Groundhog Day

Tuesday this week (25th) saw our 9th visit to the talipes clinic since Starbaby's birth - it's getting to feel a little like groundhog day. When we finally have our first Tuesday without a hospital visit I am going to have to find something extra-specially-special to do to celebrate!

The top of Starbaby's foot looked a bit sore when the cast and dressing came off, but thankfully after a birth we could see that the skin wasn't broken. His foot was graded a 2, the same as it was a month ago, when he had his last cast before his 'week off'. I'm desperately hoping when his 8th cast is removed on Tuesday that the skin hasn't broken again.

Starbaby had a lovely bath... lots of smiles. It's so hard not being able to bath him at home, or bath with him, though. One day...

I'm finding myself quite jealous when I hear of other babies for whom the cast stage of the treatment goes more smoothly and more quickly. There are many babies on the facebook group who are younger than Starbaby and are already in BnB. I think we're looking at him being about five and a half months before he's in them full time, which means nine and a half months or so before he's down to 14 hours. That's a long time.

We'll get there, though.

This coming week we have three hospital trips. Talipes clinic on Tuesday, Hand Surgeon on Thursday and Physiotherapy on Friday. The hand surgeon appointment is one I am both looking forward to and worrying about. Having a diagnosis (or at least an indicator) of what's going on with his hands may shed some light on whether we're looking at a global condition for him, or just several different issues combined. It'll be good to have some more information but at the same time I worry what the news will be. Fingers crossed.

8th week of treatment

Starbaby is now in his 7th cast, and his 8th week of talipes treatment through the Ponseti method.

Yesterday's cast change wasn't much fun. The top of his foot is getting sore again and one of the nurses doing his casting upset me by saying a few things, including that it would 'get worse when he's in boots and bars'. :( I was feeling very fragile... it's hard going back to the hospital every week where there are reminders everywhere of Starbaby's tough early days... and felt very disheartened when his foot was graded the same as it was 4 weeks ago (2.5).

I think the nurse felt I was questioning the treatment he was getting, which I wasn't... I was just having a bit of an emotional-outpouring-moment about how hard it is to see my precious little boy hurting and with no end in sight for the casting stage yet. A little sensitivity would have gone a long way. This is hard.

I just hope next week his sore hasn't opened, meaning another week off casts, and another regression.. It's disheartening for his foot to be the same as it was after just 3 weeks of treatment, yet we have been going for 7 weeks.

Starbaby had a lovely bath. However, the clinic is getting pretty busy so we didn't spend too much time in the bathing room (which we were already sharing with one other lovely family) as we knew there were others waiting.

Here is Starbaby and his feet after 6 weeks of casts... getting there... slowly.

... and this next photo was was meant to be of his foot but my little point-and-shoot camera focused in the wrong spot (I usually photograph with my lovely SLR but use the little camera for hospital or quite capture-the-moment shots at home. But the reason I'm sharing it as it shows that Starbaby can now get his hands up to his face, and he's having a good go at sucking them!! He can't suck his thumb or fingers 'properly' because of the angle his wrists are at, and the lack of movement in his fingers, but he is really trying hard! 

There's so much that I took for granted with Big Sis but is utterly amazing this time round. He has major difficulties in moving his arms, hands and fingers but with lots of exercises and activities he's improving quite a bit. So proud!

One little foot, one big pressure sore...

Another angle... looking nice and straight again (after relapsing during our cast-free week) but still quite a way still to go to lift the foot up (if you look back to previous weeks you'll see we're around the stage we were after 3 casts now).

I just want to kiss this beautiful little foot! Comparing this photo to the 'sole' one from last week makes me feel a bit better. Even if his score didn't change, his foot did improve a little.

Week 7 almost done

My goodness, time is flying! My wonderful little Starbaby is nearly three months old. It feels like yesterday that he was born, yet at the same time like he's been here forever. Before he was here, life was wonderful, fun and busy, but looking back it seems relatively empty because he wasn't there. I love having two children and I feel so lucky that we got there in the end.

This week seems to have been OK on the cast front, although obviously we won't know how Starbaby's foot is doing until his cast is changed tomorrow.

I had been feeling like I wasn't in any rush to get onto BnB, but after the cast making his foot so sore, I am actually starting to get 'itchy feet' (!) to get onto the next stage. I'm definitely not looking forward to him being in BnB in terms of babywearing, but I am keen to get the cast stage over and done with so we can stop going to the hospital every single bloody week (sorry... but it really is getting hard to lose every Tuesday with my two wonderful children to a place I really hate going back to) and can start enjoying regular baths again. We might even get to go swimming with Big Sis and Daddy on Sundays!

I am probably going to get Starbaby weighed tomorrow. I'm totally confident that he's growing wonderfully, but I'm just interested to see how much he weighs because I suspect he may be around double his birth weight now. Amazing! I held his first cast against his casted leg today, and already there is a huge difference. My tiny 5lb 11oz little boy isn't quite so tiny now.

Last Friday we went into the local town to do a bit of charity shop shopping. It was one of the first times I've been out with Starbaby's cast very obvious... usually it's mostly covered by trousers or fully covered by a babygrow, but he was wearing shorts-dungarees. so in the sling almost his entire cast was obvious. SO many people stared at him as we were walking down the street. It was incredibly obvious... one person in a couple would glance our way, then a couple of seconds later, obviously prompted by the first person, their companion would look over as well, and then they'd start talking. Some people asked why he had a cast (generally "Has he broken his leg?" or "How did he break his leg?" - no, I haven't dropped him!!) and some people just talked about how lovely he was, ignoring the cast, which was nice.

Here are a couple of photos from just before Starbaby's 6th cast went on last week. Comparing with the week before, you get an idea of just how much his foot regressed during his cast-less week. I really hope his sore isn't back when they remove the casts tomorrow.

Casting Day #7 - Cast #6 is (finally) on!

We had an absolutely wonderful cast-free week - baths every day! - and as his foot is pretty much healed, Starbaby's right leg is now back in a cast. This is cast #6 but unfortunately despite spending a huge amount of time doing the stretches we were shown, his foot has regressed a fair bit (possibly due to his muscle imbalance issues), so his cast-free week will probably add another 3 or 4 weeks onto the casting stage of his talipes treatment. I reckon he might finally go into 'Boots and Bars' when he's about 5 months old in August. 

During the actual casting, Starbaby was flashing smiles at everyone - our charming little chap! He was grumpy afterwards but as the cast dried out, he cheered up a fair bit. Onwards and upwards! 

Also, the first of his little sensory toys I ordered on the request of the physio arrived today - a fab little spiky 'massage ball' to help stimulate his hands and arms to see if it helps him move them a little more. We spend most of his 'free' awake time doing exercises (Big Sis helps too) - there's been some improvement in his movement but it's a long road and we don't yet know where it'll lead. 

♥ my darling little superstarbaby. :)

Cast Free Week

Starbaby and I are enjoying our cast free week very much! Unfortunately, despite huge amounts of massage/stretching exactly as shown by the consultant, his foot seems to have regressed a lot, and I worry how many casts it'll take to get it back to where it was. But I can't change that... he needed a break from casts to heal his little sore foot, so we may as well enjoy it.

Starbaby has had a bath every day since Tuesday apart from today, as we have been out all day. We've had a bath just the two of us, and he's had a few baths with Big Sis and one with all three of us (Daddy couldn't fit in too, unfortunately)! I've moisturised his leg and foot every day, given his whole leg lots of massage, and generally enjoyed snuggles without that pesky cast in the way.

It's given me a taste of what we're missing, which makes me sad. Oh, what I took for granted with Big Sis! If we're lucky enough to have more children, I will never take for granted having a baby with both legs 'free', not having to go to the hospital every week etc.

Tomorrow we're at the hospital for Starbaby's monthly physiotherapy appointment, then back the next day for cast #6 to go on.

6th Casting Day

Well, Starbaby's 6th casting day had an unexpected end... we came home with no cast!

Starbaby's sore foot had got much more sore over the past week, and the skin was broken in one place (my poor poor little boy!) so the consultant decided it was best to leave his leg without a cast for a week to let it heal. He showed me how to massage/stretch his foot in order to help reduce the chance of undoing any of the good work so far and we need to do that as much as possible over the following week.

I am sad that his foot is so sore... but very very excited about a week out of casts! I am looking forward to bathing with Starbaby, massaging his leg, snuggling with him minus the cast, breastfeeding without a cast and getting to know his new little foot. And if the week doesn't reverse any of the casting process... win all round! I hope he adapts to going back into casts this time next week ok...

Here are a couple of photos of Starbaby's foot this week, after cast #5 was removed.