Leaving on a Jet Plane

We have returned from our 9 day visit with Mackenzie's Nana and Papa in Victoria.  All in all the trip was a success.  And really not that much more difficult than I think it would have been without the spica cast in tow. 

The foam padded carseat

I think I mentioned here before that she didn't fit properly in the Britax Hippo seat, the special carseat that they make for kids in spica casts.  So instead we have her regular Evenflo Triumph seat that we bought to fit her brace and it is doctored up with a bunch of foam underneath her.  We brought that with us and checked it at the main luggage check in the airport.  We also brought our Bumbleride Indie stroller with the pillow underneath her and wheeled her through the airport in that and gate checked it right at the plane.

Hanging out in the stroller waiting in line for fish and chips!

Both on the way there and the way back we were able to get the third seat in our row "blacked out" so that no one else would be sitting with us.  People are pretty accommodating when they notice that your baby is in a full body cast.  On the way home the attendant checking boarding passes and ID's even came to our seats in the waiting area and got ours from us and checked us in early so we could board the plane before they even called for pre-boarding.  How is that for service?

Of course in the airports she was up to her usual tricks of being as cute as possible and was entertaining everyone around us.  Makes you feel pretty good when despite everything people are just going on and on about how cute your child is.

The flights themselves were pretty short.  Just over an hour so it wasn't too long to try to entertain her.  On the way there she spent about 20 minutes playing with Daddy's face, and another 20 minutes shaking a wipe around.  She also like looking at and touching the TV screens in the back of the seats.  We took turns holding her.  We also laid her down for a bit on the middle seat between us but that was short lived as she couldn't see everything around here and wanted to be upright.

We definitely missed the spica chair at Nana and Papa's especially for feeding her and keeping her entertained while we ate.   But we made due.  One person would hold her while another fed her.  And Nana and Papa had enough new interesting things to explore that she seemed to be ok to just hang out and crawl around on the floor most of the time.

Checking out the seat life at the Aquarium

We went out to eat in several restaurants and just brought in her stroller and had her sit in there while we ate.  She doesn't like to be in it when it's not moving so there were a lot of snacks being given out to keep her occupied long enough to scarf down the food.  We toured around the Inner Harbor of Victoria, went to the Aquarium in Sidney, took in an Imax movie and Mackenzie even spent a full 24 hours with Nana and Papa while her mom and dad jetted on the ferry over to Seattle for a day.

For sleep she slept in a pack n play with the same adaptations as in her crib at home.  A pillow under her head/neck/upper back and a rolled up down under her knees.  She slept the best she's slept since the cast there!  Grandpa claims its because of the heavier air at sea level.  Whatever it is, I'll take it.

Passed right out!

I wish we had a quick short answer to give people when they ask about Mackenzie's cast.  Through the airports as well as on many of our outings in Victoria we were constantly being asked about it.  The quickest response I have come up with is just to say "She has hip dysplasia.  Her hip didn't develop properly so they did a procedure to put it in place and the cast is stabilizing it".

All in all the trip was a total success.  We had a great time and Mackenzie just rolled with everything like she always does.

Spica Cast - Day 5

Yesterday was our first day on our own as Brice had to go back to work.  Lucky for us he is a teacher (so am I, but I am still on maternity leave) so we will both be home for all of July and August.   We just have to get through this week.

Mackenzie decided that napping wasn't for her and was quite fussy.  She always wanted to be held or directly played with.  She would also start crying as soon as I went in her room and got even close to putting her down in her crib.  I found myself constantly wondering if it was just "regular baby stuff" or if it had something to do with the cast.

We tried to play outside on the deck for a little while but shortly after getting out there I felt a few sprinkles of rain and that's no good for a baby in a cast!

She seems to be quite happy in the stroller so we went for a walk in the morning and again in the afternoon we walked down to pick up Daddy from work.  The day had been overcast all day and then shortly after we headed out the sun started shining.  It got hot fast.  By the time we got home Mackenzie had fallen asleep, but was drenched in sweat.  I felt so terrible.  We are really going to have to be diligent about not letting her get too sweaty in the cast.   Sorry friends, I'm going to be wishing for cool weather this summer.

Our Regular Stroller - Bumbleride Indie - works great

Just a pillow behind the back and we are good to go!

In the afternoon I did manage to get some smiles and giggles out of her.  It's amazing how that giggle and those teeth can just brighten up my day.

 I think we must have lucked out on the second night where she slept straight through.  Since then she has been waking up a few times a night.  Last night she was awake from about 4 until 5:30.  Again, not really sure what is going on.  We let her fuss for a bit, when she started crying harder I nursed her, but same thing that she would start crying so hard when we would put her back in her crib.  Finally Brice went down and just sat beside her crib for about a half an hour until she fell asleep.

Today I'm thinking about venturing out of the house - maybe make a Superstore run to pick up a few things.  I'm just not sure if I'm ready for all the stares yet......

The Diaper Splint

When we met with the Occupational Therapist we had so many questions.  The doctor didn't really explain much to us at all.  Thankfully the OT was really great and explained how the brace would work, what we should be doing and how to care for Mackenzie while she was in the brace.

We were expecting a hard plastic, or possibly plastic and metal brace for Mackenzie and were pleasantly surprised when we ended up with what they called a Diaper Splint.  They brought out a piece of stiff foam which they measured against Mackenzie and cut to fit her.  They then heated up the foam in a pizza oven and brought it back and moulded it right against her.  Velcro closures were added to keep it tight and allow us to take it on and off for diaper changes and baths.  They even added the cute ribbon detail to the velcro with pink polka dots to make it more girly!

You can see in the photo on the right we used a nursing pillow to support her when laying. We learned that we could place her chest over the pillow (this is not pictured) and the sides would hold her in place while she played with toys on the other side (this also prevented her from rolling of her stomach as much).

We bought a bean bag chair on the advice of others on the internet (we bought it at WalMart which had the cheapest bean bags we could find). While she didn't care for it, because she doesn't care to be immobile, it served us well from time to time when she would sit still.

Life in the brace was pretty good.  Mackenzie had just started sitting up really well before she got into it so it wasn't too big of an issue that she wasn't able to do that any more.  We thought we had it set to have a way to keep her on her tummy now (she wasn't a big fan and would always roll over as soon as we put her down on her stomach).  Well, she learned within a couple of days how to roll from her stomach to her back and it only took another week or so before she was rolling both directions.  She became quite mobile in the brace.  She would spin herself around in circles and push herself backwards with her hands.  She also started to do an army crawl pushing off her toes and pulling with her arms.

She didn't fit into the high chair we previously had and were able to find a new one that fit her.  We took her to Babies R Us and basically just tried to put her in every high chair they had to try to find one that worked.  We tried some booster seat type chairs first, but none of them worked.   FInally we found the Bright Stars InGenuity Perfect Place High Chair to fit her in.  It was one of the pricier ones, but thankfully it went on sale about a week or two after we bought it and they price protect.  

We also needed to buy a new car seat because she no longer fit in the bucket seat style.  Again, we went to Babies R Us and put her in a bunch of seats until we found one that worked.  The Evenflo Triumph 65 which had a wider base that she could fit in with the brace.  

She loved going for rides in the Stroller/Bike carrier that we got from Costco.ca and fit well it in without any adjustments needing to be made.

The last item that we bought for helping care for her in the brace was a carrier.  We went with the Infantio Support Ergonomic Carrier which is very similar to an Ergo.  She fit really well in it in her brace and it was also discreet as the brace couldn't be seen while she was in it.  

As far as clothing we were told she could wear regular clothing under the brace as long as it wasn't too "bulky".  We mostly stuck with tights style pants and used baby legs a lot with a onesie.  At night she would wear footed sleepers when it was colder or else just a onesie and a fleece sleep sack.   I also really liked putting her in dresses when we would go out because it would cover the brace and stop some of the stares and comments.  

We got some interesting comments from people while out and about with Mackenzie in her brace.  One lady asked if it was for attaching toys to so that she didn't drop/throw them around.  Another person asked, when we were out shopping and I was just carrying her, if it was to help make her more easy to hang onto.  Overall though people were really great about it and usually just asked what it was and carried on.  

The 8 weeks in the brace went by much more quickly that we could have even imagined and soon it was time to head back up to see the Doctor and find out how things were going.  I still noticed a click in her hip during diaper changes so we thought it was possible she may have to stay in the brace for a longer period of time, but weren't really sure what to expect.  We were trying not to be too optimistic.