fearfully and wonderfully made...: first day in the band…

Josiah’s fitting at Cranial Tech was a painless process. They had to shave off certain parts of the band that were too low. But other than that, they explained how to clean the band and take it on/off. And after that, we were pretty much free to go. Here are a few pics of our time there…

This is when Josiah first tried on the band. You can see how the front part is sitting low into his eyes. That was one of the parts the clinician shaved off.

My Smiles…

You can see how excited William is to take a picture… Josiah, on the other hand, is having the time of his life!

Josiah has a thing for William’s head. He likes touching it whenever he gets a chance.

Josiah managed to sleep in the car on the way home from Cranial Tech. In the afternoon, he was pretty much his normal, playful, smiley self... not really noticing the band was on at all. But as the afternoon progressed, he became more and more tired (since he missed both his naps earlier in the day). That was when he seemed to be really aware that the band was on and would get more fussy than normal. He always rubs his eyes and picks at his ears when he's tired and the band was in the way, so it seemed to bother him. When we put him down for his late afternoon nap, he just cried and cried. He would sleep in our arms, but when we tried to put him down, he would wake up and cry. Eventually, he wouldn't go to sleep at all on his own. =( So after his last feeding tonight, we put him down as we always do, and he went to sleep without a peep. AMAZING!!! We are incredibly grateful for the Lord's grace in this and allowing our Smiles to get some rest that he needs. Bill and I are preparing for a rough night if that's what He calls us to, but Josiah has been sleeping beautifully so far... =)
We are supposed to take the band off every 3-4 hours for 2 days. (Tomorrow will be the 2nd day.) This is to help him adjust to the band. And if we see any pink/red marks, then we leave the band off until his skin subsides back to its normal color. We need to call the clinic if there's any redness that lasts more than an hour. But if everything is ok, then we will start him on the band for 23 hrs/day on Friday. (Fun times...)
We would so appreciate your prayers that Josiah would continue to adjust well to the band, especially when it comes to sleeping. That's the only time it really seems to affect him. And also that there wouldn't be any adverse side effects (i.e. rash, sores, etc.). Please also pray for our hearts that we would be able to adequately care for him as he transitions during this season and that I (since I'm with him most during the day) would keep myself aware of any temptations to anger/frustration/irritation with the added responsibilities of the band. It's actually really low-maintenance, but things are quickly adding up during the day with Josiah's stretches and other things we have to do with him. Please pray that I would remember to turn to the Lord for His help during those times, especially when I'm tempted to just complain.
Here are some more pics of Smiles when we got home this afternoon…