Baby Macklin

Baby Macklin is six and a half months old.  He's chubby, slobbery (2 teeth!), smiley, and overall, a pretty easy baby.  He's slept through the night almost from the start. He's eating baby food like a champ.   He's attended tons of football and basketball games, and tolerated them all pretty well. 

He's starting to get up on his hands and knees and move around the house.  He hasn't mastered the traditional crawl yet, but he's able to scoot and move from room to room to find the action.

Hudson likes to get down on the floor and play cars with him.  He also moves his toys out in front of him to entice Macklin to crawl and get them.

Sometimes Macklin gets moving so much, he'll crawl right over his toys.

The first thing Naomi does when she wakes up in the morning is come up to my bedroom and check on her baby brother.  Every. Single. Morning. Tuesday of last week was no exception.  Macklin woke up when Shannon was getting ready for work.  Since I wasn't ready to get up yet, Shannon put him in bed with me.  Not long after that, Naomi came up for her morning snuggle with her baby brother.  

As I was getting dressed, Chase called to check in with me after he finished track practice.  Naomi started heading downstairs with Macklin.  There are three steps from our bedroom to the landing.  I think Naomi thought she was on the landing, but in fact she had one more step to go.  She stumbled, and landed on Macklin.  She had the presence of mind not to drop him.  It was just an accident.  It could have just as easily happened to me or one of the big boys.

I checked them over, and neither one seemed  hurt, with no bumps or bruises. We went about our day, but by mid-afternoon I noticed Macklin was getting a bit fussy, and as I changed his diaper, he began to cry.  We decided to take him to the doctor to make sure he was okay.  X-rays revealed he had a fracture of his right femur, just above the growth plate above his knee.  The orthopedic doctor recommended casting him under anesthesia, which meant we had to wait 4-6 hours because he had a bottle on the way to the doctor's office. 

We were admitted to the pediatric floor, and at about 10:30pm he was taken for his procedure.  The plan was to put him in a Spica cast to help immobilize his hip area and promote quicker healing.  Everything went well, and they kept us overnight for observation.

We were discharged by 8:30 the next morning.  Shannon picked us up on his lunch break and brought us home.  Macklin's cast is big and bulky and awkward, but he's tolerating it well, and he hasn't needed any Tylenol since being in the hospital.

The photo below gives an idea of how diapering works.  We use a size 1 diaper and stuff it in the opening.  Then a great big size 4 diaper goes over the entire cast.  This system leaves a lot to be desired, but we're making the best of it. 

He enjoys sitting in the bean bag chair.  We also put him in the stroller occasionally and take him for rides around the house.  He had some difficulty sleeping the first few nights, but the last couple have been much better.  I still get him up to change his diaper during the night. 

To allay some of the rumors that are circulating around town, I would like to assure everyone that he only has ONE fracture (not every bone in his body), he was not THROWN down the stairs, nor did he BOUNCE down the stairs, and he DOES NOT have brain damage. 

Although I would prefer to turn back the hands of time and not have to have Macklin experience any of this, I'm confident he will never remember any of it.

He's still scooching himself around the floor, and is just as happy and content as ever.  He's looking forward to going to the first soccer game of the season tomorrow--weather permitting.  GO REBELS!

"Like the legs of the lame that hang limp Is a proverb in the mouth of fools."  Proverbs 26:7