Wonder Woman...

Mabel is Wonder Woman! She has been doing so well the last few days with her new found freedom. We even went to lunch brace free! Our schedule is typically brace off in the morning and afternoon for three hours at a time. She is really trying to get on her knees in the crawling position and she's sitting so well considering she had just perfected it before the cast and hasn't done it in about four months! Nothing is so cute as to see her sitting there on her own. Her balance has gotten so well that she can now sit up unassisted in her brace! Her speech is getting pretty good too as she tries to imitate our words a lot. All this excitement has caused her to really rebel her bedtime. She has good nights and bad, but over all the nights have been a million times better than they were while she was in the cast.

I have found this whole process of Mabel's hip dysplasia treatment to be so fascinating...I mean it isn't fun to go through, but the whole process is very interesting. It is amazing that before the diagnosis I had never heard of hip dysplasia, but now when I mention that Mabel has it most people say they knew some one who had it. For anyone out there who comes across my blog researching because of a new diagnosis, there is so much support out there. The process is at times tough and so emotional, but it does get easier - Mabel is smiling giggling proof of that.

Best News Ever...

Mabel had her two week post cast and brace appointment yesterday morning. The doctor was very happy with her progress, he also liked her brace! He said her hip feels very stable and he would like to see her have SIX hours of brace free time a day to help loosen up that left leg! Six hours!!!!! That's right our Mabel can be free range for six hours a day. We can cuddle her brace free, she can play brace free, she can sit, use her high chair...there are so many great things she and we can do! Mabel was so cute when the doctor was explaining everything to us and telling us what he thought, she was nodding and smiling at the right times and pointing at her brace when he talked about it. He was so taken by how much she was in the conversation, it was really sweet.

So our new plan: in the morning Mabel gets three hours brace free while we do our morning stuff. Then when I get home from work she gets three more hours until bath time is over. Yesterday was like a dream as I watched her marvel at the fact that she was playing in the living room all free, she looked at me like, "are you sure I'm allowed to do this?" I feel like we are doing something wrong by taking the brace off, but it is so great. Mabel quickly remembered how to sit upright and she tried to crawl up on a foot stool! We're going to have a very very mobile Mabel on our hands soon!

Making Lemonade...

Well, I was sick of seeing this ugly sterile white brace on my cutie, not to mention that the cat fur in our home from our three cats just stick to this thing resulting in lint rolling and cleaning all the time because it looks awful! So Mabel and I one night while she played brace free before her tub took lemons (or in this case her ugly brace) and made lemonade (in this case a fun brace).

Mabel was so excited when she saw me decorating her brace. She kept crawling up on my lap to look at what I was doing. I added flowers to the plastic part of the bum and then took ribbon and added velcro to it so it can just velcro onto the velcro straps, that way I can change the look if I wanted. I went for fun and it worked now when I look at her in her brace I smile! I was so excited to show Zack and when he looked at it he said "it's a little busy isn't it?" Ok, yes it is busy, but it is fun. Flowers and polka dots! Mabel loves it she points at the polka dots on the straps.

It worked for me, now I don't feel like I need to cover the brace up all the time, I actually like to see it now!

Our new system...

OK, so I wasn't happy with how the sleep training was going. I know we had great success with this system before, but Mabel was much younger and she hadn't been through everything that she has gone through with her treatments. A no-cry solution is only no cry if the baby isn't screaming bloody murder. I can't take her crying like that and when she clings to me for dear life as I try to put her in her crib, that is not how I want her to think of bedtime. I realize three months of bad sleep won't be undone in a couple of days so we are taking a more gradual approach. I have to feel what I'm doing is right for her, yes I want Mabel to be able to sleep well so in turn we can sleep well, but I also want Mabel to feel good about bedtime. A tall order, but we can figure it out with minimal screaming... I hope!

Mabel is adjusting so well to life in her brace. She is moving great and pulling herself to sitting and still loves to play her piano as you can see! Her legs are already gaining muscle tone, the right leg she will stretch straight out (she is so tall), but she still keeps the left in the spica cast position, I'm sure that will take some time.

It has only been a little over a week since we lost the cast, but it feels like a distant memory - I like that. I love having bath time back and most of all my soft squishy baby. Mabel is sure to continue to amaze me with her new abilities, that I'm sure of.

Picking up where we left off...

Well, the last three months have really made their mark on Mabel's sleeping habbits. Mabel has never been a strong sleeper. At about five months I was so exhusted from her waking on average five times a night. Zack and I were both so tired during the day and I didn't know what to do to make it better. You just have no clue how to help a baby learn to sleep through the night and I hate hearing her cry...bad combination. I then bought a book and we used the technique to help Mabel sleep. It is a no-cry solution, but the reality is if you change the situation the baby will cry, but it isn't the "let the baby cry alone in the room" system either. It took a couple of weeks but we were amazed by the end of a month Mabel was sleeping through the night. She was going to bed the same time every night and waking the same time in the morning. It was a mirical!

Fast forward to now...the three months Mabel spent in that cast, plus the bad cold she had a couple of weeks ago really, really messed up all the progress we made with our sleep training. Well, now that the cast is gone and Mabel is use to her brace we are starting over with our sleep system...Mabel is not happy. Unhappy Mabel leads to unhappy Momma and then inturn unhappy Papa...not fun bedtimes right now. We started two nights ago cold turkey, although I did tell Mabel over and over again what I was planing...maybe she wasn't listening? So the new, or I guess old rules are back in play: No more nursing to fall asleep. No more nursing at night. When it is time for bed Mabel goes in the crib and that is it. Simple rules, hard to follow.

I can't stand hearing Mabel cry, espically when I know I can fix it. The first night she yelled at me for two hours because I wouldn't nurse her to sleep, but in my defence I nursed her for an hour and a half before we even went upstairs for bed, that is a lot of nursing! She tried to pull herself up in her crib, she was sitting and fell back. She cried, I cried, it was a mess. Last night was a bit smoother, she yelled at me for only 45 minutes because of the no nursing to sleep and in the crib rule - no tears just lots of yelling. I hate it, but I also need my sleep and laying on her bedroom floor with her for two hours a night waiting for her to fall asleep only to have her cry five minutes after I put her in her crib isn't working either. Well, we did it before we'll do it again...It is a lot harder now that she is 13 months, she can reach through her crib to try and touch me sweetly saying Mama. It kills me!

A very exciting and happier note is Mabel can sit. She pulls herself up to her piano to play and she can sit when she has something behind her. She's amazing, truely a resoursful girl! I can't get over how well she adjusts to things! Here's to hoping she adjusts to the sleep training again!

Getting back to normal...

Mabel seems to be adjusting well now. It appears as we are too! Mabel is over her cold so I know that helps a lot and she is wanting to play on the floor and with her toys like before. She seems accustom to the sensation of the brace and moving around is quite like being in the cast - just lighter. I typically put clothes over the brace like I did with the cast, but when she's just playing in her room in a onsie and leg warmers I laugh when I see the "MEDIUM" sticker on the butt of her brace. When I saw it at the doctors for the first time I thought it was like a bowling shoe with the size on the back...I don't know why I think that is funny but I do.

The diaper changing has really fallen into place and she does seem to sleep better in the brace than the cast *knock on wood*. The last couple of nights have been much better nights. Sunday to Monday she woke for two hours around midnight, Monday to Tuesday she didn't wake during the night but woke super early at 5:20am and last night I just had to tend to her around 11pm when she woke, but she fell right back to sleep. Hopefully the sleeping will improve and we can pick up where we left off before the spica cast came into our life. I imagine the brace is much more comfortable since she doesn't have an inch thick thing around her waist making laying on her tummy or back a weird angle. The brace makes it so when she is on her tummy, like she likes to sleep, she is flat, the only thing going around her waist on the front is a strip of Velcro!

So I have to say all is getting back to normal around here, Mabel seems happy and that makes everyone happy. Last night Mabel and I were cuddling on the couch before bedtime and she kept putting her foot on my chin and giggling. I was cradling her and I thought: "wow she hasn't been able to do that in a long time...wait a minute here...how is she doing that?" I opened up her sleep sack and she had some how bent her knees into each other. The adjustable screw on the bar of the brace was loose and it went from like a 90 degree angle to like a 60 degree. Zack got a screwdriver and we had to tighten that back up. Poor Mabel, she was so excited. I have a feeling we'll have to keep checking that!

I'm back at work as of yesterday - our horrible vacation has come to an end, maybe next time we are on vacation we won't have the worst cold in the world! I'm still getting over mine - yuck!

Starting over again...

Well, yesterday and last night weren't any better for Miss Mabel. She really does hate this adjustment and although I'm not surprised it is really hard to see her like this. I've been thinking back to when she came home in the cast and how hard that was, it is very similar right now as we try to get our new systems into play. On Mabel's end it will just take her time to adjust to this huge change in her life. She is three months older now and more aware of how she's feeling but unable to fully verbalize those feelings. She seems so upset most of the time and I just feel so bad and helpless as I watch her struggle with this. I never thought I'd long for the spica cast and it isn't that I would want it back, but there was the comfort in knowing what we were doing and I miss that...it will feel normal again soon, I mean if a spica could feel normal than a brace can too right?

The bright side at this point is everything we had to use for the cast works and is needed for the brace, so we are covered there. I think I've accepted that the dreams of sitting and standing are out the window right now and I'm treating this as almost an extension of the cast with the bonus of a daily bath. I'm frustrated that I can find little to no information regarding the transition of baby from cast to brace or caring for a baby in a brace. It is sad that there aren't more resources on this too.

Our diaper changing seems more smooth and although Mabel still hates how it feels, she isn't as frantic when we do it. I try to remind myself it is much like when she was a newborn and she hated getting dressed and undress, she just needed to get use to the sensations...it is kinda the same thing.

I think what is hard is Mabel is still struggling with the last few symptoms of her cold, as we all are here, and that on top of everything else has made for some rough patches. She hasn't wanted to play on the floor much, or play for that matter. She wants to be held, but then pushes me away. She's been having little tantrums too as she deals with all these feelings she can't define. Last night as she fought bedtime it was so hard to see her try to fall asleep then just cry and ask me to pick her up, then when I did she'd push me away and try to hit me so I would have to put her down again and she was just so upset. What upsets me is there is nothing I can do for her except support her the best I can. The cast took her some getting use to, over a week before she really was accepting of it, so I'm hoping that in a weeks time she'll have a new perspective on this too and that vicious cold is completely gone!

I want my happy Mabel back, she's in there somewhere and I know she'll come back out soon, you can't hold her back!

Hold habbits die hard...

Mabel is having a hard time saying good-bye to the cast. You can imagine how strange she is feeling since the last three months have been encased in that hard shell. All these new sensations and this new brace has been a lot for her the last few hours. Hopefully the adjustment period will be brief. She has been crying a lot when it comes to diaper changing and the brace has to come off. I can't blame her, I mean it must feel so weird right now. I realize there will come a time when it will be the other way around and she'll fight us as we put it on her!

I thought if I could change a diaper in a spica the brace would be a breeze...well...the brace isn't that easy either! There are straps, Velcro and foam to deal with and a baby that right now doesn't want to have any of it. There will be an adjustment period. I'm hoping that by the end of this weekend I'll have a method that seems to work, otherwise it is a comedy of errors watching us manipulate that thing, especially last night in the dark! Yikes, poor Mabel must be wondering what the heck have we traded her cast for?

It is funny, you know we were living for this cast coming off and I'm so excited about it, it almost feels like a dream that she isn't in it anymore. She feels so light and even in the brace so squishy and soft, but you forget that your baby doesn't have these same feelings as you. From Mabel's point of view this may be a loss for her, she had security and comfort in that cast. She'll adjust, but it is still a hard time for her.

We've had a few disappointments. Footie PJ's don't fit with her legs needing to be in that crazy position. We even tried a size up. I was so sad, I really was so excited about those PJ's. I think I can alter them, but I was really looking forward to not having to do that anymore. Also, I was hoping she could wear regular clothes again, but this brace is pretty much like her cast just less bulky. Her legs are still in that crazy shape so no, she can't wear the cute little things I've got in her closet...but I do have a lot that are larger so maybe in a couple of months? The brace is a pain, don't let anyone say it isn't! Right now the only thing that makes this better than the cast is it can come off so we can give her a bath. Other than that it is a crazy device with hooks, pulleys and straps that makes life hard. It has a plastic bar across her legs that hurts when I hold her on my hip or belly. The legs are set at such an extreme angle that I don't see how she would ever be able to sit up or learn to stand and that is disappointing...but lets put it in perspective here, this is the next step. It is a step slightly up and soon it will get better as she heals she'll need it less and less and I'm sure we'll get use to it as we did the cast...we have to right?

Good-bye Cast...

And hello soft baby legs!

At 8:30am this morning Mabel was freed from her cast. It is history...well, it is in pieces in our dining room ready to be taped together for posterity, but it is now a piece of Mabel's past.

This morning went great, I couldn't have asked for a better scenario. Mabel did so well as they cut her cast off, no tears or anything. She wasn't even scared! I was so worried that she would be afraid of the saw being it was so loud and attached to a vacuum, but I guess with all my obsessive vacuuming and the fact that she got use the blow dryer right next to her when drying her cast, she wasn't fazed at all by the saw. She is such a brave girl. I've said it a million times during this process, but this baby amazes me every day. I'd also like to note the tech taking of the cast said it was the cleanest he had ever seen...oh yeah!!!



Holding her without the cast was like heaven. She felt so light, almost top heavy as Zack said and she seemed so tall, she had to have grown two inches since that cast was put on her. I didn't want to put her down for the x-ray - Mabel didn't want me to put her down either, but she allowed them to take a nice picture of her hips again. She did really well with that too. The doctor said he was "bubbling with exciting" looking at how great her hips looked in the x-ray. He said he couldn't be happier with how the socket is forming. Go Mabel! She sure knows how to grow a better hip (with just a little medical help that is). So now we go back in two weeks to the orthopedic surgeon for another x-ray and check-up to keep an eye on that hip to make sure it doesn't try to regress out of socket alignment. Stay put left hip...stay put!


After the cast came off we had an appointment at the orthotist for a brace to be fitted. Oh, it was like a dream putting Mabel into her car seat with no wedge, normally. I was so happy. She seemed a bit concerned and her legs still of course are in the position they were while being in the cast, but she still dealt with it well. She caught a nap in the car and since we had time Zack and I grabbed a cake for our personal celebration of this very monumental moment.



At about 10:30 (the doctor was running late) Mabel got fitted for her brace. I had only seen it briefly when we went last month so I'll be honest I was a bit disappointed that when she is in it she is pretty much exactly like she was in the cast. It is lighter and less bulky and the major point is it is REMOVABLE for baths. She is to wear it 23hours a day for a few weeks until the doctor decides to drop her down to what he thinks is appropriate, probably at first 22 hours, then 20 or 18, slowing coming down to just night time wear for pretty much as long as it is necessary. So the bad news is she can't sit in the brace, she really won't be able to stand and we still have to use the hospital car seat, but she can take a bath, we don't have to cut diapers up a special way to diaper her and all the clothes we got for her while she was in the cast we can still use now for the brace. There is a bright side. The brace will take some getting use to for all three of us.


Overall Mabel is doing great. She is almost over her cold so that is a huge plus! She is a little confused about what has just happened, remember she got very use to the cast and now her skin feels super sensitive and she is probably quite stiff and maybe sore. She still keeps her legs in the same position they were in the cast and probably will for sometime since she will be in the brace most of the time. She doesn't yet move her left leg and it may be sometime before the muscles build up in it to really move like the right, but I know she'll work on it. She cries if we have to move her too much to change her diaper, but she did LOVE her first tub that we gave her the minute we got home! She is getting another tonight, we have to get all that dry skin off that left leg!


It has been a weird day to say the least, but not the weirdest we've had here in the last few months. This one was a happy day...

The last 12 weeks in a nutshell...

I've learned a lot in the last twelve weeks, things I never thought I would have to learn. Like how to dry a spica cast with a hair dryer is one major one. I mean, when I was pregnant and dreaming about this amazing little baby and all the things we would do together, one was never leaning over her with a hair dryer and drying a body cast...so is life and parenthood for that matter. You never really can know what will be thrown at you next.

So here are some of my nuggets of advice for what it is worth, there is so much more, but this is what comes to mind first. These are the things I learned about a spica cast.

The first and most important is it did not change my Mabel. She was still her wonderful self and you know, maybe even better. She can't do what a lot of one-year-olds do, sure, but she can do a lot more. Her physical development of walking and standing has taken a backseat to great communication skills, language development, her own modified mobility and an amazing determination and dexterity with her hands. I'm so proud of what she's made of these last three months, she is truly a strong and happy person.

All spica casts are different. For any parent who looks online for spica cast answers, they come across so much info on diapering and care. The information is great and although there are slight variations, the basics are pretty much the same. The one thing to keep in mind that all spica casts are slightly different shapes, the opening, the baby, the trouble zones. When diapering find what works for you but be prepared to change it if the baby decides to become more mobile or starts to sleep at odd angles like Mabel. What worked with our cast for 10 weeks started to fail us at the end. It can be frustrating, but like anything with kids you have to stay on your toes and roll with it and sometime you need a hair dryer set to the cool setting!

Life can still feel normal. OK, so your baby is in a body cast and that is not fun at all, there is no getting around that, but life does take on its own type of normal and to me that is what kept me going. We came up with solutions that worked for us. Bath time that made us feel fulfilled. We made the effort of finding clothing that covered the cast up. Reinvented our highchair. The little things is what you need to get creative with, but when your routine gets back to normal you feel more normal. I could change her diaper in a minute flat in that cast towards the end!

Let yourself grieve the loss of the life you thought you were going to have with your baby. Don't wallow in things you can't control, but do let yourself have time to deal with this loss. You never saw yourself having to watch your baby endure this or thought your little one would be in a body cast for Christmas, their first birthday, the summer, what ever is making you sad. Let yourself feel it and then you can accept it. You will be surprised at how the time will come and you'll realize that the cast is part of your baby's story and it is OK. We all have a different story.

The thing that kept me going was as soon as that spica went on, for me the count down was on for when it would be off. Every day we made the best of it, that was one day down and we were getting closer to our goal. The time did not fly by, but in hindsight it wasn't horrible. There were hard parts, but what part of having a baby doesn't have that right?

Just remember it is all about perspective...

Only three more days...

Well, actually it is two days and 13.5 hours, but whose counting.

I wish I could say we have been walking on air, this being the final week of our spica journey, but we are still battling this mother of all colds. Mabel is feeling better, but I'm now so sick and so is Zack. Mabel goes through waves of acting like her old self and crying from frustration and exhustion. She did spend some time playing on the floor, she hasn't done that since last Thrusday so that was good. After her morning nap, she woke crying, she was not happy at all. It wasn't until she wouldn't take her afternoon nap that I discovered her diaper had leaked! There was a hidden wet spot in the padding above her right leg. I have officially had it with this cast. This is the third leak this week. I know it is because she is able to move so well now and she likes to sleep and play on her side, basically I've tried it all, it seems like there is little I can do besides looking in those tricky spots and using the hair drier to dry it. Luckily there is no smell. Friday can't come too soon!

Right now I just want us to feel better. We are on vacation and this is our only vacation and we are sick and home bound. It isn't like we would do anything fancy, we can't travel far in the spica since the carseat needs a wedge to hold her at the right height and frankly it freaks me out. But you know maybe we would have wanted to get lunch or something, but we are too sick. My big plans of babyproofing have been put on hold, but tomorrow is another day right.

I'm so excited to think in just a few days I'll be able to hold my baby all squishy and soft without that cast between us. I imagine she will feel really light, but seem so tall since we haven't seen her upright in three months. Three long months...I miss that little left knee. I just all goes well and the cast comes off and fast. The one thing I'm dreading is how scary it may be for her having that cast cut off. It will be good in the end though.

Here's to hoping we sleep well and feel better tomorrow!

Now I know...

So I know what was bugging Mabel the other night, she's sick... she has a heck of a cold. It started two nights ago when she couldn't sleep and now she has a raging cold complete with fever, runny nose, sneezing and coughing. This is her first cold ever. I wish we could have avoided this forever, this is no fun. I guess we are lucky we made it so long without a cold so I shouldn't complain - I can only guess she got it at Christmas, all the people she came in contact with, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. She is in great spirits considering she obviously feeling horrible. It has been a rough couple of days for all of us, luckily I had a short day yesterday and then today off for the holiday...but I do have to work tomorrow for a couple of hours. I sure hope Mabel starts feeling better!

We're on vacation starting this weekend, so I guess the timing is good in the fact that we can just hang out around the house and take it easy and if Mabel doesn't sleep well then we have chances to take naps. If there is a advantage to the spica in current situation of Mabel not feeling well it is that since she is so congested and can't sleep well lying down, she has been sleeping in her old bouncy seat. In the spica I can strap her in and she can't sit up or fall out, a non-spica-one-year-old would not be able to use an infant seat anymore. So hey, there is a use for the spica!

On the bright side if all goes as according to plan, this time next week Mabel will be cast free!