Cast #5 is on

Casting Day #5 was hard. A combination of his current foot position and the recent warmer weather has resulted in a pretty sore leg and foot for our precious Starbaby.

It broke my heart to hold him sobbing as they put his new cast on. Feeling very sad that my wonderful boy has to go through so much just to get something that almost everyone else (understandably) takes for granted.

Apparently it looks like he'll have about 6 more weeks in casts before moving into the 'Boots and Bars' foot brace (a special boot on each foot, joined by a metal bar) which will be part of his life until he is 5 years old.

Lots of cuddles for my lovely boy this afternoon... I think we both need them.

Other than being poorly-sore, his right foot is looking amazing! What a change from before his first cast only 4 weeks ago.

3 casts down... how many to go?

Casting Day #4 for Starbaby was on Tuesday.

His lovely little right foot is still progressing well and bathtime was a hit once again. I spent a while talking to a lovely mum whose son was about to get his 1st cast on... so good to meet someone going through similar to us. I hope we get to chat again next week.

Starbaby's foot is now a 2.5 after 3 weeks of casts. I'm really impressed, it was so stiff to start with. It started as a 6, went down to a 4 after 1 week, then 3 after another week. Progress is slower now they're bringing his foot up, but I don't think that's a bad thing... it feels better to do something like this gradually without any rushing.

I don't know how much longer we have in casts, but actually I'm in no rush to finish them as I think the BnB stage will be more... intense. Being in casts has been nowhere near as bad as I feared... not bad at all, in fact. Of course, I'd rather his little leg weren't in a cast, but in terms of how it's affected Starbaby day to day... well, apart from not risking as much nappy free time so as to avoid soggy casts, it really hasn't made a difference to his or our lives. I know BnB will be different, though, and I'm not in any rush to get to that stage.

Here's Starbaby's beautiful foot this week. The crease on the bottom of his foot which was so deep to start with has pretty much gone - amazing!

We weighed Starbaby in between casts and he is almost ten pounds now!! That's 4 1/4 lb up on his birth weight of 5lb 11oz and over 2lb gained in the last 20 days alone. After his rocky start he's now doing amazingly!

End of week 2

Here are Starbaby's feet last Tuesday... 8 weeks old and after 2 weeks of casts

3rd Cast on.

This morning Starbaby had his 2nd cast removed. He's been slightly crankier than usual over the past week and after today I think it may be at least partly because he was doing some major growing and it made his casted leg feel a bit uncomfy. As he had grown it was very hard for them to remove it due to there being no gap between his leg and cast. Starbaby was calm to start with (despite having been woken 5 minutes into a sling-nap... again) but a little unimpressed by the end.

Afterwards we gave him his weekly bath which again he loved. We had to be a little quicker this time as there was a baby 2 days younger than Starbaby waiting to have her bath after him, and we also had to fit in seeing the physiotherapist before his new cast went on.

We've been given further exercises to do with his arms, and his paediatrician has referred him to the hand surgeon as she is concerned that he still has very limited movement in his arms and hands. Yet more hospital visits :(

Starbaby's foot is now a 3. It was noticeably more 'normal looking' than last week and a world away from 2 weeks ago. It is now pretty straight but pointing downwards, so the next stage is to stretch it into a normal 'sole downwards' position. I think we'll be visiting the hospital every Tuesday for a fair while to come.

I'm writing this from my phone while Starbaby sleeps on my chest in the ring sling, so can't upload this week's photos yet but I'll try to get them online soon.

Week 1 change

Here are 2 photos which show the change in Starbaby's feet during his first week in casts. Amazing!

The first photo was taken just before his first cast went on, and the second was taken between casts yesterday.

First cast changeover

Starbaby is now in cast #2.

Poor little chap had literally just fallen asleep in the sling when we were called in to have his cast removed so was a little unimpressed at being woken, but despite that he was calm quickly and put up fine with the rather scary-looking cast-cutting-scissors chopping his cast off.

After it was off (so lovely to see his leg and foot, although his foot looked quite unfamiliar) we were shown to the bathing room. It was wonderful to give Starbaby his first bath in 8 days and my little waterbaby loved it.

I even caught the tail end of a smile on camera!

The skin on his foot was a little peely after not seeing daylight for a week so I gently rubbed off the loose skin in the water and once he was out I put olive oil on his foot and leg to moisturise it.

Here are Daddy, Starbaby. Big Sis and 'Baby Sophie' chilling in the hospital bathing room before we we went back to have his new cast put on.

His foot was graded a 4, already a great improvement on the 6 (worst possible score) of last week.

He was very very tired by the time the cast was being put on (having had just 2 minutes of sleep in 2.5 hours) so cried a bit. They needed his leg still so despite not getting a positive reaction last week when I said I would like to breastfeed him during casting (in the end he was calm and happy so didn't need it anyway), today I sat right up against the 'bed' and decided to try. Starbaby lay angled towards me, turned his head and latched on... and was instantly calm. I think the physios quickly realised that breastfeeding was a fab way to keep him calm so they could manipulate his leg as they needed to. And Starbaby fell asleep! Have I mentioned that breastfeeding rocks?! ;)

His new cast is bent more at the leg than last week. His foot is set straight this week so apparently there's more of a chance it may slip so we need to keep a close eye on his little toes.

Feet update pics to follow soon!

Here is Starbaby...

... modelling his starry 'babyleg' cast cover a couple of days ago.

Today's is rainbow stripes... definitely jazzes up a plain white cast.

And so far... no poo-splosions in the leg area!

We're growth spurting at the moment so Starbaby is waking (and feeding) a fair bit at night, but his cast doesn't seem to have changed his behaviour in the slightest. I'm so relieved... and actually feel a little silly for worrying so much beforehand. But I only worried because I love him so much and just want him to be happy.

I'm really looking forward to when he has his cast changed on Tuesday and seeing how his little foot has changed.

Babylegs

The plaster of Starbaby's casts is quite crumbly and dusty, so I have put a 'babyleg' over it . They're baby legwarmers, and you can get a pair from china on ebay for barely over a pound... and they come in some fairly funky patterns! It's quite long as he's still small (7lb 12oz in his casts today) but that worked well as it meant they kept his little toes warm yesterday, when they were made cold by the drying-out plaster.

I've put the top of the babyleg right over the top of his cast+padding, so that if we have any poo-slosions, they should bear the brunt of the leakage, leaving the cast poo-free. That's the theory, anyway!

First Night

Amazingly, my little boy seems to be taking having one of his legs in a plaster cast totally in his stride. Yes, he's cranky sometimes... but he was cranky before the cast went on, so no change there! Last night he woke several times... more than normal... but that could easily have as much to do with him being in prime growth spurt territory as the cast. Thankfully feeding lying down is no different to before his cast went on, and he doesn't seem uncomfy when lying down.

I was worried the cast would affect the movement in his right leg a lot, but other than obviously not being able to bend it, he can lift it up easily and still give really hefty kicks with it. He can also move his hip just as before, which means he can still easily 'sit' on my lap leaning against my bent legs, something I wondered if we might not be able to do.

I was so worried about Starbaby going into casts, but have been amazed at how ok he has been about it, and how quickly him having one 'solid leg' has become something I barely bat an eyelid at.