third casting

We received some good and bad news at the doctor yesterday when we went in to get Alder's third round of casts. The doctor was able to achieve nearly full corrected rotation on his feet already (the good news). He actually purposefully overcorrected his feet (~70 degrees turned out)...but this is normal and they will be in line like ours eventually.

Here we are in the waiting room before the second casts were removed:

Here are some photos of his feet after the second casts were removed - the progress is amazing:

The bad news is that he will have to be under anesthesia to have his heel cord release (tenotomy) this coming Tuesday. We knew about this procedure and expected it, but we were suprized to find out that he would have to be put under. We thought it would be done under local anesthetic. We trust our doctor and just dread the night before the procedure when he will not be able to eat anything after midnight. He will have a new set of casts (his final set) for three weeks and then he will be fitted for a brace that he will wear full time for a few months. More to come regarding all of this...

Here are some pics of the new casts so you can see the amount of external rotation. He was pretty fussy last night and woke up more than usual; probably sore from the new position. Today he is doing great:

His new casts are also quite a bit higher than the last ones making the cloth diapers impossible to use this week...bummer. But it is only a week.

We also went to the pediatrician today and found out that he is up to 9 lbs - something I have been wondering about and hoping that my breastfeeding was doing the trick...and it is! He is healthy overall and the doc says that he has a very strong personality...and that we should watch out.