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out of casts and into splints



Maddy went from casts to aquaplast splints today. the aquaplast splints are made from sheets of moldable plastic. They stretch out the knees as far as they can and then make a splint to hold the knees and feet in the position they go to. The splints do not stretch the knees anymore however. That is the downside to it because now it is up to us to stretch the knees and feet to obtain more mobility as well as the neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hip stretches that we already have to try to do every day. I feel overwhelmed with all the stretching. Honestly I don't do it nearly as much as they say to. The PT for all the stretches we've been doing wanted us to do 10-15 reps 4-6 times a day on each stretch. !!! So we figured it up and she has 37 stretches. If we do each stretch for just 3 minute a piece 3 times a day we would spend 5 1/2 hours a day just for stretching. I am not a full time physical therapist! If I tried to get that much in that is all my relationship with my daughter would consist of. I'm not even sure I'd have time to feed her, much less myself, and you can forget about sleeping, grocery shopping, dr. appointments, church, any type of singing or talking with Maddy, tummy time, sitting up time, swing time, walks in the stroller, clean clothes, a clean house to live in and the bones of starved and dehydrated dogs would be piling up in the backyard. Plus not to mention it being a full time, undoable job for an 8 wk old. I don't think any baby could spend that much time on anything except sleep! Okay that might be a slight exageration but there is no way I can get that much in, which makes me feel like a bad mother, but I still have to take care of all the families needs so it is really hard to balance because I feel like her whole future of whether she is going to have the best mobility she can have depends on me, but we've also got to get through the present. It is a really hard challenge to balance it all and I do a terrible job. I will just say that up front. I don't give enough time to anything. Anyway, the guy that did the splint said to do the stretches 3 times a day for about 15 minutes--which isn't bad if all you were doing is stretching knees and feet. It is crazy. So anyway, the upside of the splints is that we can take them off and on. If they start slipping we can adjust them. We can take them off to do stretching and we can take them off to give baths. So we will get to have real baths now instead of sponge baths which I am so excited about. Maddy likes real baths much better than sponge baths.
I finally got her medicine and shampoo today for her cradle cap. Not only does she have it on her head, she also has it on her eyebrows. She has a cream we are putting on her eyebrows and then we have dandruff shampoo that will clear up her head hopefully. I had to get Walgreens to special order the shampoo because no one carried it. It was $14! so it better work.
Anyway it has been a long day and I hope this makes sense about what is going on because my brain is fried. We go see the PT tomorrow and then relax for the weekend hopefully.
One more thing is that the pediatrician gave me an ENT guy that we can go see earlier than the one at Children's Plano. When they get our medical records they can schedule us for next week. So that will be great.
And one last thing...Maddy weighed 7lb 4 oz without her casts today! Go girl!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Whew Holly, ya gotta be worn out! You are a wonderful mother. My suggestion is, talk to PT people and tell them how much time you and Aaron figured out it would take to do the stretches, and if they had some ideas, etc. Seems to me 2 or 3 times a day doing stretches for 10 or 15 minutes would be good. Nan
May 28, 2009 at 10:04 PM
bee said…
One step forward. You have done a great job up to present. I say relax and just do what is "possible". God will help you and take care of Maddy. You and Aaron are the super parents and to be commended. Should be no regrets on your part. Maddy is progressing and that is good news!
May 28, 2009 at 10:52 PM
Chrissy Cross said…
First, I think that Maddy is very blessed to have you as her mama. You are very attentive and are so dedicated to doing the best you can for her. Also, no mama is perfect, no mama does everything the dr. says, no mama does everything that needs to be done. There is always, always always something else to do. Just pray for God to give you the strength to do what you can and leave it up to Him to help you. It makes things so much easier. And bonding time with your baby is so much more important than stretching, your relationship with that baby is 1000 times more important than her physical therapy. And as far as the cradle cap goes, Clayton had it and I just scrubbed her head really hard with those srubby things they give you at the hospital and it went away in a couple of weeks, so don't worry too much about it. It looks gross, but it goes away. And I think that going from casts to splints at 2 months is incredible.
May 29, 2009 at 12:21 PM
Anonymous said…
One of the things that you can try with the streches is to just do a little every time you change her diaper. It works out well and it can turn in to a great time to bond with her as well. Just think how many diapers you change a day and if you just did the streches for 5 minutes you would get a lot of time in before you know it.
June 1, 2009 at 9:54 PM
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