I say finally as if it’s been months and months of waiting. Really, it’s only been 4 weeks. And I couldn’t have asked for a better kid for this to happen to. Not that I wanted it to happen to him. But was really pretty easy going about the whole thing. For the first couple of weeks, he couldn’t get around very well on his own. My back can attest to that, I had to carry him everywhere. He soon developed what I like to call his gimpy crawl. His bad leg sticking out to the side, dragging behind as he hobbled across the room. You have to see it get the whole affect. About a week and a half ago, Eli figured out that he could stand on the cast, then take a tentative step. Then two. And then he was flying across the room. There was no stopping him. My back finally had a much needed break, and Eli had a little bit of independence back. I think we both breathed a sigh of relief.

The doctor’s appointment went pretty much as expected. There were some tears as the cast was being cut off. Imagine trying to comfort a 19 month when a buzzing, vibrating saw comes at him. Try as I might, he burst into tears. Thankfully it only lasted a few minutes. But the poor kiddo was so confused that he actually asked for the “cast on”. He wanted them to put it back on! Then on to the x-ray, with my now traumatized and over-tired boy (he didn’t get much of a nap this afternoon). More tears as they bent his leg this way and that for 2 “pictures”. Thankfully, Dad-oo came to the rescue. He took Eli’s nose and threw it into the garbage. And we continued to play that game until the doctor came in 20 minutes later. Everything looked great, the leg was healing wonderfully, and we were free to go. The doctor did caution us that it may take Eli some time to be comfortable with crawling, standing and finally walking. We should just give him time, and when he’s ready, he’s ready. Well, apparently he was ready as soon as we got home tonight. And he hasn’t stopped walking since.

Here are a few photos of Eli’s first night cast-free. It was a much needed bath night.

Eli's first bath without that pesky cast.

He's doing pretty well with his new leg. A little limp, but that's it.

A New Day, a New Leg is a post from: Alli 'n Son

Saturday was The Official Cast Signing Party. Dad-oo felt so bad about everything that he wanted to invite our friends over to cheer up Eli and sign his cast. Really, it was just a ploy to get me to OK inviting our friends to our tiny, tiny house, with food, booze, The Big Lebowski and whatever else they watched or did after I crawled into bed at 1:30. In. The. Morning. It’s been a LONG time since I’ve been up that late. Wait, no it hasn’t. We were up later than that most nights in Seattle. Regardless, it was a late night.

The party ended up being pretty small. Some people had VIP access and were able to sign the cast a few days early. Some people already had plans. I know. Can you believe it?!? Others were from way out of town and couldn’t make the drive over. But we did have a rowdy group drive up and pretty much take over our house. In a good way. We have a tiny 2 bedroom house, so anytime we have guests, even if it’s just one person, our house suddenly closes in around us and I find myself whispering, “Need more space. The walls are closing in.”

Anyway, back to the party. It consisted of one local friend, three out-of-town friends and one adorable 2 month old baby boy, named Steve. There was tons of food including homemade pizza (with crust from my new bread machine), more than enough beer, cast signing, presents and many, many loud voices. Including poor little Steve, who seemed a little overwhelmed, overtired, and had a hard time settling himself for sleep. But eventually he did and was terrific the rest of the night.

Thankfully no one ended up getting too crazy. By the time I found myself in up bed, everybody else was more tired than anything else. I’m not sure what all went down after that, but it must not have been too bad, everyone seemed pretty chipper the next morning.

On a side note, I forgot what it was like sleeping with Eli in the room. It’s been a while since I’ve had to share a room with him, probably at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. But because Steve’s momma is nursing him, we offered them our room. Dad-oo camped out on the couch and I took the air mattress on Eli’s floor. It’s probably more accurate to say that I slept on the air mattress for about 30 minutes. And then all of the air leaked out. And I was sleeping on the floor. Oh well, I’m not feeling bad today because of it.

AND tomorrow marks my first official day at home with Eli. I’m still planning on doing everything that I outlined last week. We’ll see if I can do it all. Without losing my sanity or collapsing when the day is over.

The Official Cast Signing Party – A Recap is a post from: Alli 'n Son

Eli's Sling

UPDATE

We finally received a call from the doctor this morning. Eli’s leg is indeed broken. Well, not broken broken, but it does have a fracture. We should hear from the ortho docs Monday morning to schedule an appointment for the cast. I don’t know how long it will be on, or if it will be a full leg cast or a walking cast (I’m hoping for a walking cast). Tomorrow should be an interesting day. I’ll update as I get more info. In the meantime, enjoy the photos I added to the post!

The "No-Moister" Constructed by Dad-oo

For those of you who don’t know from following me on Twitter or Facebook (what! you’re not following me? you should be!) Eli and Dad-oo had an accident this weekend. No, it’s not what you are thinking, no poop was involved. Eli has been hurt before, what running little boy hasn’t? He tripped and caught himself with his forehead. On the concrete sidewalk. That left a nice bruise and bump. And the time that he fell off the couch. But these injuries were all under Momma’s watch and didn’t require medical attention. This was the first time Eli got hurt with Dad-oo, and it was a big one.

We had just gotten back from Seattle late the night before. We woke up early in the morning to greet Eli, we just had to see his smile and happy dance after 5 longs days. Oh man, was he excited. And a little confused, but we moved past that quickly. We had a good breakfast and an hour to kill until we were scheduled to meet Grandpa and Great-Grandma for lunch before heading home. (Yes, we ditched our friends and the Brewer game to go home and start laundry.) So, Grandma wanted to show us some of the fun things she did with Eli while we were away. We headed over to the library for some trains, blocks and huge stuffed puppy fun. Next we headed over to the Cedarburg park complete with 2-3  jungle gyms, sand boxes, swings, and slides, slides, slides. A couple were small enough for Eli to go down himself, which he did over and over. But there was one particular twisty slide with a tunnel that of course grabbed Dad-oo’s and Eli’s attention. I stood at the top, cheering them on, and by that I mean teasing Dad-oo about whether or not he could fit through the tunnel. And they were off! Everything was going great, until about halfway down, when the sole of Eli’s shoe caught the side of the slide. His foot stayed there, while the rest of him and Dad-oo kept going. Off came the shoe, and down came the tears. Well, not really tears as much as hollows. I’ve never heard Eli cry like that before.

Off I run to find out what happened, to comfort Eli the best that I could as he wrapped his arms around my neck and burrowed his head in my arms. Dad-oo and Grandma quickly looked over his legs for any obvious signs of injury, swelling, bleeding, funny bumps, bruises, any tender spots. Nothing seemed out of place, so we did our best to calm Eli down, thinking that he was scared, hungry (it was lunch time after all) and tired. We packed him up as gently as we could between sobs and off we went to drop off Grandma so she could pick up Great-Grandma. We headed to the restaurant to meet Grandpa who was coming right after work. By the time we arrived Eli was still crying and hiccuping, too upset to calm himself down. While the others went in, I walked and sang and bounced and whispered to Eli, doing everything in the book to help him recover. He finally fell asleep (twinkle, twinkle finally worked) and I tip-toed into the restaurant. Of course, right after our food came, I moved him the wrong way and he woke up all over again. Back outside for a few more minutes, until a very sad looking Dad-oo came out to take a turn. That didn’t last long though, since Grandma and Grandpa had wolfed down their food in the mean time and came running out to take over.

Eli did eventually calm down and was getting back to his normal self, so we thought the worst had passed. Back at the house, I did a quick test to see how Eli would do if I put him on his feet. He wouldn’t let his left food get anywhere near the ground. Uggghhhh. Hoping that a few hours of sleeping in the car would help heal his leg, we packed up and headed home. Of course Eli didn’t sleep much, but he was happy for most of the ride. Although I noticed that he hardly moved his leg and would sniffle when I tickled it.

Fast forward…we’re back at home, we try to have Eli stand again. No luck. As soon as I put Eli on the floor he bursts into tears. I try to encourage him to try putting weight on his foot, and when he does his leg gives out. Back in the car, off to the walk-in. Nurses, doctors and an x-ray later, and we find out that Eli has a fracture in his leg. Maybe. It could be a fracture. Or it could be a vein. This particular walk-in doctor tends to stay on the safe side of things, and he’s just not sure. And of course the radiologists are out for the day. Eli is given a splint to keep things in place, just in case it is a fracture, told that we will know for sure by 10:00 Saturday morning and we’re sent on our way. Long story short-ish, it’s Saturday night and we’re still waiting to hear from the radiologist. By some weird twist of fate, no one is on-call this weekend (what, how in the world did that happen?). So we’re waiting to see if one happens to make his/her way to the hospital before Monday and reviews Eli’s chart. Otherwise, we’re stuck with a kiddo in a sling until Monday. Even a call from my Aunt, who manages the clinic we take Eli to, did no good. There just isn’t a doctor who is available on-call this weekend. I guess that a little boy’s leg isn’t major enough to call one of the not-on-call doctors and ask them to take 30 seconds out of their weekend to look at the x-ray. But whatever, there’s nothing I can do about it, so we sit and wait.

That’s the story so far. I know that Dad-oo feels terrible about everything. He blames himself and I think he was a little worried that I was upset that “he broke my baby”. I reminded him that I have broke Eli several times, but it didn’t seem to make him feel any better. But seeing how worried Dad-oo was about Eli, seeing him care for and comfort him, knowing that he would do whatever it takes to make sure that he’s OK, gave me the warm fuzzies. There’s just something about a man who cares and loves for his child that much.

I’ll continue to update as we learn more.

Ouch! Eli’s Run In With The Slide is a post from: Alli 'n Son

Sick Eli

What’s with this kid? It feels like we’re in the walk-in clinic more than we are out of it lately. The nurses all know us by name and can list off the illnesses that he’s had. They still talk about the plaid shorts he wore a few weeks ago. I think that we might just move in, it will save some travel time.

This time around Dad-oo got the call, Eli had a fever at daycare, was lethargic and wouldn’t eat. At the time, the fever was around 103º. High, but not alarmingly high. But by the time they drove to the walk-in it had jumped to 105º. That’s scary. Eli has had his fair share of fevers in his 17 months, but this is the highest it has gone. Thankfully with a quick does of ibuprofen, it started to come down. One nebulizer and a chest x-ray later, it turns out that the last time he was in for a terrible cough, it was never fully treated. Possibly because the walk-in doctor we saw that time was terrible. He was the kind of doctor that just throws drugs at your kid without actually listening to you or really even paying attention to the sick kiddo. It was a terrible experience. So, even though his cough was gone and he was acting normal, the sickness was still there, festering below the surface, ready to jump out when we least expected it. So now Eli has bronchitis, possibly pneumonia and maybe strep throat. The first strep test came back negative, but that was the rapid test, so it’s likely that it was a false negative. And with my history or repeated strep and pneumonia as a kid, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he has all three. Poor kid. Now he’s on a stronger antibiotic to take care of what was left over from the last round and a steroid to help open up his lungs. He doesn’t even have a cough, yet when they gave him the neb at walk-in you could hear the congestion in his chest. This is one sneaky illness.

But the best part of the evening, was when I arrived at the walk-in. I had run to the Y after work, and didn’t know that Eli was sick until I was driving home. I quickly made a detour to meet Dad-oo and Eli at the walk-in, and as soon as I walked in the door, Eli smiled his big, bright-eyed smile and said “Momma!” According to Dad-oo, that was the first time he smiled all night long. It just melted my heart.

So for the next few days it’s Pedialyte, popsicles, Teddy grahams, ‘nanas and whatever else Eli will eat.

Sick Kiddo – again is a post from: Alli 'n Son

Thankfully, this time around Dad-oo is around and was able to rearrange his work schedule so he could pick up Mr. Eli early from daycare and stay home with him tomorrow. He gets all day, nasty diaper duty. I’m guessing that he will be making one, if not multiple trips to Target for the necessary supplies: diapers, Pedialyte, and ever the popular Butt Paste. And for this, I’m jealous, since I LOVE Target. I would probably, live there if I could.

Anyway,  supposedly have a sick little boy on my hand, and Dad-oo did indeed confirm daycare’s story: Eli pooped out the graham crackers and apple juice he had for an afternoon snack. But from seeing him tonight, you would never know it. He’s still his sweet, happy, energetic self. I spent about 20 minutes chasing him back and forth from the kitchen to the living room, scoping him up and the last minute and “tossing” him onto the couch. He would giggle and giggle, slide off the couch and we’d start all over again. Finally, Momma got tired and decided it was bedtime.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings, but I’m guessing that Dad-oo will have a fun playday with Eli. And even though I would rather be at home with Eli than at work when he’s sick, I’m glad that they get to have some one-on-one bonding time, since Mike has been away so often. If I’m really lucky, maybe he’ll even find the time to blog about his travel time away from Eli and the fam.

Sick Kiddo is a post from: Alli 'n Son