Chunky Monkey

22 weeks

Do any of you moms have any suggestions for how to not let your kid scratch their face all up? Little gloves are out - they just make him mad and the therapist says it wouldn't be good for development. I can't possibly cut his nails any shorter. I'm afraid some of them are already too short. It seems that every day he wakes up with a new scratch on his face. You can see 2 in these pictures, but he has about 4.


Well, once again we have worries on our mind. We go in the morning to get Max's shunt checked out. He is showing some signs that there could be a problem, however, it could also be nothing. Let me just say, I am very thankful for modern medical technology, shunts, etc. Without the shunt, Max would have some serious, serious issues. However, shunts stink a little because there are no clear cut symptoms for shunt disfuntion or infection. There are things that would signal a problem, but they are all things that could have nothing to do with the shunt at all. I was just telling a friend yesterday that for the rest of Max's life, we will have to worry everytime he gets a fever, throws up, or acts out of the ordinary for no apparent reason that something is wrong with the shunt. Max is usually a very happy baby. He smiles, laughs, plays and entertains himself, and will go to just nearly anyone very easily. He usually only cries if he is really hungry or really tired and I usually feed him or put him down before we get to that point, so very few tears are usually shed around here. For about the past week we have been seeing a very different Max. He cries constantly, he doesn't want to play, doesn't want to be put down EVER and is extremely clingy to me or John. When anyone else holds him he cries a river. He also wakes up about every 30 minutes to every hour at night which is making for a very tired and grumpy baby, not to mention mommy and he hasn't been eating well at all but that's not terribly unusual. (He just got over a cold and had his ears checked out today, so he's not sick that I know of.) So, last night I got to thinking that those are all signs that I have read about indicating shunt problems. Today at therapy we couldn't even finish the session because he was crying so much and Lianne (therapist) noticed trembling in the upper extremities which isn't normal for him and she mentioned possible shunt problems. So we called Dr. Burson (neurosurgeon) and we are going in to see him in the morning. Please pray that everything is okay with the shunt. The second thing that brings concern to us at this time is his monitor. We've gotten pretty comfortable with him being off the monitor a majority of the time (never when he is sleeping or in the car), especially if we are right there with him. But, today I talked to the pediatrician's office and they just got the report from the latest download. It said that there has been recent significant apnea and/or low heart rate episodes and to continue use of the monitor. Now, that being said, the monitor doesn't go off often, so I'm not sure what the deal is with that. Although it did go off 4 times in 2 days. Uuugghh. Just one more thing to think about. I guess we'll probably keep him hooked up a majority of the time until we hear something further. Anyway, with lack of sleep and all the crying around here, I'm feeling pretty discouraged and a bit worried. Please pray that the shunt is fine and that there will be no more apnea/low heart rate problems. I'll update when I know something.