In the spirit of sharing our children, I will share with you how Suzette as an infant taught me to be grateful for what i have as there is always someone out there worse off. When she was born I was informed her soft spot was not quite big enough, would x-ray at 2 wks, at 2 wks yes her soft spots have already grown together, 2 choices for specialist in state, 1, 1 hr away in a town i am familiar with, 2, 3 hrs away in a huge town I've only drove through couple times. So at 2 mo. we are in plastic surgons office being told she has Craniostinosis which is a calcium defeciency they don't know what causes it but it causes the skull to rapidly grow together while still in womb, at full grown age her head would be the size of a 5 yr olds, ok, have to do this cause skull will hinder brain growth right, wrong the brain only grows to the capacity of the skull without damage, this is a strickly cosmetic surgery that has to be done before the 5th mo. because brain growth is so much then the surgery wouldn't get 1/2 results after that, thank you very much, go home and decide if you want your infant to have this major head surgery and let us know!!! Here I am  new mom of 2 mo. and i have to decide this!!! I struggled with this decision for a while, they had done test that showed her brain activity was normal, so no brain handicaps. My mom finally asked me 1 day "What are you going to do when she is 12-13 yrs old and is being teased for having such a small head and as she comes home crying you tell her you could have fixed it but chose not too", good point, ok let's do this. Back and forth with plastic surgen and neurosurgen arguing over who's hospital to do it in, plastic surgen is main dr. but nuerosurgen needs this machine that is only in his hosp. so 2 days before surgery we finally find out where to go. Day before surgery check in and do c.t scan, blood work .... remember how i said she fought to stay awake? well you have to be still for c.t. so the give her relaxer by mouth-nothing, a suppository to relax, wakes up just as starting test, so knock out shot, she was still asleep when they came to get her for surgery next am! 5 hr surgery, cut from ear to ear over head, repair and creat new soft spots. 6 hrs later they call, just starting surgery, she had woke up right after putting i.v. in ankle and had kicked it out which was a mess as they had cut into ankle to go ritght into vein, then get her back to sleep. Surgery went well, she was swollen and in pain(not as much as you'de think though). they put plate and 2 screws in r. browbone to help push it out. and i find out 3 days after surgery, this can cause a lazy eye(resulting in her legally blind in r. eye). Anyway the point of all this is we were then done after 5 days to recoup we went home with no stitches and almost all swelling gone, dr. appt for couple years after, but being in the areas head childrens hosp. made me glad that was all we were there for, Surgery was day before she turned 4 mo. she weighted 18 lbs. there were 6 mo. olds there who weighed 8-12 lbs, so tiny and most everyone else there was a repeat or would be coming back for more surgerys, or had been there since birth. It really showed me how no matter what we should always count our blessings.    I guess with her b-day coming up i have been thinking of her birth alot, and this story has alot to do with the kind of mother i grew into. Anyway still a ramble of a story. hope all have a good day/nite. luv and hugs