She did very well that day. She was a little stiff and sore though she was still a very happy baby. Lilie was scared to death during the removal of the cast though. I would just recommend being prepared for your child to scream during the cast removal. She did not scream because it hurt, but she was scared. The saw is very loud, and Lilie has never liked loud noises. If your child does not like loud noises, just be prepared for some screaming. She was just fine as soon as the saw was turned off.

The saw that they use to remove the cast does not have an actual blade on it like you see on a table saw. The cast saw only vibrates the cast apart. It will not cut skin, so you don’t have to worry about this hurting your child. The technician is very well trained. Cast removal is what most of them do all day long.

One thing to remember when your child is taken out of the cast, you will want to help support their legs still. Their legs will not have much muscle tone. Lilie’s legs are still very floppy compared to other children her age though she is catching up quickly. She is doing very well, but we did have to support her legs and upper body when carrying her around. One thing that I was told during our first experience was whatever age or skill level they are when they go into the cast, it will be the same when they come out. If they can not sit up before the cast, then they will not be able to sit up afterwords. This statement has been very true. Lilie and Natalie were both stuck at the age they were when they went into the cast. They did progress very quickly though.

Anyhow, we have her in her second cast now. We took her in yesterday to get that done. They put some gas on her to make her go to sleep and gave her some other anesthesia (they didn’t do that with Natalie). As you can see in the picture, she wasn’t upset, she was just a little bit dazed still from being under the medication.

The new cast, which you can’t see much of in this picture, goes up higher than the other one. In fact, this one goes up almost to her underarms when she sits up. Also, her left leg (the one that did not have surgery) is out of the cast. The cast only goes down to the bottom of her thigh on that leg. She seemed really happy yesterday evening, but she has a worn spot behind her left leg for whatever reason. We’re hoping it doesn’t cause problems!

Overall though, it would seem that the spica cast changes are extremely easy on the babies. They may not like leaving your arms or may have a little bit of fear of going under any form of anesthesia, but it is actually a simple process. She was in and out within a few hours. Most of that time was just spent recovering from the medication.

Lilie’s hip is looking really good according to the doctor. We are looking forward to the day that she can get out of the spica cast!

What to Bring To the Hospital

I would not worry about bringing too much to the hospital with you. It will just make more for you to carry around. The hospital should have just about everything that you will need such as diapers (large and small sizes) and food. I did however bring a few bottles for our daughter because she is pretty picky about what kind of bottle she will drink out of. If you have a picky child then I would bring your own. You will also need some clothes to bring them home. You will want to use clothing that is several sizes too big normally. For example, Lilie is 6 months wearing 9 month clothing, but I bought onesies that were 24 months. They still fit a little tight, but they work. You do not want clothing that is too heavy because it may make them sweat. This can cause their skin to break out causing sores which are very painful.

I recommend having feminine pads ready to line the cast with, but you are not going to need them at the hospital. There is going to be a lot of swelling around the incision area that will not allow you get them in place correctly. Use these once you get your child home.
I would also make sure that you bring something that is familiar to them. They won’t feel like playing very much, but that will help comfort them. I would just bring something small like a blanket, stuffed toy, or pacifier something like that.

You will most likely be spending most of your time standing next to their bed so make sure that you wear comfortable clothes and shoes. You will also want money for the vending machines because you may be up in the middle of night and need a snack to keep going. Caffeine can be a life saver during really long nights.

One of the problems that we had was people visiting that had been exposed to illnesses prior to coming to the hospital. I would recommend not letting anyone that has been exposed to any form of flu within the last two weeks to visit especially if it is the stomach flu virus. Our first daughter got a stomach virus from someone and became extremely sick in the following days. They are just too weak to fight off any kind of illness. It also made her cast smell from a mile away.

One thing that we learned this last time of surgery was not to be scared to tell the nurses what you need. They are there to make your child as comfortable as possible. If you feel that the pain medication is not working, do not be afraid to ask the nurse to call the doctor for other options.

Things For Home

One of the best things that you can do for the family is to prepare your home. You will want to have everything cleaned and disinfected for when you come home from surgery. I usually spray all surfaces areas with Lysol that day of the surgery that way when we come home everything is already germ-free.

I would also recommend preparing at least one week worth of food. It will be much easier on you if you do not have to worry about food for everyone. If you cannot prepare food in advance buy frozen foods that are easy to prepare. You are not going to have much time to spend on cooking, even if you and your spouse are working together.

You are going to need some place for your child to sit comfortably when you cannot hold them. The cast is always bigger than you think, so try to find something that does not have really high sides. Most of the time, you will not be able to use a swing, bouncy seat, or high chair because there is just not enough room. We have used a bean bag with both our girls and it works really well.

Buying all the things that you are going to need in advance will really help you when you come home. You are going to need two different sizes in diapers. A small diaper will work for the inside (Newborn to s.2) and a larger size for the outside (size 4 to 6). I also recommend buying feminine pads for lining the cast. It has saved the cast from getting soiled so many times. I buy Stayfree ultra thins with no wings. They are easiest to fit inside and relatively inexpensive. I also use medical tape to hold them in place on the outside of the cast. This not going to look great, but it is a necessary precaution to keep the cast as dry as possible.

I hope that this helps you with the preparation.

You know what, as we looked back that is probably exactly what was going on. The nurses at the time just didn’t know what the problem was and didn’t know how to correct it. So, a quick warning when you go in for surgery and to have a spica cast placed on your child, if your child is waking up and acts like they are in pain every few minutes then this is a good possibility. You can make it known to your nurse and hopefully get some assistance with the problem. More to come about Lilie’s surgery soon!

The doctor won’t know whether he will have to do the open medial reduction like he had to do on Natalie (our older daughter) until he gets in there and gets a good look at what is going on. So, unfortunately, we won’t know until she is out of surgery what type of condition her hip is in and how long she will need to be in the cast. It would be awesome if she could be totally out of it by Christmas, but that is wishful thinking I would imagine! We will try to keep you guys up to date.

Overall, we are hoping to get some good news in the next couple of weeks when we go back to the doctor. Her doctor told us that it will be a “make it or break it” type appointment. She will either be out of the brace or need surgery because he does not want to wait until she is too old to have surgery if she is going to need it regardless.

It has been a good thing that we have found her hip dysplasia this early. We always knew that one of the main reasons Natalie needed surgery was because the condition was not found early enough. Luckily with Lilie we were aware of the condition and found it in time so that they could use a harness and brace to correct the problem.

We will be putting up some pictures of her harness and brace here pretty soon. Thank you for all the emails you guys have sent in support!

We were instructed that for the first two weeks she is not allowed to have the harness off at all. We are going to have to change her clothes and diapers around the harness. It is a little difficult right now,but it should become easier with practice.

She was really frustrated the first day that she was in the harness. She has now adjusted very well. She was really happy for the first full day of being in the harness. I hope that it will get easier from here.

I have noticed that as she was getting older her hips were getting tighter. I watched the doctor rotate her hips like I have been doing every day. I watched the expression on her face and knew without needing an x-ray to confirm that she most likely had a dislocated hip. The x-ray showed what the doctor had suspected so we have an appointment with Natalie’s doctor on the 15th for a more detailed exam.

I will try to keep an update on how everything is going. I know that we have not posted anything in a while. Things are still a little crazy around here with a 9 year old, a 3 year old and a newborn. We will try to do better in the future about keeping the site updated. Also, if anyone has any of their own stories they would like to post just let us know.

Danielle seems to be okay with the idea. She was not real excited about Natalie being born. However, Natalie is the unsure one this time I think. She has been enjoying playing with Lily’s stuff. She wants to climb in to the swing, play in her crib, and open her toys. She is continuously getting more active since her spica cast is off, but seems to be very attached to us at the moment. She constantly wants all of the attention. I think she realizes that the time is coming really soon that we will have another baby in the house. We will see how it goes!

Sunday, despite the terrible weather, they had an Easter egg hunt at our church after service. It was held indoors but it was still a lot of fun. The kids seemed to really enjoy it even though it was fairly crowded.

Then, lastly, they had another Easter egg hunt at their other grandma’s house. Unfortunately, I was worn out by this point and fell asleep but I heard it was a great time as well.

Through all of this Natalie’s hip seemed to hold up well as she bent down continuously to pick things up off the ground. Both of our girls looked very pretty in their Easter dresses.