and after pose. (Before: May 2012, After: January 2013)

Can you see where the top back of his head was quite flat and sort of pushed up at the top? Now it's much more round, smooth and shave-able. He'll thank us one day.

Perhaps you are wondering why we needed a helmet in the first place? Well, after spending the first 5 months of his life lying on his back in the NICU, with the first 2 months of it not being able to be picked up (due to 4 broken bones), Corban really couldn't pay much attention to the back of his head. And we couldn't either. We were dealing with much bigger issues then, like keeping him alive.

But after getting him home and settled, we realized that we had only a short window of opportunity to correct his head. Problem was, we realized that when he was close to 10 months old, so it made the whole process take a lot longer than normal with less improvement than typical. A treatment that ideally should be started with a 4-6 month old baby, and worn approximately 4 months, ended up taking 9.

So, the helmet-wearing endeavor took a lot longer than we had hoped and turned out to be a lot more work than we initially thought, but looking back we're glad we did it. No regrets. The improvement he made was well worth all the appointments, adjustments, driving time, discomfort, inconvenience, cost and so forth.

That's not to say I'm not THRILLED to be done with that thing! Oh man. Really, all of us are quite relieved to close that chapter in our lives--especially our little Corbantor. No more sore spots, no more infections and no more sweaty stinky head! Ah, what a relief!.

But the best part? He can finally show off his beautiful flowing locks and listen to all his many adoring fans gush over his crazy amazing hair. Because it really is amazing hair. And it truly is....... Ca-RaZy!!!! (just like him)