Monday, February 2, 2009

New shoes, new challenges

Benjamin practicing his charms on the local girl...
We have the Mitchell shoes now with the Dobbs bar. Actually, we have had the new shoes for a few weeks now...I just can't find the time to blog very often. :)

He has been doing fairly well with the new shoes. They have proven easier to put on, as well as easier to see if they are on correctly, as there are holes in the back of the shoes to view his heels. It seems that he doesn't mind the new shoes. We aren't having to adjust them as much, although with the window, my husband can see they come out a bit more often than we like. But, we are still thankful for the new design. Right now, we are using a little piece of sock folded in half to give a bit more padding over the middle buckle. His foot size is kind of in between the holes, so this has helped to keep it in nice and tight until we can let it out to the next larger hole.

He has now chosen to make evenings his 'special' time. That's a nice way of saying he gets fussy and wants us all to himself. :) At first we thought it was the shoes/brace, but I think it's more his age and temperament...hopefully for a short time!

Better go and relieve my husband, who is holding Benjamin while I type this. Blessings!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Here I go!

Well, I am going to join the world of blogging; if nothing else, so I can track my son Benjamin's progress with clubfoot. I have been finding many people online who have been an encouragement as our family gets started on this journey, so I want to try and offer that hope to others as well.

We are on day three of the shoes and brace...quite the experience! I kept telling people, "I'll be glad when we are done with the casts and move on to the brace...then I can give him a normal bath," but I am not sure what I was thinking!! Although he did get his first bath the day after the brace went on, the rest of life definitely hasn't been easy.

Right now the biggest challenge is getting his (left) foot into the shoe far enough that he doesn't squirm out of the shoe. One morning (after a trying night of crying) he had been asleep after about 2am, and I thought, "Wow, he is getting used to the brace." Imagine my surprise when I lifted the blanket off his legs and saw his little foot lying peacefully right next to the shoe! Needless to say, I popped the foot back in and counted that as his time out of the brace for that day! :)

Daughter Hannah has been a real trooper, though I am sure she gets jealous over the extra attention Benjamin is getting.

T