Today's post was going to be about Poppy's second trip to the Physio for her Torticollis. Before I get on to that though I need to vent.
Oh my god!! She is being a total nightmare at the moment! I think I have been spoiled with a pretty well behaved baby so all this crying, fussiness, not sleeping and always feeding baby I have now is a bit of a shock. When we were finding it difficult in the early days and that Colic week, now known in our house as "the week from hell", everyone just kept saying "don't worry it all gets better when they get to 3 months". At the time reaching 3 months seemed like an eternity as Poppy would have to live her whole life all over again and then some. For her, it literally was more than a lifetime to wait.
Well I have news for all you 3 month fans. She was fine until she hit 3 months!!! You were all wrong. You lied to us. Now she is 3 months old she has stopped the regular 7 hour sleeps at night. Last night she was averaging 1.5 hours. She has stopped sleeping during the day. And playing. Now she likes to cry, feed or just hang out on my lap, thereby massively restricting my ability to do anything. (Although you may have noticed I have found time to write this. I also have managed to get a bolognese bubbling away on the hob - but that's beside the point).
Vent over.
Apparently the Popster found herself in a bit of a tight spot when she was inside the womb and that has caused her to get a tight muscle on the left side of her neck. When I was pregnant everything inside was supposed to squash up to make room for the baby. It was supposed to give me heartburn and reduce my appetite as my stomach was so squashed. Well my insides didn't want to make room for the baby and my appetite certainly didn't want to give anything up at all. At 37 weeks I was still eating huge roast dinners and having 2nd helpings followed by large puddings! All this resulted in the Popster having only a small space to inhabit and feeling squashed - no wonder she decided to come out early. The tightness means when on her back, (which is the majority of the time), she turns her head to the right. Due to babies having squidgy heads, all the time she spends with the right side of her head against a flat surface has meant her head has been moulded to be flat on that side. It is very noticeable. The Popster has a flat head!
Today was the Popsters second visit to the Physio. Her 1st was 2 weeks ago when she was diagnosed and I was given an exercise for her to do as much as possible. The exercise involves Poppy laying on her back and me putting my hands either side of her head and making sure she has it central. So far so easy. I then take my right hand and place it on her right shoulder and gently apply pressure with my left hand to her head in order to push it to her left side, whilst holding her right shoulder down. Sounds easy doesn't it? And it would be if the Popster didn't use all her strength to push back and prevent me from moving her head at all. Surely you're stronger than a baby? I hear you all yell. Yes of course I am, but she is damn strong and I don't want to force it. I would be more than a tad upset if I managed to break her neck!! Anyway, despite the Popsters baby super hero strength I have successfully been performing the exercise for the last 2 weeks.
She is no fool though and totally knows what's about to happen every time I put my hands on either side of her head. Her eyes open wide and a look of mild peril takes over her face. Her body tenses and legs fly up. She likes to make it as difficult for me as possible. She doesn't want to turn her head - there isn't anything to see on the left hand side. Ever. Left hand side, schmest hand side. It's over rated. It's all about the right hand side. I have tried to fool her by putting my hands either side of her head and kissing her instead, but that seems to make her tense as well. Story of my life!
Her appointment was at 2.30pm at The Phoenix Centre in Bromley - about a 20mins drive from here. Ideally we want to turn up at Physio with the Popster happy, and awake. Given the morning we had that was proving to be tricky. In the end she demanded food at 1pm - about an hour earlier then she should have been feeding and half an hour earlier than I wanted her to feed. As it turns out it was lucky she did demand food then as she took over half an hour with her lunch. Usually she is very satisfied after 10mins so a half hour feed involving both boobs and crying was not expected. It turned out to be quite good though as she was so full she was then happy to just lie on the sofa quietly while I made and ate my lunch. The drive to physio then sent her to sleep. This meant I arrived at physio with a happy baby but one that was sleepy and with a belly full of milk, (and, as it soon transpired, a pooey nappy).
Popster did very well. We had a bit of crying and screaming but then so would you if you had a tight neck and someone kept turning it the way that makes it hurt! The Popster did us proud and impressed Helen with her ability to turn her neck both ways when sitting. She noticed Poppy now lies in the shape of a back to front C. She explained sometimes the tightness follows the whole body down and the whole thing takes on a bent look. Nothing to worry about though, it is only the neck we need to deal with.
We now have a new exercise to do and an adapted one to do if Poppy's super strength is too much. I have a way to trick her into the exercise that utilises the power of gravity! The new exercise seemed to be one that Poppy greatly enjoyed - we very nearly got a smile out of her.
This all means I have 2 weeks to get Poppy in neck training. I'm hoping we will return to The Phoenix Centre in 2 weeks time with the new knowledge that there is stuff to see on the left after all. The left will be the new right. (although if the left really did become the new right she would then get a flat head on the left side. She would then have a head flat on both sides - not a good look.)
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