The bright side...

With this whole thing I've really tried to look at the bright side of things. We have a lot to be thankful for and I do realize that. The last couple of days have not been easy for little reasons. Mabel had another leaky diaper. I'm just so disappointed that we have had the two nights of leaks, I can only assume it is because she is moving so much now. My attempt at a solution is for nights I've gone up another diaper size. I'm also using a g-diaper insert in the front of her pampers in hopes it will catch any "Houdini Pee" that seems to find away out of my diaper and cotton combo. We've gone 9 weeks with only one leak and now this headache...we'll see if she is dry this morning. With the larger diaper and my small hands I can close the diaper's tabs - you know like how you really diaper a baby...I'm hopeful.

The other day at work a woman was in and she knew my boss. She was catching up with her and mentioned that she had a grand-daughter that was turning one this weekend. My boss was so excited, she mentioned that Mabel just turned one. The woman was quick to pull me into the conversation. She was saying how much she loved the age, etc and then went on and on about how she watched her grand-daughter for the day and was exhausted because her grand-daughter was just running around all day. She said that her grand-daughter had been walking since about 8 months! She looked at me and said, "Can your daughter walk?". Oh, the look on my boss' face - I quickly told her that Mabel was in a cast and I had to explain the whole thing again and face all the classic questions. It doesn't bother me to talk about Mabel's treatment. But this poor woman was mortified thinking how she was going on and on about her grand-daughter walking and here I am with my Mabel in a cast. I think I felt bad for her because she felt so horrible!

I don't think much about what Mabel "should" be doing. Maybe it is because we are first time parents and we really don't have anything to compare her to, also we don't really spend any time with a baby of a similar age, but I would be lying if I said that when I hear of a one-year-old walking, running, standing or crawling, part of me grieves for Mabel being in the cast. It isn't fair, but it is reality right now and luckily not forever.

Most of the time I'm just so excited about what she can do. Mabel has learned to roll and crawl in a three pound cast, now if that isn't amazing I don't know what is. She is very articulate and likes to "read" her books and be read to. This extra non-walking time I believe has really given her an advantage to have time to learn other things. She is very aware of details and has amazing dexterity. For example when I spell her name she will point to the letters on her bean bag chair! Amazing! I don't know maybe one-year-olds can do those things, but to me it seems very special. Her new thing is when we say "I don't know" she throws her hands out like she is saying it. I love it! And her crawling skills - wow! She can move so fast now!

What I do hate right now is how everyone focuses on "milestones". "Don't worry," people say, "she'll reach her milestones in no time after the cast comes off." Or "Did the doctor talk about when you can expect her to achieve her milestones." Ahhhh...yeah, I hate those questions. I also hate the when people attempt to make me feel good by saying "I bet as soon as they take the cast off she'll be running in the doctor's office!" Ah, no...she's been in a cast for 12 weeks, her left leg will be spaghetti, she's never stood before and she'll be in a new brace, so I doubt likely that she'll run. In fact, that day will probably be not much fun since we'll have to endure the cast being cut off and Mabel will have to adjust to her life with out her cast, remember she only knows that right now. I know people are trying to help, but if one more person says that I'm going to scream!

So here's to a new day. 19 days of spica left. I'm thinking it feels like time is moving slower because instead of counting the days we've been in the cast we are now counting down the days until it comes off...perspective, it is all about perspective.

My Mobile Mabel...

Mabel is just amazing! She has been successfully rolling over from her back to her belly for over a week or so now and she and I have been working on tummy to back and yesterday she did it! She just rolled that cast right over and boy was she proud of herself - and so was I. We clapped and cheered. She has just gotten so strong in her upper body, almost freakishly strong for such a little girl. The other day she was trying to get past her toy box and she just grabed it and slid it over out of her way! Wow, Wonder Woman! Her loose leg has also been getting a work out. We practice standing on one leg, I really think she could pull herself up to standing if given the right senario.

With all this new found mobility comes the reality that she needs to move to get all this pent up energy out. Her mind wants her to do these things, but her body can't right now. I think the inablity to really move like she needs to is what leads to bad sleep and cranky days. Mabel is typically so happy and well mannered, but Sunday and yesterday were tough days for her. I could feel some frustration coming from her. I know her tooth is tourturing her, but there was just something else bothering her. Her rolling makes her so happy and I learned the hard way, do no try to stop her from rolling, boy oh boy that makes her mad. I'm not being mean, she can't roll in the middle of a diaper change! This new ability also makes for no more pillow while sleeping. She now can move herself around and she can adjust her position so that is good, a few times she woke crying and moved herself back to sleep - I like that. She accepted no pillow very well and I feel better because it always freaked me out having a pillow in there with her.

It hurts to know that if she didn't have this cast she probably would have been crawling very well long before now, probably pulling herself up to stand and maybe even walking. I try no to think about that too much, otherwise I get sad. Zack's brother sent a video of his little boy first crawling, it was amazing and then we got sad thinking we never got to see Mabel do that. But like I said to Zack, most babies learn to crawl, but how many learn to roll themselves over in a spica cast?

So last night after a day of lots of tears, too little naps and tons of rolling over, Mabel couldn't fall asleep. I laid on the floor with her as she started to doze of and for 20 minutes she nursed as we laid on the floor together with her next to me, rolling her self towards me then away from me over and over again will waving. She's really practicing her new moves!

Practice makes perfect Mabel!