Change of Plans

It looks like Mackenzie's cast might be coming off sooner than we thought.

Last night Brice was playing with Mackenzie on the floor and when he picked her up he thought he heard/felt a "pop".  He wasn't sure what it was though.  Maybe her cast shifting positions slightly?  Then, a little later in the evening Mackenzie was in her sitting position that we can't keep her out of now and I noticed that her leg was turning purple.  She must have been cutting off circulation or something of that sort due to the pressure the cast was putting on her thigh.  Again, not quite sure what caused it.  We monitored it quite closely and it didn't seem to be ongoing.  Also, she was quite cranky yesterday.  That could have been attributed to quite a few things: she is teething again, she has cut out one of her daily naps now that we are back at work and she is doing to the babysitters, and also, she is in a full body cast.  We feel so conflicted because any time she is unhappy we always wonder "does it have to do with the cast?".

So, last night we sent off an email to our surgeon's amazing secretary and asked her what we should do.  He only sees patients in the clinic on Tuesdays.  So with this being a long weekend, we would have to arrange an appointment for this coming Tuesday with very short notice.  She called me this afternoon and said she had shown him our email with our concerns (and a lovely picture of how Mackenzie likes to sit).  And he decided that he probably should see us sooner rather than later.

So now, instead of September 11th, we will be going up this Tuesday, September 4th.  We were told that they will do an x-ray first, but since the cast is supposed to be removed the following week they will likely just take it off while we are up there.

We are excited that the cast is most likely coming off a week early, but also worried and hope nothing major is going on and everything will be alright and there will be no negative consequences to taking the cast off earlier than projected.

What About Work?

This question came up on the DDH Facebook group I am a part of so I thought it might be worth while to do a quick post about what we are doing.

We are so blessed that I am still on maternity leave (until August 29th) and because Brice is also a teacher he only had three more days left of work before summer break when Mackenzie got her first cast.  Therefore we were both able to be home with her for two whole months during the cast time.  We will both be back at work though at the beginning of the new school year.  When we found out she would be getting the cast, we immediately started planning and trying to figure out what we would do when the time came to go back to work.

A few of our options were:

• take an unpaid leave from work so one of us could stay home with her until the cast came off
• have Brice's mom come out and stay with us for the few weeks in September that Mackenzie will still have the cast (she is a retired school teacher); or,
• send her to the dayhome that we had lined up already

It took Mackenzie probably about a week and a half to two weeks to get used to being in the cast.  At 9 months old she adapted incredibly well.  I doubt she even remembers what it is like to not be restricted by the cast.  After that week and a half to two weeks she got back to sleeping well and being back to her regular happy self.  If you are a parent who is not able to take an extended leave from work to care for your child in a spica I would suggest trying to take at least two weeks when they first get the cast.  

Especially now that Mackenzie only has one leg casted, but even before, we were so impressed with how well she was doing.  Diaper changes were not nearly the nightmare we expected.  She crawls around and plays independently.  She is honestly just her regular happy self.  This made our decision to both go back to work much easier.  

The original plan was to have Mackenzie's Grandma come and stay with us for the 2-3 weeks she would still be in the cast.  After that she would go to the dayhome.  However, with the ease of caring for her in the cast, we decided to leave the decision up to her day home provider about whether she would like her to start there from the get go.  She seemed to be quite willing to take her despite the cast.  We went and visited her the other day so that she could see what the cast looked like and how Mackenzie adapted with it.  She had done a bunch of research online as well, and like us was impressed with how well Mackenzie was doing.  She told us she would be happy to take her.  In fact, she seems more concerned with dealing with Mackenzie's dairy allergy than the cast.

So, rather than have Mackenzie have to make two transitions, first with Grandma and then to the day home, we decided to go straight to the day home.  We are hoping for the best come September!

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......