Spica Week 11: Grow Baby, Grow

It has been odd to mentally chronicle Londyn’s growth and development when three quarters of her body is in a cast, and therefore unmovable. Obviously the milestones such as pulling up, standing, walking, even crawling don’t really apply to her. A friend from church told me the other day, “I’m so glad you had another baby first, so you know it’s not supposed to be this hard!” I agree! With Grayson, he hit his milestones at the appropriate times and every few weeks it seemed he was doing something brand new that changed our life as we knew it. With Londyn in the spica, the changes are more subtle, but she is just delighting me with her expanding mind. She is just starting to get the hang of clapping her hands, she loves to give tight hugs and grab anything near anyone’s face (glasses, earrings, hair). Her verbal repertoire is expanding, and it’s no surprise with her brother going through the terrible two’s that this week she started saying, “No, don’t!” She’s also becoming much more expressive about things she likes and doesn’t like. She makes a big fuss when she sees people eating without her, and she’s started sympathetically crying when Grayson cries, which is quite hilarious to see.

She also has gotten three new teeth this month, and has the best toothy little smile. My favorite surprise this week was when I was giving her a “bath” and she noticed her reflection in the mirror and started smiling and touching that other cute baby! I just love this little girl, and can’t wait for her to be free to conquer the world just how she wants to!

On that note, we have our 12 week arthrogram in a few days. It’s hard to mentally prepare for this one, as our ortho told us he is going to have to wait and decide inter-operatively whether she will need the spica for another 6 weeks, or be cast-free. He won’t know until he sees her hip under the x-ray. At our 6 week arthrogram, our ortho seemed to be disappointed there wasn’t more progress, so I’m trying to protect myself by thinking of this 12 week arthrogram as a re-casting. (Though of course my mama heart keeps wanting to hope against hope that maybe her hip will have healed and she’s done!) Regardless of the result, I can’t shake this slight feeling of dread about having Londyn put under anesthesia again, and dealing with the aftermath of that. Though necessary, none of this is fun, let’s be honest. All we can do is keep moving forward, one day at a time.