As if I didn’t have enough on my plate already before, during and after my recent pregnancy, I’m presented now with yet another strange roadblock. Andrew has had a ridge on his forehead for awhile now and it only seems to have become more prominent throughout the past weeks. My husband and I had talked about it before, but weren’t too concerned because it never really looked odd. We didn’t even think to bring it up to his doctor during our appointment last Friday, but after I had some time to digest everything that we’d learnt from that appointment, one thing stuck out to me – the fact that he’s only around the 10th percentile for head circumference. He’s at about the 90th for height and 25th for weight so it didn’t seem like too much of a shock and I know you’re not supposed to obsess over those numbers, but regardless, I did what any mother shouldn’t do and consulted the Internet. Not always the best idea because most of the time you only find worst case scenarios (oh my god, your baby is going to die!), but when a doctor isn’t currently available and your mind gets to wondering, why not dig through the crap in hopes of finding something relevant and factual?

I don’t remember what I looked for, but it was something along the lines of “baby small head circumference” and ended up on some forum. There, a woman had written about her son’s head measuring well below average and that he also had a ridge on his forehead that stretched from his nose upward. Naturally, I started to become concerned because this seemed to explain my son’s “problem” to a T. I had more research to do now.

I ended up on some neurosurgery website that had an article about craniosynostosis. It’s a condition where the plates in the skull fuse together prematurely, which can lead to a distortion of the skull as the brain continues growing in the path of least resistance. From what I read, simply having a ridge on the forehead isn’t so much a cause for concern as is the disappearance of the soft spot. Andrew was in bed at the time so I waited until I had to feed him to feel for it. I traced the ridge on his forehead up from his nose, past his hairline and was not able to find the soft spot. I was also shocked to find that the ridge extended past his hairline. Before, I thought it was only on his forehead.

I called his doctor about it yesterday and explained my concern to the receptionist. She put me on hold for a few minutes, then came back on to tell me that we’d have to cone in for a visit. This worried me because any other time I call, a nurse is able to answer my questions. This must’ve been serious if she wanted to see us. Once I got to the doctor, I began to second guess myself. Did I really need to be there? Was I, as a first-time mother, simply overreacting? Are they going to look at me like I’m silly because this is normal? I had to reassure myself that, even if there was nothing wrong, I would at least have the opinion of a professional.

Turns out, my assumptions were true. His doctor was glad that I caught it early and explained that she’d only seen something like this once in her career. She wants us to bring him to the children’s hospital for a CT scan. I don’t really like the idea of exposing such a tiny body to that kind of radiation, but I feel it’s necessary in this situation. If he does indeed have craniosynostosis, we’ll have to take him in for surgery to have it corrected. Operating on the skull of an infant seems like it could be risky and dangerous, but from what I’ve read and what the doctor has told me, it really isn’t that difficult a procedure. At least all we have to deal with is the ridge and not some of the skull and face deformities that I’ve seen in pictures.

This isn’t exactly what I wanted to be worrying about right now, but if he needs surgery so that we can avoid future problems, it has to be done. My husband and I feel so bad for the little guy. We’re going to take him in for the CT scan on Monday since he doesn’t get off work until Friday and will be too tired from his trip to do it then..

With me and MTHFR and him with craniosynostosis, how many more odd conditions can we have? He and I are definitely defying odds here, and not in a good way! Actually, his doctor wants to have some genetic testing done on him once this is all over in order to make sure there isn’t anything else we need to be looking at. I’m not so thrilled about that, either, because I know how much blood they had to take from me to do it. That definitely was not the best day of my life…and neither will be Monday.