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.

Rude Awakening...

So Mabel fell asleep a little later last night because Zack and I ate dinner a little bit later than normal. It was only a half an hour later that she actually fell asleep, and then shortly after we decided we should strike while the iron was hot and try to sleep ourselves. That was a little after 9:00. I have been hoping to catch up on some kind of sleep since our nights have not been good for a while now.

At 10:20 or so Mabel started to cry, I looked in the monitor and saw she was stuck on her side again. So I got up, went to her room to pick her up and reposition her. She was so sleepy and she just wanted me to hold her a bit, so I did. I sat down in the rocking chair and then I noticed...my arm was wet. Oh NO! Mabel was wet! I put her on the floor to change her and she seemed so relieved that I realized right away what was the problem. As I undressed her I quickly realized that the pee soaked her sleep sack, onesie, cloth outside diaper, inside diaper and gulp...the cast! It appears that she was in some kind of weird side position that must have created a gap in her diaper so when she peed it just got everywhere. Poor Mabel was not happy when I undressed her and she realized she was still wet and now cold. She was screaming! Gone are the care free days of thinking that when a baby pees on their PJ's and sheet that what makes for a rough night - the days are long gone of just changing her and washing her down and changing the crib sheet...oh no, now we have this stupid spica to deal with and that can't come off and that needs to stay dry - takes FOREVER to dry and most important not smell!

I wrapped Mabel up in a cozy blanket to keep her warm. She was really crying now, poor thing was probably confused as to why I wasn't just fixing this uncomfortable problem. I couldn't do this on my own, not in the state Mabel was in and with the amount of pee that I could feel, so I needed to wake up Zack. I got the hair dryer, put Mabel on the floor with three cozy blankets and Zack sat next to her and tried to keep her calm and entertained. She screamed for about 15 minutes and even tried to go back to sleep. I was elbow deep in her spica cast with that hair dryer just trying to get it dry...it takes forever! Luckily we have done this before with her first cast, I found the trick is to get your finger tips inside the cast and move the cotton and lining around so the air can really get in ther to dry out the pee. It is a major pain and really hard to do when the baby doesn't know what the heck you are doing! About 20 minutes in Mabel suddenly got excited and started to smile, giggle and dance. The good news for us is she wasn't screaming anymore and was happy and obviously felt better...bad news is she probably wouldn't go back to sleep easily...oh well one thing at a time.

It took about a hour and a half to dry the cast with the hair dryer on cool. I packed more cotton on that side of her diaper under the cast in hopes of keeping the diaper against her skin and maybe avoid this again...another annoyance and lesson learned was earlier this week Mabel had a leak, luckily then it didn't get on the cast just her cloth diaper and PJs...but the annoyance is we only have two cloth diapers and two sleep sacks that fit her! Last night I was at a loss...lesson learned, but in my defence I had thought to myself when she soiled her last PJ set that I needed to do laundry the next day because that was our only spare...I've been really tired and focused on so many other things so I forgot all about it. Trust me I won't forget about this!

Looks like I'll be starting some laundry this morning and possibly getting the hair dryer out to make sure everything is fresh in that cast. Christmas is next week and I can't have Mabel in a stinky cast when visiting the whole family! I just don't think you can make people understand how much work goes into keeping this cast clean and dry.

All I have to say is this is classic...I can't wait until this odyssey is over with! I stand by my last post of being sick of this cast! I wonder what stories we'll have about the brace? I can't imagine it would be this interesting!