Cast off

In celebration of a follow-up appointment with Amelia's pediatric orthopedist which may not have been the best but certainly wasn't the worst, here are pictures of Mia in November, fresh out of the cast!

Look at those skinny little legs! This is the day she got it OFF and look how happy she is (and how her tongue sticks out when she's focused!)

And here's about 2 weeks later, when she'd stopped flipping herself over while trying to hard to reach for something (reaching stuff was SO MUCH EASIER when she didn't have to pull a cast that weighed 1/3 her body weight with her!) and could get up on all 4!

Here she is about a month post-cast sitting up! Fairly wobbly, but sitting up!

Now Amelia can cruise all around the living room, pull up on anything higher than herself.

And despite the nearly break-free care I gave her, her favorite person in the world?

Daddy.

Can't say that I blame her, though. He's my favorite person, too!

In all reality, I was very concerned that Amelia would have a hard time adjusting to having the cast off. I read horror stories about a long adjustment period, but she did great. She slept better, ate better, and took to naked legs like a fish to water. She might be the exception, though, since she's a pretty easy-going kid. The transition into the cast wasn't nearly as rough for her as I worried it would be (so maybe that's a good measure of how well a kid will do coming out of the cast...)

She's been a in an abduction brace at night but the doctor cleared us of that on Tuesday. Unfortunately, her right hip isn't looking quite right and the angle on her left hip is steep. What does that mean? Maybe nothing. Apparently, walking really helps the hip sockets form, so Dr. Marcy is really anxious for her to start walking. It may mean hip surgery when she's between 2 and 4 years (with another lovely Spica Cast). The reality is, there's nothing we can do and no way we can know what's in store. So, like most things, we'll take is as things come and pray for the best.