four years long

Last week was a big week in our family for a few different reasons ... Henry and Walter turned 4 and 3 ... Felix started crawling (oh yes he did!) ... and perhaps most anticipated was the end of Henry's club foot correction. A four year long process which often at times felt very, very long indeed. Hard for us as parents but increasingly difficult and frustrating for Henry as he grew older and was more aware of the discomfort while trying to sleep at night. He has been such a trooper and you can imagine how immensely proud we are of him!



We had no indications with our 20 week ultrasound that there was any problems so the news that our little baby was born with a club foot came to a complete surprise to us! I wrote about those early days on a previous post and it's amazing now to look back and be reminded with this photo at just how turned in his little left foot was.



At six weeks old we started the series of castings to manipulate his foot out, 1 cast a week for 6 weeks. Every week traveling up to Saskatoon with a newborn in that winter weather. The night before the next cast we would soak it off in the bath and give him a few hours of freedom. It never bothered him, even then, but it did break your heart a little to see this wee boy with a full leg cast on him.



At three months old his casts were replaced with this Boots and Bar contraption. For 3 months long he wore this 23 hours a day. Needless to say he never really wore any pants, ha, and he did look like he was in training to be a snowboarder or a surfer. This 3 month period was really challenging for us but on the plus side it sure made changing diapers easy ... just lift up both feet at once!



This was the last day of the long 3 months of constant wear ... we were so glad to see this day arrive! After this Henry only had to wear the Boots to bed at night til he was 4 but at this point that felt so far away.



I remembered to grab my camera one morning when Henry woke up, to capture the sight of our two year old standing up in his crib just waiting for us to get those Boots off. Henry still never complained, he simply adapted over the years as thankfully this was all he knew. We were still heading up to Saskatoon every 6 months for checkups with his orthopaedic surgeon, who reassured us that 4 years old would be the end date.



And then amazingly, finally, the very last night was here. I took some pictures, cried and hugged my boy, and thanked God that we had gotten through it. His little funny foot was straight, he was playing soccer with his Dad just like we were promised, and he himself was so, so, so very happy to know he could snuggle into bed, comfy and curled up in a ball if he liked.



The long awaited Doctor's appointment where Dr Penny looked him in the eye and told him "No More Boots!". He was telling everyone else this news for the rest of the day!