About the Baby and her feet

Afton aka:

Affy

Finn

Finny

Sunshine

Ace

Joey

What can I say about this baby?

She is going to read this someday so do I sugar coat??

Naw, I'm going to keep it real!

Afton is the CRABBIEST baby we have ever had! Seriously for the first few weeks I thought I was going to lose my mind for all the crying! There were many nights she would start crying around 8 or 9 and cry straight until 1 or 2 a.m.! It was exhausting physically and emotionally! She would cry for hours on end during the day too but saved most of it and the worst of it for night time.

Around week 8 it was like a switch flipped. All of the sudden she was happier. Still crying, but more like a normal baby not like a Mr. Hyde baby. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that a little before 8 weeks she finally got her casts off and moved to the brace.

She is now 13 weeks old and really getting to be a lot of fun!

She didn't smile at us AT ALL until 7 weeks! And even then she only smiled at Dalyn for a brief second ( I didn't even get to see it!) then no body saw her smile again until week 9 1/2! She has yet to smile at Terry! She is a happy baby now . . . well when I say happy I mean, not crying, but not a smiley baby.

I think it will come, maybe I just hope it will come. She will coo and goo at us for hours but no smiles.

I wanted to show a little of what we have gone through with her clubbed feet and casting and such over these first weeks of her life.

This is what her feet looked like on day one . . .

We went to our first appointment with the orthopedist when she was 4 days old. They wanted to start casting right then but I voiced my sadness at being robbed of my tiny ball of baby so quickly so they let me wait until she was 10 days old to start the process.

Here she is getting her first set of casts . . .

the process of taking old casts off and putting new ones on took place every single Tuesday. The babies grow so fast they can't  leave the casts on for longer then a week. 

The process was a little like torture. Afton screamed the entire time! Especially durning re-casting. The doc would grab her foot and pull it straighter and the tech would hurry and warp the cast while the doc held her foot in place. 

I really think this weekly torture for her sort of "taught" her to scream and freak out to the level she always managed to get to.

The office staff was really great! Always checking on me, "How are you doing mom?" They even let me bring a baby bath into the office so once the lasts weeks casts were cut off I could give her a quick bath before the new casts were put on. They even stored the bath there at the office so I wouldn't have to haul it back and forth. After all I didn't get to bathe her at home ever those first 8 weeks!

It was not a fun time. But the results were/are amazing!

After one week of casts her feet looked like this . . .

Then we were onto cast number two . . .

After cast number two her feet looked like this . . .

These pictures are from after cast number three . . .

After cast number four . . .

Cast number Five . . .

After . . .

Its about this time that they do a procedure where they clip the Achilles tendon to help lengthen it create more movement and straightening of the ankle. This procedure has to be done on 95% of the clubbed feet babies. They told me from the beginning that Afton's feet were severe enough I should just plan on having to get this done.

Around week 4 they started to comment how great her feet were doing! By week 5 they decided her feet looked so good and had so much movement already, they wouldn't need to clip her tendon!

Absolutely a miracle from a loving Heavenly Father!

Our last set of casts around 7 weeks of age . . .

And the final after . . .

you can see how they are very over corrected. This is how they help prevent the clubbed feet from recurring . . .

Now she wears these . . .

She tolerates them SO much better then the casts.

She has to wear them 23 hours a day until she is 6 months old, which is right at Christmas time, then she only has to wear them to sleep until she is 2.

I'm not perfect at keeping them on her :-/

Every once in a while a take them off and just enjoy my squishy ball of baby for a few hours longer then I should!

Her feet are still doing really well. Her next appointment is this Friday. I'm excited to see what they have to say!

Here is a line up off all the casts (I only kept one of the first week) . . .

Her knees were always bent and her feet gradually pulled out farther and farther . . .

During casting you can imagine the looks that we got carrying a baby around with two casts. My awesome friend flew all the way from Oregon to come visit! When she came she brought some baby leggings. I would have never thought to use these to cover her casts and make them less noticeable but what  a great idea! 

She had some pretty cute outfits with those leggings too. . .

Obviously I didn't take pictures of every outfit we put together for her but you get a good idea of how cute the leggings were and how much they disguised the casts!

It has been quite the road! I'm thankful for all the amazing things the doctors can do to fix her little crooked feet but I will be thankful to be off this road too!