Coronal Craniosynostosis

For those of you who have asked and I haven't been able to pronounce Rylee was born with Coronal Craniosynostosis.

Coronal is for the suture involved, Craniosynostosis is the premature closing of sutures, or soft spots as most of us know them as. The Coronal suture is the opening from the top of your head along the side, down to your ear. All babies are born with several openings in their cranium to allow brain growth. I had always thought there was only the one at the very top, that Pediatricians always check. Rylee was lucky, I suppose, that only her right Coronal suture was fused. Because of this condition, Rylee had major craniofacial surgery on May 31st. Our neurosurgeon was in charge of opening up the closed suture and our craniofacial surgeon (a specialized facial plastic surgeon) did work on Rylee's forehead, nose and right eye that were affected. The picture above was taken April 4th, four days after surgery. Sorry I didn't put it in the right order.

This is Rylee in the hospital on April 1st, 24 hours after surgery. In the picture you can see the drainage tube really well on the top and side of her head.

We just couldn't believe how happy Rylee was during this whole process! Even though she could barely see out of her swollen little pumpkin face, she was smiling and playing less than 24 hours after major craniofacial surgery!! The yellow stuff you see in her eye brows was an antibiotic, disinfecting type of stuff that was all through her hair too. It has the consistency of gum. It took a couple of weeks to wash out/ scrape off.

This is Rylee now! I can't believe how great everything looks! You can barely see the scar already!

Our happy girl was 10 months on the 10th...Mother's Day! And she's waving 'Hi' to everyone she knows... Strangers are a different story.

Just this week, Rylee is trying to pull up the furniture. She can pull up to her knees really well and then screams and squeals at everyone until we help her to her feet.

Rylee has never crawled, but she scoots everywhere she needs to get. The picture below is how she uses her feet to scoot around. Boy, can she ever do a 360 in no time!

I know this picture is a little blurry, but it's exactly how Rylee smiles when she's happy or excited! She is such a blessing and source of joy in our family!