Let Freedom Ring!

I was hoping to have these up earlier, but my computer kept freezing... aaah, modern technology. Anyway, the visit was a success and after 11 weeks, 2 days and three-ish hours, Olivia is now cast free! Frank and I were far more excited than she was as you will soon see. The Livster was once again a champ. Her hips look fantastic, according to Dr. B and the x-rays. She is currently in a brace, which I'll try to photograph a little better later, and we go back in 7 weeks. At the next visit, she may be able to live brace-free for a good portion of the day, but we won't count our chickens yet. As of right now, it's brace livin' 24/7 except diapers, bathing and the car seat (but not to exceed 3 - 4 hours). It was quite a momentous occasion for our family, though I'm sure Liv will not remember a thing about it. I'm posting pictures from the day in story format. :-) Thank you, everyone, for your thoughts and prayers.

By the way, we ran into Caroline and Baby Taylor at DuPont, which was wonderful. I wish I had taken a picture of Taylor and Olivia -- instant friends, laughing and smiling at each other. We are happy to announce that Taylor is harness-free and doing great! I think a visit in the works.

And now the day through photos...

We were on our way to Delaware, and Olivia had this "daddy face" on. She was generally happy throughout the first part of the ride, so this face made me laugh. It was like she knew...


Here is Olivia and I before the old cast came off. This is the last picture of the her in the spica cast (*single tear*). Notice how happy I am and how bored she is... and apparently my hair was bigger than I thought.

And this is the outside of the spica cast immediately after the tech sawed it off Olivia. By the way, she was hysterical throughout most of the de-casting.


Mmmm, this was the inside of the cast. I guess we didn't clear out the poop as well as we thought we did. Saying that it smelled bad doesn't even begin to describe it.


Here is Olivia completely cast free!! Frank and I were the only ones smiling as you can see.


Poor thing -- she screamed throughout most of the event. We had to clean her (you saw the inside of the cast, right?) after the cast came off and before the diaper and brace went on. The amount of caked on poop was mind-blowing. At one point, Frank had to pick her up so I could clean off her bum and back, and he said the image of my face is burned into his mind for all eternity. Lol.


And here is the full-body, cast-free, new brace picture of Olivia! Clearly still not happy...


And we traded in our loaner car seat (no cash for clunkers deal but still) and were finally able to use our own. We are both amazed at how big she now is in it!!


That's it. Olivia is doing much better now in her brace. Again, I thank everyone for your thoughts and prayers.