#ThisIsMyChild Talipes and Torticollis | MR ELI WALKS!

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I have been waiting to write this blog post for SO SO LONG.

Mr Eli was diagnosed with Bilateral Talipes when he was 25 weeks old, in utero. We were told it would be mild when he was born. Granted, it didn’t look anywhere near as bad as we were expecting when he was born – and there was a lot of flexibility in his feet, which was good news.

8 weeks into doing stretching exercises at home, we hit a brick wall (I was also told at Eli’s 8 week check by the top GP in the practice that his feet would “correct themselves”). I finally got a physio appointment for Eli when he was 10 weeks old. Roll onto 13 weeks and we were seeing our Consultant, who said Eli would be following the Ponseti Method of treatment for Talipes – plaster casts followed by wearing Ponseti Boots & Bar. Eli had plaster casts for 6 weeks, up to the top of his thighs. It was quite frankly, horrendous. He was old enough to understand a bedtime routine with his lovely soothing bath. He was old enough to want to roll over. We were without these things for 6 weeks and of course, without any sleep too! In December 2012 Eli began wearing his Ponseti Boots & Bar, 23 hours a day. For the one hour he had the boots off, he had a ‘run around’ and his lovely bath. He wore the boots & bar full time for 6 months, going down to just wearing them at nighttime (12 hours) after our 6 month appointment. At 10 months old Eli started cruising the furniture (and anything else he could get his hands on!). Since then, Eli has had several good reviews with his Consultant. The last appointment we had in November 2013 was amazing – his feet look just like a ‘normal’ child’s’ feet. Our Consultant was so happy, he almost packed the boots & bar in for good – but we have to be sensible, there’s always a chance of relapse and we didn’t want Eli to stop wearing the boots & bar too soon; after all, most Talipes children wear the boots & bar until they reach 5 years old.

At 16 months, Eli took his first few steps between Mr Memoirs and me – aided by the bribe of a dummy (which he only has for bed).

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At 17 months old he’s walking, completely unaided and with a degree of good balance (he’s currently having a bout of Torticollis at the minute, so he’s sloping off to the one side). When his Torticollis sorts itself out in the next few days we’re very confident that Eli will be dashing everywhere. Of course, the Torticollis does coincide with the fact he has reached yet another milestone. (He also has Chickenpox, to boot! That’s another blog post in itself).

We’ve had this lots before, but I know most people would be saying:

“Keep him crawling as long as you can, you don’t want him running about yet – you’ll be shattered!”

“Hope you’re ready for all that running about!” 

“Oh god, now the fun really starts.” (AS IF it’s a negative thing?!).

“You’ll regret saying you want a walker!”

But my goodness me, we’ve wanted nothing more than to be worn out after running around with our little boy. I don’t think people realise sometimes – and I understand that people do speak without thinking too. This still feels very surreal to us. An absolutely amazing achievement for our darling boy – we’re so proud we could BURST.

Without the treatment that Eli has gone through, he would not be walking – full stop. All the tears, endless sleepless nights, stress and strain was all completely worth it.

There is literally nothing more wonderful in life than seeing your child grow and develop. And our brave little soldier is growing and developing just perfectly.

MAGIC.

MM.

 

Warning: May induce hysterical tears. (Or maybe that’s just me then!)

While watching the Britain’s Got Talent – Final last night an advert came on that reduced me to hysterical “I can’t breathe” tears. I got emotional at adverts before my pregnancy, but now it’s an absolute extreme set of events. Horrendous. Not only did I sob my heart out at the entire advert, not even knowing what the advert was even advertising, it got to the end and I couldn’t breathe when I found out it was for Volkswagen Polo. OUR CAR! Cue more intense hysterical sobbing.

The advert is tells the story of a very protective Dad, through the years of his lovely daughter growing up. Then handing out a brand spanking new Volkswagen Polo to her as she drives off to university… more crying ensues (on my part).

If you think you’re tough enough to watch this advert, click the play button below! Don’t say I didn’t warn you…

Telling your own parents that you’re going to become a parents.

We were quite torn about telling our parents the amazing news… As I’m only 5 weeks pregnant, it’s still really early days. But then again, we really wanted to share the news face-to-face (as we now live 300 miles away! And Facetime just wouldn’t cut this type of news…). Plus, the next time we’re visiting the motherland, I’ll be almost 13 weeks pregnant and could definitely not have held it in for THAT long!

So we decided that we’d tell my parents first, on Saturday 25th November. The first time that the four of us got together. We were sat watching TV in the late afternoon… my DP subtly kicking me to make the announcement. So at 7pm, on the dot, I began with “As we’re all sat down together, we have something exciting to tell you…”. My Dad being my Dad, jumped in and said “You’re pregnant…?”. As I tearfully nodded my Mum jumped up in congratulations. I have to say, I was more worried about announcing it to my parents than my in-laws. I’m the youngest and it’s my parents first grandchild! But it was great. My parents are over the moon – they grabbed a bottle of champagne (and I had a glass of lemonade) in celebration.

Announcement Two came the next morning when we arrived at my in-laws. Again, we all sat down in the lounge when my DP began with “We’ve got something to tell you…” and my Mother in-law (to be) went white and said “You’re having a baby!”. So we didn’t actually get to say those words… both our parents guessed!

We have reiterated that we don’t want the pregnancy news spreading outside the close family circle (Grandparents and Sisters families), until after our 12 week scan. So we’ll tell the rest of our family and friends after the 12 week mark too. Which is already proving very difficult – I can’t wait to tell my close friends! They’ll be ecstatic! After all, this is something we have planned for the past 2 years!

I will also need to figure out at what point I tell work. The timing needs to be just right.

When did you first tell your family and friends? Did you do anything as a means of a surprise for your family, for the announcement?

MM.