It's off!

Caroline's body cast is officially off! It was so scary. Not taking it off of her, she just laid there and I swear she knew she was about to be free. But scary to the point, that if it was coming off and we had no idea what could happen next. All Caroline did was try to roll over on a made up, king size bed and she broke her femur. How in the world are we going to prevent another one? She is 7 months old. She should be on all 4's trying to crawl. I guess you could say we are walking on pins and needles, just waiting for the next break. Not that we want to live our lives on pins and needles. Not at all. We want to pick her up, put her on her belly and let her go. And I am sure as the days go on, we will eventually calm down and let her venture on her own. Caroline is definitely behind the bell curve on development. Laying on her back for 3 weeks, she lost a lot of her motor skills. Plus she is very hesitant with her right leg. Before the break, she had all 10 toes in her mouth. Now, she barely touches her toes. When she takes her bath at night, she kicks her left leg, but barely moves her right leg. And unfortunately, she can't sit up. Most 7 month old babies can sit up on their own. But not Sweet Caroline. We are hopeful that with time she will be able to sit up and play. It's extremely disheartening when you are with your friends and their babies are progressing as they should. They are sitting up, rolling over, crawling. But oh well. It's not like there is anything we can do about it, besides pray that she will progress well.
Well, I feel like all I do on this blog is complain.
So, I will end this blog on positivity! We are so proud of our little girl. She wore the body cast for 3 weeks like a trooper. She did better than Web and I, that's for sure. She showed us that she has more determination and courage than Web and I combined. We love her so much! We hope you all have a great Memorial Weekend!

2 weeks down, but who's counting??

I am counting! My sweet, little girl STINKS! It sucks! Bless her heart. Remember how I mentioned the diapers are their own blog? Well here we are. As you know, and as you have seen in the picture, Caroline has on a full body cast. It is on both legs, and goes just below her breast line. She has a small "window" down below. Caroline's cast is too big for her regular size 1-2 diapers. So we have bought size 5 diapers, plus we are back to newborn size diapers. We insert the newborn diaper inside her size 5 diaper. (size 5 is all that fits around the cast) However, for those of you that don't have much experience with diapers, newborn diapers are for newborns, who have approx. 2 ounces of formula or breast milk every 3 hours. Caroline has 6 ounces every 3 hours, PLUS we had just started solids. So needless to say the newborn diaper needs to be changed often. With solid foods, comes nasty diapers. Well imagine her small "window" after carrots. It is not a pretty sight. Needless to say, Web and I have opened her window a little larger by cutting some of the dirtiness, but we are out of cutting room. We are now to the point of getting to close to her splints, so we are stuck. Bless her heart, she just stinks. I have told many friends, that if I could Febreeze her, I would in a heart beat. But with my luck, she would inhale it and we would have a bigger problem on our hands! So, Web and I are just sucking it up. Lotion doesn't help, sponge baths don't help. I can't wait for the cast to come off, so I can put her in the bathtub for a good hour! I will strip her sheets, anything and everything. I will throw away all the ace bandages. Hell, if it was winter time, I would burn the damn things. Seriously, I can't stand them.
On a lighter, not so graphic note, we did go to the dr. yesterday and he was extremely pleased with the healing of her femur bone! He is also very hopeful that next Thursday we can take her out of the full body cast! Whoah hoah! This brings us much happiness, but also brings me much apprehension. Her leg more than likely won't be 100% healed, so who is to say, it won't immediately break again? She did this on a bed, near pillows. There was no blunt force that caused the fracture. I am the one that will be holding her 85% of her day, will I cause her to fracture again? Will I set her down wrong? Will she try to roll over like most 7 month old babies and break again? Will she try to crawl and break? What about when it comes time for her to try to stand or walk? How many breaks will she have? I ask myself these questions daily, if not hourly. I am petrified that when this cast comes off we will be right back at the office for a new one. Yes, I know I can't live in fear our whole lives. And I honestly don't plan, nor want to, but it's always on my mind. Well, that and her teeth. Every day I look in her mouth. So far, the lower gums are still just swollen. Thank Goodness! There is no way I could handle DI right now on top of a fractured femur. God must know where I draw the line!
So, as you can see we have some good news! C next week will more than likely be free of a body cast!
Thank you all for your calls, texts, emails. They are so appreciated! I love talking to my friends and family! You truly help!

5 days down...

Well what a week. Besides Monday and spending it at the hospital, we were at our orthopedics office an additional 2 times. The joy of having a soft full body cast is we don't stunt her bone growth. The bad new? She moves around so much the hard splints have to be re-set, not once but TWICE! Which means a huge crying fit, plus mom and dad totally upset because we don't know how to prevent it. All Caroline wants to do is play with her arms and legs like all other 6 month old babies. She just recently found her toes and put them in her mouth, so how dare we cover them up so she can't play with them, or see them!?!?! She gets so aggravated and so bored. All she wants to do is be a 6 month old baby.
As I type this, she is lying in bed with me. Yes, in bed with me. I have said from the beginning, that none of our children would ever get in bed with us, because I didn't want to start that habit. I know people that do it and to each their own. If that's what works for you then great, but I didn't want to start the habit. Well, here I am. Laying in bed with my daughter, typing my blog while Web and Kelsey Lynn are in the guest bedroom.
You see, Caroline hates her body cast. HATES it. She startles herself in the middle of sleeping when she tries to roll over, move her legs. So, she immediately wakes up crying. We also can't do our routine. As most moms know, babies love routines.
Bath, Swaddle, Bottle, Bed. Done and Done. Well, C can't have a bath, nor can we swaddle her, so she gets a bottle, then crib and she maybe lasts 30 minutes, then she wakes herself up. Plus the body cast is hot. So she really isn't a fan of clothing. She is sweating a lot. It's just a nightmare. We had finally got C into a routine and sleeping thru the night. Now, once this is all said and done, we will have to start all over again. It just drives me crazy. I know there are much bigger issues. But I prided ourselves on our routine and how she was sleeping. Oh well! Guess we'll just start again. So, C is in bed with me, because she wakes herself up in the middle of the night so much it's just easier for me to have her right next to me than walking into her room every time. Laziness on my part? Probably so.
Web and I did have a nice dinner out last night to celebrate our anniversary. Nana came to our house to babysit, which was great! It's so nice to have grandparents near us to help us out!
We go back to the doctor this Thursday. They will more than likely take an x-ray, check to see how she is doing, and then we'll go from there. I just hope they can take this stupid body cast off of her, because I am so over it! And I know Caroline is as well!!

And the beat goes on...

Let me 1st start by saying I had a great Mom's day! No, I didn't get to take Caroline to the zoo, nor did we get to celebrate our 1 year anniversary, but I still had a great day! My daughter was not feeling good most of the day, but as soon as we got to Nana and Pop's last night for dinner, she seemed much better. We still couldn't pick her up without tears, or change her diaper without tears, but I got a few pictures taken with her and she is smiling! That was the best gift ever!
I called our orthopedic at 8:00 this morning. Actually I called at 7:45, to double check they opened at 8 in the morning! And all I had to do was hit speed dial. After explaining what happened to Caroline, and talking to Dr. Herndon's assistant it was decided that best case would be to go to the Children's ER. Our ortho dr, just so happened to be doing surgeries in the hospital today, so if needed we could see him or one of his residents. So by 9 AM, Web and I are armed. And I mean armed. My diaper bag is overloaded with things to keep Caroline occupied. I had 3 bottles, 3 books, toys galore, burp cloths, blanket, you name it I had it. We expected the wait when we 1st got there would take forever, but we were in an exam room within minutes and we saw an ER dr, immediately. He knew what OI was and had some experience, so that was a bonus. He also was a dad himself, so he understood how precious our child is in our eyes, and he treated her like one of his own. We knew he would order x-rays, but he gave her some oral oxycodone to help ease the pain. Let me tell you it didn't help. She still cried when we had to pull her legs down. What I really like about Children's is they let me do it, I got to pull her leg, instead of a tech that doesn't know her very well. So Caroline got to see my face the whole time. I like to think that helped some, even if she still cried! The ER dr. brought Web and I one by one to see the x-ray and it was plain as day. Bless her heart. Fracture in her right femur. A blind man could see it. I mean I have seen many x-rays, and by far not a tech, but this was so obvious. The ER dr. told us that he would call our ortho office and they would look at the films to see if we needed surgery, cast or just let it heal on its own. I told them that if we just let it be, someone needed to tell us how to handle her, because every time we picked her up, the flood gates opened for both Caroline and her parents. Ortho residents decided we needed to do a spica cast. Well we immediately went into protective parent mode, because our ortho dr, has told us numerous times Caroline is too young to put in a cast, and that it would stunt her growth. So we asked specifically that the ER dr, tell the ortho dr. to tell Dr. Herndon (ortho dr.) so he could know what was going on. We didn't want to fight with residents that we were refusing a hard cast. We waited for around 30 minutes, and hooray our Dr. Herndon comes down the hall with this odd contraption. We were so happy to see him. He said no way would we put her in a hard cast, but a soft spica cast! Yeah! The thought of changing a diaper with a hard cast made me ill. How in the world would we keep that dry?
She was then given fentynyl which is a nasal narcotic that works within 1 minute and lasts approximately 20 minutes. Not that she wouldn't be in some pain when they soft cast her, but it would help some. Next thing you know, Caroline is being whisked on the metal contraption, right leg is moved into position, Caroline starts bawling and they started. I looked at the clock and it was exactly 12:35. I just stood there with tears down my face and watched the clock as my Sweet Caroline was being wrapped. Finally the nurse at 12:40 (again still staring at the clock) asked if I could hold her hand and Dr. Herndon said yes. As soon as I got there, our Sweet Caroline calmed down. She just needed her mommy! Caroline is now the owner of a full, soft body cast. Yes, full body cast up to her chest. Bad news. She doesn't fit in her car seat. So after the dr. is done, we sat in the ER room for another 2 hours waiting on Safe Kids. It's an organization at the hospital that helps families get their children home safely. So for $25 we got a new car seat! HA! We tried to fit her in ours, but she is just too wide. Of course, the car seat is on loan.
What have we learned? Well it was good that we waited until Monday, because we were able to see our surgeon. Who knows what would have happened over the weekend with the on call resident. Caroline is awesome at a hospital. Her parents are super emotional people. And Caroline is probably the cutest full body casted baby you will ever lay eyes on.
Funny thing happened when we came home from the hospital. I ran to Walgreens to pick up her size Newborn and Size 5 diapers! That's a whole other blog, but trust when I say changing her diaper has just become the worst chore. Caroline found a way to unwrap a piece of her ace bandage. So tomorrow morning we go back to Children's for Dr. Herndon to re-wrap her. Only our daughter would find a way to get out!
She also can't get comfy, so as I type this, Web is trying to get her to sleep. Sadly there is no comfy position for a baby with a full body cast. We are hoping she only has to wear the cast for 2-3 weeks.
Non-OI babies with femur fractures heal within 6-8 weeks, but OI babies are anomalies and they have no idea how long it will take to heal. So it's anyones guess. All in all, we are exhausted! What a day! To think this day last year we were on our way to our European honeymoon and today we spent 6 hours at Children's ER. What a difference a year makes!
Thank you all for your prayers, thoughts, positive thinking. Web and I almost feel better that the 1st femur fracture is done. We now know what to expect, what to do, and we will have a little experience for the next time!

Wouldn't you know it.

This is a very big weekend for the Browne family. Not only is it our 1st Mothers Day, but Sunday is also our 1st anniversary. Web and I decided that Saturday night would be anniversary night and Sunday would be only Mothers Day. So I went out bought a new dress, got Nana and Pop to babysit. We are going to a nice steakhouse, and not going to talk baby (or at least try)! Just 2 adults going to a steak (Web's favorite) dinner, have a nice glass of wine and toast to our crazy 1st year. Well about 2:15 yesterday Caroline started screaming bloody murder. I have never in my life heard anything so screeching and so bad. It was worst than when she was 5 days old and had full body x-rays. She was laying on my bed and I was flat ironing my hair in the bathroom. This was not her 1st time to be left alone on our bed. It's a king size and she isn't mobile yet. I run into the bedroom when I hear the screeching noise/cry and immediately knew something isn't right. She is a pink as her outfit. I pick her up and she cries even louder. I lay her down and still crying. I immediately think new fracture. I run downstairs grab a bottle and she drinks the whole thing. All I can remember in my head is our pediatrician telling us that when she eats a lot that it could be helping her with the pain. She gets a little groggy, so I put her in her infant seat and I figure we can go on a car ride. We are supposed to meet Web up in Edmond to look at a house anyways. At this time I am also remembering that I gave her carrots for lunch and so far she had no bowel movement, so maybe she is just constipated?
We get to Edmond and she is crying again. Nothing will stop her, but another bottle. By this time she has had 10 oz of formula in 2 hours. That's a lot of formula in a short amount of time. I try looking at her legs, and notice her left leg has some resistance. So again, Dr. Mom assumes left leg fracture. We got home, and during bath time I noticed that her left leg was kicking and splashing with no problems, but her right leg isn't moving at all. If you remember the right hip is displaced according to her last x-day. She is uncomfortable sitting in the tub, so I take her out, give her another bottle and she goes to sleep. She woke us up at 12AM, 4AM, 5AM, 6:30AM, 9AM. Needless to say, we are a little tired this morning. On top of all this, she is constipated. So anytime she tries to push, it hurts her. Web is off to the store to buy provisions, prunes, glycerin suppositories, apricots. TMI?!?! And don't even get me started on her swollen gums and teething!
As I type this, Caroline is kind of taking a nap. She startles herself about every 5 minutes and starts crying. I doubt we go to dinner tonight, but that's ok. We can celebrate any night. There is no way I could leave her feeling so bad. If she could just go the bathroom, I think a lot of the crying would subside. The good thing about a steak dinner, is there are always other nights.
Caroline is too pretty to see in this much pain. I just hope that she starts to feel better soon.

We have a 6 month old!

We cannot even believe it. 6 months ago, Sweet Caroline joined our little family and our lives have never been the same. We have had so much fun watching her grow and develop. Today I took her to see our pediatrician and she weighs 12 lbs 1 oz! She has almost doubled her weight since birth. She is still 22 inches, but I have given up on her length. The nurse is scared to pull her leg to measure her and we know she is going to be short statured. Matter of fact, she is in the 0 percentile for her height, 3% weight, but 10% head circumference which makes me laugh. We obviously are going to have a petite girl, which also makes me laugh because we are far from petite! Caroline passed all the doctors clinical tests and she cried during shots just like every other baby. We then went to the orthopedic doctor. Luckily we had her x-rays from NIH, so we were able to avoid more radiation. The ortho dr was very impressed with her clinically plus he was happy with her bones in the x-rays. He said they looked stronger, so that obviously made us happy. The one discrepancy from his previous x-rays to NIH x-rays, is Caroline's right hip looks dislocated. However, he isn't sure if it's because of the angle of the x-rays, or if they aren't developed yet. He was pretty stumped about it. So, when we go back in 4 months, we will take an x-ray of just her pelvis and see what it shows. As of now, there is nothing he could do to fix it, so might as well not worry about it. Needless to say, I immediately thought of my hip issues and thought for sure sure she got it from me. Then, of course, I thought maybe I do have the OI gene and she got that from me too. Talk about feeling guilty. But until the skin biopsy results are in, we are just patiently waiting. The ortho dr also told us that his partner at the Bethany, OK office uses the same drug as NIH. So that was promising. Maybe we won't have to fly to NIH every 3 months? Too soon to know.
All in all, it was a good day. 6 months ago when we went to 2 doctors appointments in 1 day we were exhausted and totally drained. Today, it was just like any other day.
Oh yeah, Dr Sigler, the pediatrician, looked at Caroline's lower gums. They are swollen, so we will probably be seeing a tooth sonner than later. Needless to say, I am freaked out. I do not want DI. Yes, I am still thinking about DI 24/7. I guess we'll know soon enough!
Happy Mothers Day to you all! I know I am super pumped to be a mommy this year!