So Brave!

No Cowardly Lion here! (Grady's costume this halloween) Going on week 5 of 6 in the new cast and our brave 'lil guy is doing so wonderful! I have to say I think he is taking this much better than anyone else! He has truly found his voice and is no longer quietly cooing, we are now in to roars, squeals, yells and giggles, with the occasional belly laugh! We are anxiously awaiting the cast removal, and are guessing that once removed he will be on the go in no time! He is constantly kicking, moving and wanting to explore this new and interesting world! He loves the outdoors and will make a good little camper one day soon! He also loves the water so the first thing we plan to do after the cast comes off, is take a bath in the tub! (A much needed one might I add) Only a week and a half to go! Here's to hoping that things settle down a bit and we all begin to get on some sort of a sleep schedule with occasional naps!

Glass Half Full

Our most recent hospital trip can be looked at in many ways... in the interest of keeping a positive attitude we are looking at it in a glass half full sort of way. Thirty short minutes after taking him in, Dr. Price came out with the news that they were able to put his right hip in place, but not his left. Therefore he is again in a cast, but it's a sort of half cast holding his right hip in place. (a little more tricky than the first cast-if that's possible) He will stay in this one for six weeks, then spend his nights in a harness once it is removed. That will bring bring us to the end of the road...for his right hip anyway! The empty part of our glass is a whole other story. Grady will have to have surgery on his left hip in order to clean out or possibly reconstruct the socket. They plan on doing this somewhere between 8 months and 18 months, which is yet to be decided. It sounds like the later we wait, the shorter amount of time he will spend in the cast. (8 months=3-5 months in cast, 18 months=6wks in cast!-GO 18 months!) The great news is this will not interfere with him learning to crawl or walk!

Blue Jean Baby

Had 'closed surgery' on September 22nd. Breakdown: They put our little man under general anesthesia, injected dye into his hip sockets, clipped his groin muscle (ouch-gasp from all the men) and put him into a stylish body cast! Which is giving everyones lower backs a workout! However, they had trouble setting the bones into his hip socket, so technically his hips are 'docked' not set. They are sitting near but not in the joints, as the sockets were curved short instead of open to allow the bones into place.

We go back on October 22nd to repeat the procedure (hopefully sans clipped groin muscle) at which point he will be re-cast for another 6 weeks if they are able to set his hips into place. This is the scenario we are hoping for so please send positive energy, cross your fingers, pray or whatever you choose, towards our little mans hips going into place! Grady has been in his cast to date for 3 weeks, the first couple weeks were pretty rough, he was very unhappy. It has slowly gotten better, and he is smiling more and more and in the last few days started 'talking' to us in lovely coos. So adorable-life just keeps getting better and better!

The Plan...

So after 8 weeks in and out the pavlik harness our wonderful Orthopedic Doctor, Dr. Price, decided to try a new approach. A more aggressive plan that will allow him to go through this process before he is trying to roll over, crawl or walk. We checked into Arnold Palmer hospital for nine days so Grayden could be put in traction, in order to stretch & lengthen his muscles and ligaments and relax his hip joints. They use this torture device to make sure when they do cast him, he does not pull his hips back out of place. He did very well! We brought along plenty of toys and were able to keep him occupied and pretty happy!

Hip Baby!

So the main purpose of this blog is to allow friends and family to follow Graydens journey... A very large part of that journey up until this point has been centered around his hip dislocation. Here is the full story on how this hip baby was born!

The somewhat short version; after 14 hours of super fun labor (12 of which were tolerable-thank you hypnobirthing, and 2 of which were 'I think I might die, give me drugs'-thank you pitocin) our wonderful nurse figured out our little guy just might not be as ready to come out as we had thought, and was possibly breech. An ultrasound confirmed and we were whisked away for the all famous C-section. Grayden was born taco style-folded completely in half! Luckily the pediatrician on staff checked his hips and found what they called a 'hip click', meaning they clicked in and out of socket. And so our journey began...

Welcoming William...

In the early days I had a very black-and-white view of everything. -Cat Stevens

With love and joy we welcomed William Grayden in to our hearts and our world on July 19th. This blog is to update friends and family on his life happenings! Our lives have be turned upside down, flipped sideways and inside out-and we are loving every minute! (Well almost...) We look forward to sharing this amazing journey with you all!