Increased Tone

Hayden's muscle tone is getting worse.  His left ankle is getting hard to straighten out enough to put in his ankle brace.  When sleeping in his feeding chair, he is much more frog legged than we have seen him in a while.  The bad part is that it is starting to affect his arms.  Lefty thumb and wrist are getting tighter also.  His thumb is staying tucked into his hand more.  When he moves it, his hand moves towards the outside of his wrist.  We are afraid that his thumb splint isn't helping enough anymore and that he'll need a wrist splint.  Poor kid isn't fond of the thumb splint since it is hot and covers up the palm of his hand--not ideal for a child who "sees" with his hands.  We doubt that he will be a fan of a wrist splint, but it is worth it for the possible use of his hand.

For the first time ever, Hayden cried and was very sensitive to the stretching and massaging I was trying to do to his legs, thumb, and wrist.  He was especially touchy about his hand.  He usually seems to like the massaging and tolerates the stretching well.  He wanted no part of any of it tonight.  He must be so tight that it just simply painful to do those things now.  It was not a good night for stretching, but it turned out to be a great night for cuddling (there never is a bad night for that).