A new record

Today was a rough day...Xander is being very two, and we spent the day in our pajamas. Not the good-lazy-do-nothing-spend-the-day-in-your-jammies kind of day, but the steam-rolling-fight-to-change-a-diaper-day-with-no-chance-to-change-out-of-your-pajamas kind. In fact, I think the only things that happened of note were that Brian picked up Xander's new big-boy bed and mattress, I finally saw the last half of "You've Got Mail" (yeah, I know it came out over ten years ago, and I can't really pin down exactly why I've never seen the whole thing, but 'tis true), and - the big one - Amelia's most recent cast is still on.

She tried to roll from her tummy to her back yesterday. As you can see, she's pretty angry about it and she didn't quite succeed (probably because of the cast), but she did try. I think her attempt had something to do with the fact that I propped her chest up on that little pillow in her floor gym. I'm just happy she tried; since she's been prone her whole life, she's really content to lie on her stomach and I really worry that this milestone will be severely delayed. I'm already preparing for "back time" once our neurologist clears her for it. She'll have to be trained to be happy on her back just like most babies have to be trained to be happy on their tummies. Just one more thing to be concerned about, I guess.

Anyway, back to the cast. This is attempt #4 to keep the poor thing's right leg in a cast to begin correcting her knee. We abandoned the idea of correcting her knee and feet at the same time last week, hoping that the bend in her foot would help keep the cast on. Unfortunately, it didn't work. Her right knee is straight right now - much better than bending the wrong way like it wants to, but the cast just wants to slip right off. On top of it, she likes to wiggle around. So on Tuesday, the orthopedist decided to just cast from her hip to her ankle in the hopes that her foot would really stop the cast from sliding off (you can see it pretty well in this picture). I am happy to report that it seems to be working; we're going on day 4 with no major problems. The cast does slide down, but I can easily stretch her leg and move it back up her leg. I also keep her sock kind of tucked up under the bottom edge of her cast to keep it from chafing her foot. I feel really good about this new approach; hopefully, we can get through the next couple of weeks with some good improvement and be able to bend her knee the right way so we can start in on her feet.