Broken

We were warned to start looking for fractures once Natey started walking. Sure enough, just a few days after he took his first steps, he got hurt. We took him in to the doctor last week to get an X-ray. Based on what seemed to hurt him the most, we thought the fracture was on his right side. They X-rayed his right femur/hip area.  They told us that they only saw one small fracture on his right femur that was 5-15 days old (based on how much it had healed). Well, that was a surprise, since we had no idea he had broken his leg two weeks before.  Our wonderful pediatrician told us she didn't want to take more X-rays and just keep guessing where the injury might be.  Especially because he already has to get X rays so often.  We got some pain medication, and took him home.  We let a few more days go by, and long story short, when he started to feel well enough to start crawling on Thursday, he finished off the injury he'd started earlier in the week. He seemed hurt worse, but we still couldn't tell where exactly the fracture was (femur, pelvis, hips?).  Then, his left leg started to really swell up. We went into the doctor yesterday, and confirmed that his left femur was fractured. They considered putting on a spica cast, but in the end we all decided to go with a splint that is much lighter weight (Natey only weighs around 16 lbs, and the cast would have been almost as heavy as him!).  He will have it on for 3 weeks, at which point we hope he'll feel well enough to pick up where he left off, and be walking again in no time.

Natey's splint - it's amazing how much this has helped with pain control

Nasty fracture (I snapped this with my phone when they had it up on the screen)

Miracle

When Nathan was just one day old, the pediatrician at the hospital told us his legs were not the same length. When he was two days old she told us he has OI. For the first few weeks (maybe even months) Lindsay and I wondered whether he would ever be able to some of the basic things every child should do.  Most importantly to us, would he ever be able to walk. There have been a lot of little miracles in his life already, but to us, this is a big one. He's walking.

The Drive-In

For family night this week we took the kids to their first Drive-in movie. Since it was a double feature, the kids watched the first movie, and slept in the car during the second movie. It was a late night, but well worth it.