Chunky Boy!

Vince weighed in today at a whopping 14.1 lbs!  24 inches long.  He is in the 95th percentile in both weight and height.  My chunky boy definitely loves to eat! :) He also got his first shots today and took them like a champ.  I mean he did scream and all but only for a second and then he was done.  It hurt my heart more than it probably hurt him.  He is hurting now though.  His poor little ham hocks are hurting him.  He'll just be sitting there or in our laps and just start crying.  It's the saddest thing ever!  We gave him some baby acetimenophen to help him feel better.  She said everything else looked okay.  I raised concerns about the shape of his head and she agreed with me.  She likes to be proactive about the head shape since there is only a small window of opportunity for them to fix it.  I think by 2 years old there is really nothing else they can do about it since their bones fuse together by then.  She also said the younger they are, the less time they will have to wear it.  What is IT you're asking?  A Cranial Band also known as a helmet.  For those who haven't seen Vince in person, he has a pretty flat head.  We do tummy time and hold him and have him sleep on his side part of the time, and so on but have not been able to make a difference.  I asked her if it was our fault but she said that part of it might have been the way he was positioned in my uterus.  He did have a HUGE conehead when he was born.  As a matter of fact, the doctor said that he had the pointiest head she had ever felt.  And this was BEFORE he was born.  Has something to do with confined uterine space. I'm sure the fact that babies need to sleep on their backs to prevent SIDS doesn't help it any but what are you gonna do??  Anywho, we scheduled an appointment with a place that makes the bands for next Wednesday.  My insurance will cover it, thank God, because I hear they are pretty pricey.  If he has to have one, we have to try some different techniques at home for two months first.  Our insurance won't allow them to have a helmet until 4 months of age anyway so that would work out good.   He will have to wear it for 23 hours a day.  No way of knowing how long until they evaluate him.  We will have to go once a week or bi-weekly to have it adjusted.  Research has shown that an abnormally shaped head doesn't affect brain development but we really don't want him to have a really weird shaped head if there is something non invasive that we can do about it.  It can affect him later on if he ever has to wear glasses and helmets for sports and things like that.  So we are all for it if it will help him.  The cool thing about these helmets is that you can decorate them.  Who wants to look at a plain white helmet for months??  Not us!  Or Vince for that matter.  :)  Granny Jan, I feel a job for you coming on.  Oh and the kidney thing we will just have to monitor.  Nothing we can do about it now so we will check it again in 6 months.  I found a pic online of a helmet and here is a pic of poor little Vinceypoo sacked out in his swing with his rhino jammies on.  Poor boy has slept most of the day.  We did purchase a thing called a Noggin Nest about a month ago that we have been using in his chair.  It has a hole cut out of the middle to take the pressure off the back of his head.  We're gonna take the lamb ears out of his swing and put the Noggin Nest in it instead.  Whatever helps right??  I'll update more after our appt. on Wednesday that I'm going to have to miss because of school. :( 

Jen

Rhino jammies are mommy's favorite. :)

Took me forever to find a pic where it didn't show the baby's face.  His would look different based on what needs to be fixed.