Cast - what cast?!

J has had his cast for nearly a week now and it's been amazing how quickly he's adapted to it. He was practically running to get to the swings yesterday! A couple of friends we were with at the weekend said they wouldn't have known he was in a cast.

He has re-learnt how to get up from the floor when he falls over - it was really interesting watching him working that out. Over a couple of days he went through the stages quite slowly and made his little "I'm frustrated" noises sometimes, but now he's about as quick as he used to be with his old technique. He can't bend/flex his back, so I think he's using his arms and legs more.

There's still a small patch of sore skin under his arm despite applying sudocream. I don't think the shape of the cast is quite right, but it doesn't bother him too much - it's just red and dry. His tummy is completely fine. I'll mention it at the next casting so we can get the shape and felt right next time.

Thankfully, we haven't had hot weather - it must be quite warm wearing all those layers. The cast pushes in his little pot belly and his trousers fall down more, so I've been putting him in dungerees instead and he looks so cute.

Not having baths hasn't bothered him in the slightest! I thought he might try and get in or show in some way that he wanted one - but no! I wonder whether he'll object to it when he finally does get to go in? So long as I use a nice warm flannel and keep him distracted (the toy vacuum cleaner I bought on Saturday at the NCT sale is working a treat at the moment) he's fine with a quick wipe.

Good news: we've got a date for the MRI scan - Tuesday 19th July (much sooner than we were told it would be). It says he'll be sedated, but I'm not clear whether that means general anaesthetic or not. He's allowed food up to 3 hours before and breastmilk up to one hour before, so thankfully we won't have to endure a horrendous car journey into Birmingham. It's not till noon, so we can have a good breakfast and set off early. The scan is very important to help us understand what's causing the scoliosis and whether there's any rotation of the spine. By then we'll be into the 3rd cast, so it'll be interesting to see what progress has been made (fingers crossed!).

So all in all, one week on we're doing really well. We've worked our way through the logistical problems and are more or less back to normal. I guess the next casting will be more difficult in some ways (he knows what he's in for, so might object more!) but we now know that within a short space of time we should be back to normal again.