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......

Spica Cast - Day 2

The first full day home in the cast!

Despite the terrible night we had she woke up happy and content to play and seems like her regular happy self, which is so great to see.

Again, we set right to work finding products and advice to help make Mackenzie more comfortable.  We have ordered her a chair from IvyRose Spica Chairs and it should be shipped sometime next week. Mackenzie doesn't fit in the high chair we purchased when she was in the brace, so she doesn't have a lot of options for sitting upright.  Right now, one of us holds her on our knee while the other feeds her for meal times.  This chair will hopefully be used as a highchair as well as a play area for her.

We also ordered a Cast Cooler after seeing it mentioned several times by other "hip" parents online.  I think one of our biggest issues is going to be trying to keep Mackenzie cool this summer while in a full body cast.  Hopefully this will help provide some relief for her.

Brice went out and bought a ride-on trike for Mackenzie at Babies R Us, the 3 in 1 Smart Trike.   She can be strapped into it and seems to be very secure and allows her to be upright.

We also set up a "play gym" system with her bean bag chair and Baby Einstein play mat.

But she is also perfectly happy to just scoot around on the floor and play with her toys:

We took the legs off her Activity Table and she still loves it!

Army crawling around

We felt like we had so many questions that remained unanswered from when we were in the hospital.  So when we phoned to book the follow-up appointment that will be in a couple weeks, I mentioned that to the Doctors secretary.  She is so amazing and gave us a few options.  We could tell her the questions and she would ask the Dr and get back to us.  We could email her them and she would email us back with his answers and we could also call his Nurse Practitioner to ask her the questions as well.  We decided to email her the questions so we are waiting to hear back now.  

We also went for a walk with the InStep Bike Trailer that also converts to a stroller.  It only required the slight modification of adding a pillow for support.  For us this is great because it allows us to get out of the house when it is cool enough outside that we don't have to worry about Mackenzie getting too sweaty in her cast.  

Night #2 she slept straight through the night without waking up at all!  We had set our alarm to change her position half way through the night but either it didn't go off or we were so exhausted from the previous couple days that we didn't hear it.  Her diaper wasn't too wet so all was well when she woke up, happy again, in the morning.