Cheerios and Silly Faces

First, we are happy to report that we're officially 1/4 of the way done with Mr. Spica Cast!! Yay!! Things continue to go pretty well. She SEEMS to be sleeping a little better at night (knock on wood) and is doing great during the day. Jon made her a "tray" today that is PERFECT and hopefully will help me out during the day. I've had a little trouble trying to find a good place to sit her to play. Now she can reach all of her toys (if she doesn't whip them completely off the chair!).

Besides her bananas (which seems to be the ONLY thing she'll eat lately!), we gave her some Cheerios the other day. I had a hunch that since she refused to eat sweet potatoes but WOULD happily grab a handful of dirt, grass, or paper and chew on it, picking up her own food might appeal to her. She is actually pretty good at getting them into her mouth!
Although some tend to stick to certain places she can't see. Where did that thing GO anyway?

Here she is playing on her tummy in the front yard.Maybe she's practicing on how to pucker up?? Silly!
Full of laughs this afternoon. You'll never guess what got her going - the camera cord!! It's hilarious! I often crack myself up while I'm taking pictures too. Ha ha ha!

Jon gets the photography award for this one. Aww!
Violet, Daddy and a bike. Those of you who know our backyard may notice something is missing... yes, after 2 years of having 3 skateboard ramps taking over the entire thing, we finally have our yard back! The ramps went to a good home in Lowell. The dogs have been livin' it up now that they have room to run!

Two Weeks Down!

This week we took a trip to the zoo with Leah and Violet's cousins. Here is Letty hanging out with the new lion. Ethan did an excellent job of pushing her stroller. If you look closely you can see him peeking out from behnd her stroller :)

Aunt Leah took her to the petting zoo. She liked the goats. She wasn't so sure about PETTING them but she did like looking at them (and not the camera).
We also went to the Eastown Streetfair this weekend with Kara, Brian and Eli. Here is Kara with Violet - Eli was nice enough to let VIolet "borrow" his mom for a few minutes :)

I found out that she LOVES music. I went back by myself later in the day and sat for almost 45 minutes with her while the bands played. She flapped her arms and made happy sounds for the whole time.

A purple outfit to go with a purple cast. Here is how she sleeps on her tummy:

Week One - CHECK!

So we survived week 1 of our dear friend the Hip Spica Cast. Special thanks to Infant Motrin, Folded-up-Blankets and Gore-Tex cast linings.

Letty is still doing really well with the cast. She probably thinks that ALL babies have to wear one from time to time and is back to her usual self during the days. We're still trying to find the perfect place to PUT her so she can play. I think Jon is going to make a table/tray so she can play with her toys without losing them all.

This weekend we went to the park and she got to swing on the "big kids" swing. For obvious reasons she doesn't quite fit in the baby swings!

Jon is happy to still be able to balance her on his hand. At least this way if he drops her, she has much more padding :)

Same old smoochable face!Finally some success at making Babylegs! It's fun to find some to match her outfits. Plus they are softer than fiberglass. And no, I do not only dress Letty in brown! Although I do think she looks cute in it.
We're still working on getting back to normal at night. The last two nights she was only up once (I am SO hoping that doesn't jinx us!!) and was actually quite chipper for her 2am diaper change. Let's hope that continues!

1 week down, 11 more to go!

If you found this blog searching for info spica casts,
please visit this wonderful and incredibly helpful forum:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hipbaby/
Also, please take a look at my Spica Cast Survival Guide, which you can download here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hipbaby/files/
It's the first thing on the list.
Sending lots of good hip healing vibes your way!!

Videos Old & New

Here is a pre-cast video of Letty watching Ethan at the cottage. I had never heard her laugh like this before! She thinks her cousins are hysterical!



And here is a clip of one of her last baths before her cast. Splish splashing away!

What we CAN do in a cast!

So there are quite a few things we CAN'T do with Letty anyomore... no more baths, high chairs, snuggling like we used to. BUT here are some things we found out we CAN do!

1) She can go for a ride in a stroller. This is our regular jogging stroller - she fits pretty good with a few folded up blankets behind her. Yes, the folded-up-blanket is our new best friend!

We took a walk yesterday AND met Leah, Anna & Claire at the mall. Today we walked down to the Farmers Market. She had a blanket over her cast and someone even commented "She looks so cozy!" If only they knew!!

2) She can sleep on her tummy. Again with the help of our dear folded-up-blankets, she is able to sleep in her favorite position. Here she is right before her nap this afternoon. She is a happy camper!

On her cast you will also notice what we like to call "Babylegs" - it's really a modified knee sock. I sucessfully made one (yes, ONE... the other one is being ripped apart and resewn. I stink at sewing!). I think they are going to be great cover-ups instead of pants this winter! If you're ever out and see cute knee socks, I'll pay you back!
3) She can sit in her bean bag chair. Thanks to the internet, I found out that having a bean bag chair would be helpful for when we got home and they were right! We can sit her in it at many angles. It's her new high chair!

4) She can ride in the car. Here is her special "Hippo" carseat... and she's got PANTS on!! Leah lent me some 12 month clothes and this pair of pants had a super-stretchy waistband. Viola!

This carseat is kind of a pain, but I ran some errands and got pretty good at getting her in and out fast. She doesn't seem to know the difference!
Overall she's still doing great. Every day she does more and more normal stuff. Her nights are still a little rough, but I can live with that. She took great naps today with hardly any crying, and she's really happy when she's up.

One funny thing she just started doing - when she plays with her toys she hits them on something and says "Uh. Uh." while she whacks them. It's really funny! She is very serious about it. I tried to get her to do it on camera but all she would do was smile!

More later!

If you found this blog searching for info on spica casts,
please visit this wonderful and incredibly helpful forum:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hipbaby/
Also, please take a look at my Spica Cast Survival Guide, which you can download here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hipbaby/files/
It's the first thing on the list.
Sending lots of good hip healing vibes your way!!

3 down, 87 to go!

We're 3 days into Violet's 90 day stay in her hip spica cast. So far, so good! She really has figured it out pretty quickly and seems to be taking it all in stride (somehow we knew she would!). Jon and I are getting used to carrying her around, and the dreaded diaper changes are getting easier every time we do it.

Although she doesn't fit into most of her gadgets, her bouncy seat still works just fine with one leg in, one leg out. Here she is this morning:

Playing on her chair. The only problem we have is that she can't bend at the waist... she used to be able to retrieve her dropped toys, but now she just looks at us like "Hello!!! Can you get that for me?" We're figuring out a way to make her a tray to keep everything in place.
First Cast Photo Session :) I was glad to discover that a onsie does fit over the cast pretty nicely and hides her diaper cover which seems a little more discreet if we go out :)
Silly goose. This is a better picture of how the cast fits. It has plenty of room around her tummy, which is nice. We can still see that sweet little belly button if we try! Also she CAN still kick her legs. The other day she was bouncing all weirdly - we realized she was kicking! It's pretty funny.
The only issue we seem to have so far is sleeping. Naps are hard for her as she usually flips and scoots around quite a bit before drifting off. She does NOT like being in one place! I did just try her on her tummy (propped up with blankets) so we'll see how that goes. Last night she wasn't up as much, but when she did wake up at 4am she didn't ever go back to sleep. Although this kind of stinks, she was such a good sleeper as a newborn I feel like we are just getting what we deserve! Also I do think she's teething again (ahhh!!) so it should be an interesting next few days!

1 Tiny Girl + 2 Good Hips = 1 Big Purple Cast!

Hi everyone!
We're back from a sucessful hip "relocation"! Violet did awesome and is now home and seems to be almost back to her regular self.

She really did great the day of surgery - for not being able to eat and not sleeping when she usually does, she was in good spirits at the hospital. Here is one last look at those chubby legs...

She fell asleep on Jon's shoulder right before they took her in, so we just transfered her over to the anesthesiologist (while still sleeping) and he carried her back. It was so much better than having to watch her being wheeled away! Here she is just a few minutes before she fell asleep, and took her back. The anesthesiologist was a really nice guy and commented that it wasn't much fun to knock out a baby who was already out ;)
She came out of the surgery pretty good - she was upset at first but slept most of the afternoon away. All of the nurses commented on what a good baby she was - it was so nice!

We did take her for an MRI that afternoon - her surgeon wasn't 100% sure that he got her hip ball into the socket all the way. We got the results back this morning - she's all set to go! Everything is perfectly in place adn we can start the countdown!

They ended up cutting a ligament in her groin area to help her leg be able to stretch how it needs to to heal. She also, of course, has a rather large cast. It goes from a little below her chest down to mid-calf on both legs. Her legs are pretty much out to the side as far as they will go and knees bent a little. It's wider than I had anticipated, but it hasn't taken long to figure out how to hold her (she fits snugly on our chests and on our hips), and she has already nursed great and seems to be adjusting pretty good.

Here she is zonked out in her crib for her first nap at home. Because of how her legs are set, she needs blankets under her legs so there isn't pressure on her back/stomach.

Here is our sweet little girl. When we put her down for the night she was acting like her usual smiley self. It was SO great to see!!If you are wondering how in the heck we are diapering her, here is a good idea: Currently she has a cloth diaper folded up and tucked into her opening. We put a diaper cover over it (picture above) and it seems to be working pretty good. Jon is better at it than I am!

She had a pretty good night last night - she did wake up 2 or 3 times but we were able to get her back to sleep without too much trouble. She woke up this morning with a big smile for Jon and jabbered at him while he changed her. She seems to be doing really good today - she still wants to b eheld a lot, but other than that, she is in a pretty good mood!

THANKS to everyone for all your thoughts, prayers, e-mails, phone calls and everything. It really means a lot and we are so thankful to have friends and family like you!! :)

p.s. By my calculations, she should be getting her cast off on December 3. We're already counting down the days!

If you found this blog searching for info on spica casts,
please visit this wonderful and incredibly helpful forum:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hipbaby/
Also, please take a look at my Spica Cast Survival Guide, which you can download here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hipbaby/files/
It's the first thing on the list.
Sending lots of good hip healing vibes your way!!

End of Summer Festivities

Over Labor Day Weekend we took Letty to one of our favorite things - the Flea Market! Here she is surveying the wares at Burley Park. There were many fleas to be had, as well as some new books, tools for Dad and yummy cookies made by the Amish.

To answer the age-old question "Can a baby fall asleep in a backpack carrier?" the answer is a resounding YES!!! However it takes quite a bit of practice and many yoga classes to perfect the pose:A picture from a trip to the park:
I finally got around to painting the chairs we have on our front porch. Letty seemed to like them!
This is my new favorite picture of her :)

This weekend my friend Becky and I went to the Three Rivers PowWow. It was SO COOL!! I wish I had gone sooner! Here is Letty posing during the Grand Entry where all the dancers in full regailia dance to traditional tribal music. She started singing along later on - it's her kind of music!! Ahhhheee aaahhh eeeahhh ya yaya. She's got that DOWN!
Becky and Letty in front of a TeePee

This was one of my favorite dancers. Check out the authentic Native American shades! :)
On a more serious note, Violet goes in Monday morning for her hip procedure. We appreciate everyones good thoughts and prayers - we're really hoping it all goes smoothly and she transitions to her cast well. I'll be posting later on this week with pictures of what it looks like and updates of how we're all doing. :) THANKS!

Seven Month Photo Extravaganza!!!

Gee. I hope no one was holding their breath waiting for this one! We'll just pretend it's still August and she's still 6 months old...

Please join Jon and I in a little trip down memory lane... here are some "Before" and "After" pics.

Before

After


Before
After


BeforeAfter


Before
After

I thought you might find these little comparisons interesting :)

Violet - 7 months
jesi - somewhere around that age