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!