I thought I would post some pictures of our journey with Alex's club feet...

This one was taken right after he was born. His little feet were turned in at 90 degree angles. Since we knew ahead of time that he was going to be born with club feet, we had plenty of time to prepare and research. Our pediatrician immediately said that he would refer us to Scottish Rite Hospital, and we have received wonderful treatment so far. We are using the Ponseti method, which was created by Dr. Ponseti, from the University of Iowa. He is 94 yrs old and just recently stopped seeing patients on a regular basis. He is such a blessing to all the thousands of little feet he's corrected!

Alex was put into his first set of casts at 7 days old. This picture was taken when we got home from the hospital. They told us to elevate his feet, which is why there is a folded towel under his legs. Wow, what an emotional day this was for us. I was fine on the way to the hospital, and I was fine until the dr said, "Ok, let's roll some casts." I will never forget that moment. My little 7 day old baby was lying on that table, and he was about to have his little feet turned and manipulated and put into casts. It was my job to protect and care for him, and there was nothing I could do. Luckily my husband was in the room, because I had to excuse myself and said I had to go to the restroom. Instead, I went to the waiting room and cried. Cried like a big baby. But I had a turning point while sitting there in the waiting room at Scottish Rite Hospital, where children are treated for much worse deformities, burns, etc. I saw a few children wheel by in their wheel chairs, and some did not even have limbs, or they had artificial ones. Then I suddenly felt very selfish for crying for my baby, who in the end, would be completely normal, and would have no memory of this. The memories would stick with me and my husband forever, but at least it is a blessing that Alex will have no memory of it.

It only took a few minutes and the casts were finished. I looked up and saw Dan carrying Alex down the hall toward me, and I went to them. Then I started feeling guilty for not being there for him. Motherhood is just one big emotional rollercoaster ride, I suppose.

This is Alex after we had his 2nd set of casts put on (14 days old).

This was after we got his 2nd set of casts removed.

After 5 set of casts, Alex was then put into his braces (technical term: Foot Abduction Brace (FAB)). He wore then 23 hours a day, 7 days a week, with a 30 min break in the morning, and another 30 min break at night for baths.

Fast forward 11 months to today. Now he only wears the braces at night time and he is totally fine with us putting them on. The most difficult part is getting him to lie still long enough because he is becoming so active! He stands up a lot now, even while wearing his braces. I will post some pictures soon of that. I also have a video of him crawling with them on, so I'll try to get that on here, too.

We were watching the news this morning and they mentioned something about President Obama and the Oval Office. Emily asked Dan, "What's the Oval Office?" He said, "It's the President's office, where he works." Then he asked her what shape she thought it was and she said, "Oval. It's kind of obvious, daddy. Why else would it be called the oval office?" HAHA