When my twin babies were just a few months old, we were told that both of them had flat spots on their heads, and if we didn't intervene with physical therapy, they would likely need helmets. At the time, I was really upset, convinced it was my fault for letting them nap in their carseats. I posted about it back then...and got several nasty (and misinformed) comments that did nothing to ease my new Mom guilt. 

We did months of physical therapy and stretches, tried repositioning, but in the end, none of it worked -- at 7 months old, they both got DOC Band helmets to help reshape their heads. To the haters out there, no, they didn't get plagiocephaly and brachycephaly because I didn't hold them enough. They got it because they were full-term twins with large heads, lodged in my small pelvis. And sleeping on their backs didn't help. We were encouraged by two separate doctors to get our boys the helmets. And I'm so glad we did.

If you were told that conceiving a child through IVF would increase your odds of having a baby born with a birth defect, would it deter you? A recent study found that the risk was 37% higher for those babies, although researchers aren't entirely sure if it's because of the actual technology involved, if it's the hormones, or if the issues that may have led to a couple's infertility are responsible.

Regardless, this study isn't going to stop couples, desperate to have a family, from pursuing every option available to them. I needed help getting pregnant myself, and I can tell you that even in light of information like this, I would still have done everything possible to have a baby. Luckily for me, it worked, and I ended up with two healthy little guys. I say, thank God for the miracles of fertility treatments.

It's become frighteningly clear to me that making comments like, "My babies have never been sick," as I did in my last blog post on formula-feeding, are surefire ways to tempt fate and get a swift karmic kick in the ass. Yep, just a few days later, my 8-month-old boys got sick with fevers and colds, the works. (With that in mind, I should mention that I've never won the lottery. No big jackpot here, nope, never, not me.)

Anyway, while I thought I was pretty well prepared for my babies to get sick -- you know, armed with the infant care kit I got when I was still pregnant -- I really wasn't. Our medicine cabinet was lacking, my general knowledge was lacking, and I emotionally was not at all ready to watch my babies cry and snarf and sneeze their way through their first real colds. It taught me a few things, that's for sure...