Natalie is completely brace free!

Natalie had a check up with Dr. J today and everything looked so good that she said Natalie doesn't have to wear her brace anymore... at all... el finito. What a happy day!

We celebrated with a trip to Tims and a chocolate timbit for each of us. She was in heaven and so was I.

And as if that wasn't wonderful enough - Natalie decided to try taking her first steps tonight! I managed to get her to do it again and got it on video. I'll post it tomorrow.

Bye for now.

A soft tummy and chubby legs

Our little pumpkin is cast free today! Hooray! She's moved on to a brace which I have to admit is a bit disappointing but it's definitely better than a cast. She can wiggle and move her legs and we get to feel her soft tummy and squeeze those chubby little legs.

Right now she has to wear the brace all the time (except for baths) and we're not sure how long she'll need it. It could be about three months, but our doctor doesn't want to commit to a time, she'd prefer if we watch Natalie's hip and do what's best for ensuring her hip stays stable. And we totally agree.

Overall Natalie did great today, especially for a little girl who didn't get to eat until 11:30 this morning and woke up to find herself no longer in a cast. She was a bit upset when she woke up but she nursed for a while and seemed to feel better.

It was so strange to pick her up and hold her without a bulky cast surrounding her little body. Dan and I felt a bit awkward at first but we're getting better at it. I was just so nice to see her little body again and feel her skin. I found myself lifting her blanket up just so I could see her legs and touch her.

Her skin was very dry in spots and one spot in particular on her left hip is very irritated but she doesn't seem bothered by it.

She didn't love getting her new brace fitted. But I don't think it was due to pain, she was just really tired and wanted to cuddle with mom and dad rather than be handled by nurses (no matter how sweet they were).

Once we got home she seemed to be back to herself. I think Dan and I are more affected by this than Natalie. We're a bit nervous about changing her diaper and want to make sure we aren't doing anything that will risk dislocating her hip. But I'm sure after a few days we'll get into a groove.

Here's a video of Miss Natalie waiting to get her new brace fitted.

Ciao for now,
Wendy, Dan and Natalie

Only 14 days to a cast free baby!

Just a quick update to let you know that we're only 14 days away from cast removal day. Hooray!

Natalie is still doing great, but she is definitely itching to move. You'd think she wouldn't really know that she should be moving at this point but I honestly think she knows. Here's why, she's started to tip herself over when she's propped up playing with a toy. How? She grabs the leg of the toy and uses it to pull herself down toward the floor. During tummy time she has also started to turn herself around by dragging her arms. She tries to pull herself forward but she's not quite strong enough.

As you can see she can also keep herself busy playing with her latest favorite toy - a bowl. I'm not sure why I bother to buy toys. :)

Today was a PJ Day

It was -30 here today so Natalie and I stayed in and hung out in our PJs. She ate Mum Mums and I drank a lot of coffee.

Yes, coffee is still my best friend. It's surprising that even though she's started sleeping through the night I'm still exhausted. I thought a few nights of 7+ hours and I'd be bouncing out of bed in the morning. I guess the fact that Natalie's ready to kick start the day at 5:30 a.m. doesn't help. Neither my brain nor body is anyhere near bounce-ready at that hour. And I guess it doesn't help that I automatically wake up at 4 a.m. out of habit. Hopefully my internal clock will give that silliness up soon.

We spent some of our PJ day playing with the camera. I'm determined to get better at photography - I just have to practice, practice, practice.

Here are some mug shots of missy - she thought mommy was pretty silly with her camera.

And here's a look at how we set her up to play with some of her toys. She loves to pull the rings off this toy. Keeps her busy while I make my morning cup o' joe.

Ciao for now.

PS One month from today Natalie is scheduled to get her cast taken off! Hooray!

Cast Update and Ideas for Keeping Cast Kiddies Entertained

It's been ten days since Natalie's cast change (sorry for the delayed update). But better late than never I suppose so here it is.

I'll start off with the good news (there isn't any bad news - just in case that seemed ominous).

Everything went extremely well - in fact her hip is looking very stable and Dr. J says six more weeks should do the trick (down from seven!). We're scheduled for a cast removal on Thursday March 26th - hooray!

As for the cast change - the procedure took a little longer than planned. A student doctor was supposed to put her cast on (under Dr. J's watchful eye), but in the end she wasn't happy with the result so she redid the work herself.

This time around was much less stressful than the first casting procedure. Dan and I weren't nearly as stressed since we already knew what to expect. And the whole process was much faster than last time. We arrived at 8 a.m. and were headed home with our happy baby by noon.

Immediately after she woke up, Natalie was hungry and not at all impressed with the IV she had in her hand. But after a few minutes of nursing and a quick removal of the IV she was all smiles again.

It's basically been business as usual since we came home. Natalie is in good cheer, as long as she's being entertained :). She tends to get bored easily so I've been keeping her busy with games and outings. In case you're a mom looking for things to do here are some of the things I do to keep us busy and entertained.

Gymboree - I take her to a Gymboree class once a week and then we hit at least one of the Gymboree open playtimes, where she loves playing with the beach balls, bouncing on the inner tubes, rolling on the cylinders and of course gazing at herself in the mirror.

Coffee and play - Our local coffeshop/playhouse is called Playgrounds and since Natalie is under a year old it's free for her to get as long as I buy something to eat or drink. So I get a green tea and we either make a date with my friend Lori and her little guy Ben or we just chat with whoever is around. Natalie can't use most of the toys but she loves visiting the other kids and plays with anything that she can spin with her hands. TIP - Whenever I meet someone new, I bring up the cast early in the conversation. It avoids that awkward white-elephant-in-the-room feeling and it provides lots of conversation material when you're talking with someone you don't really know.

Playdates - I try to schedule at least one playdate every week. Sometimes we're up for going out and other times it's better if visitors come to us. Recently we've visited with some of Natalie's favorite baby friends Olivia, Jaxon and Maisee.

The pet store - When the weather is bad and there's no one around we head to the pet store for a visit with the animals. Natalie is fasinated with everything from the puppies to the goldfish so we can kill a good 45 minutes just walking around while I tell her all about the animals.

And if all else fails... the library is a good distraction along with Tim Hortons or a trip to my favorite coffee shop - Cafe Beano.

Wow that was a much longer post than I'd intended. That's all for now. Enjoy the week. Here are some recent pics of our cutie before her cast change and being silly afterwards at home.

Week five in the spica cast

Natalie woke up today and decided it was story time, she doesn't do this often so I decided to catch it on video. But it turns out she was feeling very chatty because she gabbed like this all day - it was so sweet. I took her out to a coffee shop for a little outing and she babbled the whole time - making lots of friends in the process of course.

No matter where I take her at least one person stops to make a fuss over her, and she adores it. She always has a smile ready and will even stare at people until they start to talk to her. She definitely loves meeting new people.

As far as the cast situation goes, pumpkin is doing fantastic. Believe it or not she's been in her cast for five weeks already. Hopefully there are only seven more to go. We're going in to have her cast changed tomorrow and we'll also get an update on how things are progressing. We're waiting to see if the bone in her hip socket is growing from cartilage into bone. So keep your fingers crossed - grow little bone grow!

We'll post an update this weekend.

Cheers for now.

Wendy, Dan and Natalie

Week two of Natalie's Hip Spica Cast

Well we're two weeks in and if I could describe Natalie in two words during this past couple of weeks I'd say - Super Baby! Only two days after getting her cast on she got a brutal cold and then broke her first tooth - all without a single cry.

Here's how it all went down:

As soon as surgery was over our little beeper went off and I got to go to Natalie just as she was waking up. She was pretty upset at this stage - but as soon as I got to her I nursed her (which was definitely awkward at first), and that seemed to calm her down. Once they moved us into our room she was doing much better, only about 20 minutes after we moved she was smiling and laughing for us. I think that was the moment when I could finally breath - just knowing that she was happy was so calming.

She had a little meltdown again as we were walking her down for her MRI - but I nursed her again and she was back to smiling. They had warned us that she would likely get pretty upset during the MRI because they would have to hold her hands steady and it would be loud. But Dan was able to go in with her and they put a giant set of headphones on her little head and let her hold her wrist rattle so that was more than enough for her. She was a rock star and didn't flinch the whole time.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out in her day surgery room. Natalie slept, played with some toys and charmed all the nurses. We also learned how to change her diapers and figured out some comfy ways to cuddle her and hold her. The nurses totally adored her - and barely let us leave with her. She did so well that they decided we didn't have to stay the night (thank heavens) so we headed for home around 8 pm that night.

Putting her in her stroller and the carseat was a bit awkward but she didn't complain and even fell asleep in her carseat. Once we were home she slept most of the night propped up in her crib (I'm sure the Tylenol and Codine helped a lot).

But really since then she's been doing fantastic - it took a few days for the anesthetic to wear off so she was really sleepy, but she didn't seem to be in any pain. I thought the incision would be sore so I was nervous to touch it during diaper changes . But once I worked up the courage to wipe it off I realized she didn't even feel it.

She also didn't eat as much as usual but after about three days she was back to her normal eating patterns.

And surprisingly, her sleeping is actually better than ever. She falls asleep easily and wakes twice during the night for a diaper change and a munch. She naps pretty much every two hours and then hits the hay at 7:30. For the first week or so she couldn't get to sleep before 9 pm but after one night of skipping the late evening nap she was having she was back on track.

We've found that she likes to play at her little table (throwing toys for us to pick up) and she loves when we sing her songs.

Now that her cold (and mine) have cleared up and with temps forecasted way above the -30 mark we've weathering we're going to try going back to Gymboree and starting Mother Goose this week.

I honestly can't believe how well Natalie has been doing. And I'm sure part of reason for things going so smoothly is the fact that my mom was here for the first week and now Dan's mom is visiting. My mom was great at entertaining both of us and even getting us out for our first post-cast trip to the mall. And Dan's mom has been a huge help - especially with me being sick this week and Dan being in Toronto for work.

Our friends and family have also been amazing - their phone calls, e-mails and Facebook messages all made us feel supported and loved.

So for any other parents out there who may be waiting to go through the same procedure and are terrified it will change their sweet little one - I have to say that things have gone a million times better than I'd ever imagined. Natalie is still the same happy baby - laughing, smiling and giggling as much if not more than ever.

She is our little Super Baby!

Here's a look at what's to come:

In three weeks she gets a cast change and then it's only 7 weeks until her cast comes off (April 1st I'm hoping!) Yippee! Only 10 weeks to go! After that she may need to wear a brace for a while, but we'll be able to touch her chubby legs and easily change her little bum. I can't wait to squeeze that bum!

Ciao for now,

Wendy, Dan and Natalie

Here are a couple of recent pictures,

Showing off her new Crawler Covers

Her new teddy bear from cousin Caitlyn

Crawler covers again

Modeling the bloomers from the new outfit Nanny gave her

Our Purple People Eater

Here are a couple of pics of our purple people eater from surgery day.

Chillin with Daddy before surgery. She hadn't eaten since 3 a.m. and was still cheery as ever at 8:30 a.m. Love this kiddo!

Rockin with Mommy

Happy as ever and looking cute as a button only a couple of hours after surgery.

Getting ready for a snooze.

Surgery Update

Just a quick note to let you all know that Natalie's surgery went really well today and we were actually able to come home tonight. She was such a trooper - smiling and laughing at us about twenty minutes after she woke up. (She had a couple of crying moments - but they didn't last long).

She seems to be coping really well - everyone she met at the hospital today was amazed at how pleasant she was. She spent most of the day in bed playing with Gertie and Montrose the moose, and catching a few Z's - and she even managed a few giggles and babbles. The nurses loved her so much we weren't sure they were going to let us leave.

She's upstairs now, having a snooze in her new purple cast. We'll post some pics tomorrow.

Wendy, Dan and Natalie

Hip Surgery this Friday

Before Christmas we found out that Natalie has a dislocated hip (due to a condition called hip displaysia) that will need to be corrected with surgery. After the surgery she'll have to wear a hip spica cast that will cover her from her tummy to her knees for 6 to 12 weeks. . Our hearts were broken for her but we know that this needs to be done.

Our families and friends have been extremely supportive already and both of our mothers are coming to Calgary during the first three weeks that Natalie is in her cast. Friends have all offered thier support and prayers and even strangers have helped us by sharing thier experiences.

We know it will be tough but we've decided to try and look at this not-so-great-situation in a positive light. We realize that there are much worse things that could happen to our little pumpkin and we're going to do everything we can to make her comfortable.

Natalie's surgery is Friday, after that we'll post as many updates as possible in the coming weeks so you can keep up with her progress. And for those of you who may not know us but happen to find this blog - please feel free to ask questions or share your experiences.

Bye for now
Wendy, Dan and Natalie