A Tribute to the Club...

As many of you know my little girl was born with a "birth defect" known as clubfeet. We had a scare as to what the cause was about halfway through the pregnancy. Basically there was a possibility that our little baby girl wouldn't be with us. Fortunately, the Lord blessed us and her that she would only have the clubfeet and would get to live a fulfilling and normal life.
Clubfeet is something that is easily corrected these days. That is something that we are indeed grateful for. I knew that her feet would not look normal when she came out, but I did not know exactly how they would look. I do have to say it was very emotional when she was born to see that she indeed had the clubfeet. I was also uncomfortable with them at first. I know, it sounds awful, with her being my own child, but I had never even seen clubfeet in real life, and I didn't know what to expect. Mostly, I just had a hard time looking at them because it made me sad. It made me sad that my little girl was not normal. I didn't even really take a look at them until 24 hours later. No one expects their child to have a birth defect and no one wants that for their child. It is hard to have to see your child go through something that you will never go through.
I am grateful that if she was going to have a birth defect that it would be this one. One that she would live through and not have to suffer much. We are indeed blessed in this respect. We are also blessed that they are such incredibly cute little feet. Which brings me to my Debbie Downer moment...her cute and adorable feet and legs have been hidden from view!! I cannot touch them or look at them. They are in casts. What they do for clubfeet is this: Starting very early on in life(within the first month of life usually) they put the baby's feet and legs in casts for 6-7 weeks. This gradually stretches and molds the feet to where they need to be. These casts are changed every single week. Which for us means 2 hours of driving to Salt Lake every week and a $35 co-pay once a week. And with gas prices the way they are really makes me wish this doctor would make house calls!!After they do the casts for 6-7 weeks, they will cut the cord in her heel. Then she will have casts for 2-3 weeks after that. Then after that she will wear foot braces(shoes with a bar in between) 24/7 until she is a year old, then 12-14 hrs/day until she is about 3. Luckily, this is all when she is quite young, so chances are that she will not remember it.
Last week was the first official week of the casts. I was emotional about it. Sad to see her feet and legs covered and sad that I will not get to hold her as I once could. Her clubfeet made her so compact. She could just fold up quite nicely. She could cover her belly button and other parts with her feet. They were soft and cute and I miss them.

We had a nice doctor who explained the whole process to us. He was also very kind and gentle to Rosaline as he put her legs in the casts. She is a bit heavier than she was(she was only 7lbs. 7oz. when the casts were put on). She was fussy for the first couple days, but she is a sweet little baby who seems to tolerate her little restraints well. She has a couple more nicknames now, Pound Cake and Brick baby. Today we are getting the casts changed and hopefully she will handle it well again!!