First cast is on

Our journey has begun. Starbaby's first cast is on, and he is currently fast asleep in our wonderful wrapsody bali stretch wrap. Considering my biggest worry about him going into casts was whether or not he could still sleep comfortably in the sling, I am pretty happy!

Our hospital visit was an emotional one for me - I was so worried about Starbaby being upset during casting, and also had memories of his birth triggered by seeing the white and blue hospital towels on the casting 'bed' - but the most important person in all this, our little Starbaby, took it all in his stride. I was amazed - this is the baby who screams through almost every nappy change and is very unsettled a lot of the time. He had a good breastfeed, then lay on the casting bed, propped up with a pillow and held by my arms, and gazed around the room in fascination as one consultant and three nurses got to work casting his leg. I am SO proud of him.

The cast is fairly substantial, but not as bulky as I imagined. The weird thing... which may sound obvious... is how hard it is! It's very bizarre having a little chap with one soft, kicky leg, and one fairly still, solid one. I bet I will get used to it quickly, though.

I am so so happy that he can still go in the sling comfortably... it's going to make this process much less disruptive for us all. The ring sling may not be quite as easy as before, as the material under his bottom/the top of his cast felt like it might slip out more easily, but using the stretchy wrap has so far been identical to before. I have made sure that the material which goes over his bottom and upper leg is stretched as widely as possible towards his knee so the upper part of his cast is well supported. As he's a little chap, his leg still sits nicely around my side and so far isn't in the way at all. I know it may be a bit different a couple of months from now... but by that time we'll be talipes babywearing pros. ;)

Haven't taken any photos of Starbaby's cast yet, as he's been snuggled up in the sling since we got back from the hospital, but here's our first talipes babywearing photo. His casted leg is his right one - you can barely notice a difference when he's in a babygrow!

Eve of Casts

Our last castless day has been spent snuggled in bed all morning (big sis was at nursery today), and with Starbaby snuggled in the sling whenever he was asleep (most of the afternoon and early evening today). Big Sis, Starbaby and I also had a wonderful bath all together later in the afternoon once she was home. Starbaby really loves being in the bath - so sad that he's going to miss out on baths at home for the next few months. Once he's out of casts I can see us bathing together pretty much every day!

He's asleep on my chest in the ring sling now... tonight I am going to snuggle him close, especially his gorgeous little right leg - I'm going to miss seeing it, and his gorgeous little 'curved foot' as Big Sis calls it. I'm going to say I'd like to breastfeed him while they're casting tomorrow... it would make it much easier for them since if he's screaming he'll be thrashing his legs around, and the only thing that successfully calms him when he's not happy is breastfeeding. Found a picture of a mum breastfeeding during casting in one of the official ponseti leaflets so hopefully should work ok, even if I do get covered in plaster!

This time tomorrow we'll be home from the hospital and probably trying to figure out a way to get him comfy in one of the slings...

It's not been easy to get a photo of Starbaby's feet as he kicks them so much... but I have finally managed! Here are a couple of 'before' photos:

Starbaby is here!

There's so much I need to write in here. And so little time! So I have decided, rather than waiting for that pipe dream of having enough time to write everything I want to, I'm just going to plunge in and get going. I can always add in entries in the future.

Starbaby was born on 20th March 2013 at 39+3, 11 days after his big sister's 3rd birthday. Far from the calm home water birth we had planned, I ended up having a very much unwanted but needed caesarean in the wee hours of his birthday. Over the previous day his movements had slowed and I felt like something wasn't right. On the doppler, his heartbeat was faster than usual, and I heard a couple of decelerations. My midwife and I went to hospital, hoping that I'd have a CTG which showed everything was OK and he was just having a sleepy day. Unfortunately the opposite happened... the CTG showed, without a doubt, that he was in distress and needed to be out immediately. Daddy and BigSis rushed in from home in the middle of the night, I was taken into theatre and Starbaby was born at 2.23am weighing 5lb 11oz. He was covered in thick meconium and very floppy. We got him out just in time.

After a few hours of skin to skin and breastfeeding, he was taken to NICU due to his blood sugars being dangerously low and him being so floppy. The week he spent there was the hardest week of my life... being separated from my little boy was so horrendous words cannot describe it. We both came home on 27th March.

Here he in NICU at 4 days old... lots of breastfeeding and skin to skin helped his stay there be as short as possible.

Starbaby has unilateral talipes in his right foot and muscle weakness/problems in his left foot, both hands and left arm/shoulder. We don't know the long term prognosis for sure, but we're hopeful that he should have fairly normal movement in his limbs when he is older.

It is obviously a relief that Starbaby doesn't appear to have any serious medical conditions - we knew there was a good chance he would, and compared to many things, talipes is cope-able with. Still, the treatment he requires seems daunting right now. I hope in a few months I will barely be batting an eyelid about putting on his boots and bars, but at the moment... I just wish my gorgeous, tiny, squishy little boy didn't have to go through weeks of plaster casts and years of boots and bars  in order to be able to walk.

Our little Starbaby gets his first cast on this coming Tuesday...