Seriously? Another Way to Change Diapers.

On the day Abby was born, Rhett decided that he wasn't going to shave until she was able to lay on her back. While we've been putting her on her back for a couple of weeks now, Monday marked the day when her incision was officially at 90% strength and she could be on her back full time. So, he shaved. And I must admit, I'm happy about it. The outward show of solidarity has ended, but don't you worry, we still support our daughter - besides, I couldn't join in and grow a beard with Rhett.

Just before shaving on Monday night.

Her bandage is finally removed for good! These were very cushioned and just protected her back for another couple of weeks while it was strengthened.

Yesterday was another big day for us (but really, is there a day that's not big in some way?). We had our second appointment at Shriner's to get her foot adjusted/casted again. She didn't love having the cast removed, something I think was due to hunger than anything else because she usually loves loud noises. To help against the noise, she got to wear headphones and that seemed to calm her down. She fell asleep toward the end of the removal. We can already see a difference in her foot's position. They're letting us keep her casts, so that will be fun to show her one day.

DJ Abby showing off the new way we'll have to swaddle her.

First one off!

We gave her her first real bath (up until now we've been doing sponge baths), as we will at every appointment after the cast is removed. Again, she didn't love it, but I think is was mostly hunger and uncertainty of the new sensation of being in the water. She was then weighed again....she's a good eater. She's now at 9 lbs. 7 oz. Yes, over a pound in a week this time. It's safe to say that we won't be buying anymore newborn diapers. She's growing up so fast!

An ultrasound technician then came in to look at her hips. Her left hip (the same side as her club foot) is perfect. the joint is just as they like to see it and everything has developed as it should. Her right hip is a different story. The head of the femur is under-developed and slides in and out of the socket easily. We were able to see and hear a little clunk as the technician moved it in and out. I think it's interesting that it's on the opposite side of her club foot. As I said last week, they told us they wouldn't do anything to try to fix them if they were dislocated, as treatment isn't very effective. Well, we've learned once again not to hold doctors to their word, as that doesn't seem to ever hold very fast.

We went to get her foot casted again and they started talking about what they were going to do to fix her hip. Wait, what? They immediately brought out this full-body harness. She gets to wear this fun contraption for 23 hours a day for about six weeks (we'll see how true that timeline is). We're not sure if it's because just one hip is having the issue or that it's because it hasn't developed quite yet or what the reason is that they're trying treatment. They seem fairly confident that it will help her hip fix itself. The vertical straps are the ones that position her hip in place. They will do another ultrasound in two weeks to see if it's working or if we need to try something else (I have no idea what they would try if this doesn't work, so fingers crossed that it does!).

Not pleased. There was no chance at getting a happy picture last night.

Well, needless to say that she did not enjoy her new situation. She was asleep through most of the afternoon but from about 6:00 pm to 2:00 am, she cried pretty steadily. We could tell she was in pain and was uncomfortable. I can't say that I blame her. She seems to be back to her normal self though as I write this - we'll see if that continues! There were a few times I wished we could give her some Tylenol. Our pediatrician has us waiting until she's at least three months old to do that, though. One of the main signs of infection of her incisions or a shunt malfunction is a fever. If we give her Tylenol, that will counteract the fever and we might miss something. So we just cuddle her and feed her and hope she can make it through - it's a good thing she's a tough cookie!

So yes, we get to learn how to do diapers again. The hardest part about changing them before was her bringing her legs together and flailing them against us. Thankfully that's not happening anymore! Cleaning her and getting the new diaper under her are definitely easier. It's just tricky bringing the velcro straps of the diaper through the various straps of her harness. If we ever have to diaper a child with any complications, I'm sure we'll be pros because I think we've learned all the ways to change a diaper (knock on wood).

The true big bummer of the harness is that we just figured out how to really swaddle her well. We were able to get her to sleep instantly in the swaddle and she loved it. Well, no longer. Now we kind of wrap a blanket around her top half, as seen above. It seems to work okay, it's not nearly as effective as a full-body swaddle.

I'm so grateful she's a fairly easy going baby every other time. I think she has a right to be upset when things like this happen and she helps us adjust when she's calm about life the rest of the time. It would bother me even more if she cried for days on end about her circumstances, but once she adjusts after about a day, she's fine. I guess she kind of has to be easy going in order to endure what we're putting her through anyway!