broken baby.

i am very sad to report that on september 9th, my littlest babe broke his leg. yes, at just 15 months he beat out the rest of us for the 1st broked bone in our family. it was tragic. 

i'm not exactly sure what happened, he was laying on his back & coop was pulling him by his leg. they were both laughing & having so much fun. i stepped out to change tj's diaper & no more then 40 seconds later mylo started screaming. coop doesn't really remember. he just says he pulled on his leg then mylo started to cry. there were no toys or furniture around for him to bump. it is all rather odd. needlesstosay, i did not suspect a break. mylo didn't have a diaper on so i thought maybe he experienced a hit to the groin. so i decided to wait it out. when he didn't get better & was clearly in a lot of pain i opted to take him to the hospital. i concluded it may be a dislocated hip, you know, because breaking a baby bone is damn near impossible. the doctors were a little dismissive but i insisted there was something wrong. after they gave him an x-ray (just to apease me) we were all very shocked to discover a crack in his left femur. my heart broke. here was my poor little infant experiencing a pain i could only imagine & there was nothing i could do to fix it-is there any worst position for a mother to be in? 

after 5 long weeks of enduring a splint from his hip to his ankle on his broken leg (we opted for a splint because his doctor was worried about sawing a cast off of such a restless little babe)  & 3.5 weeks of enduring splints on both legs (in an attempt to immobolize him & prevent any possible further damage) he is finally splint free. those 5 weeks were hard on all of us. poor mylo was restricted from all of his favorite activities, baths, beach, parks, climbing on the table, riding in his car, & of course, walking. the first few days he was clearly in a lot of pain but it cleared up much faster than i anticipated. he couldn't get comfortable at night so he & i were up & down most nights. his big brothers took such good care of him. they snuggled him, brought him his favorite things, & were totally understanding when mommy had to give him extra attention & care. he is so lucky to have them around. he was such a stud in his little splints. he wouldn't let them keep him down. the first few days when the pain was strong he enjoyed being held all day but the novelty quickly wore off & he his independent nature took over. he started out with an army crawl but quickly moved into more of a monkey crawl. he was standing & even taking a few steps in double splints before they were removed. he is amazing; so strong, so brave, so resilient, so perfect.

the day it was time to remove the splints tj asked me, "whens my-my gets his cast off will hes be a boy or hes be a greel." um, what kind of a procedure do you think he endured, tj?! that kid. mylo was very much caught off gaurd when the doctor finally removed his splints & he was free to feel & move his leg after so long. it's been 3 days & he is still hesitant to stand on his leg. in fact, he usually holds it in the exact same position it was held in by the splint. but he is slowly getting used to his newly healed leg & i'm sure it will only take him a few days to get back on his feet.