1 Day & Counting

Kaitlyn's cast comes off tomorrow!!!! Yaaaaay! Kaitlyn's starting to accept she is about to loose her old friend. If she isn't accepting it then she's just getting better at me telling her it's about to go.

More big news in our home? Kaitlyn is using the potty. Hip-hip-hooray! She still wets her diaper, but she knows how to use the potty which is great news for me. Yesterday she went about five times and every time she would at least pee. One big difference I've noticed is she doesn't wait; as soon as you set her down she starts going.

Here she is last night going potty before her bath. I put a Munchkin toilet seat under her and a throw pillow in a bag behind her. The toilet seat is great because it's cushy allowing her cast to sink into keeping her from sliding off. I thought of bagging a pillow yesterday. I was having a hard time holding her up while she went potty. Using the pillow allows me to leave the room giving her more time.

After going potty Kaitlyn took a bath. If she must have a sponge bath this is her favorite way to do it. I give her different toys and let her play in the water whiel I scrub her. The towel on top is to protect her cast from the water. FYI, I start with her face, arms and chest, then move to her legs, diaper area, then hair.
Every night I lay Kaitlyn on her side with a bigger pillow under the top leg. She likes sleeping on her belly, but wants to roll there herself. A couple times I've put on her belly and she cries rolling back to her back.

Cast rash... I hate cast rash. Since her first cast Kaitlyn would get rubs on her chest under her left arm. It was bad. I bought her some undershirts that I would put down into her cast trying to protect her skin; it really didn't work. I spoke to a nurse at her doctor's office about the problem once. She said I needed to put a bandage on her skin to keep the cast from rubbing. I didn't have any on hand so after a little brain storming I came up with this idea which has worked beautifully.

I take one Always thin pantiliner and put it on the inside of her cast where it rubs on her skin.

I lay her across my legs and pull the cast up causing a nice gab.

I slide the pad in under her cast; with the sticky side towards the cast of course.

It can be tricky at times when she's wiggling, but it's possible. I leave a little bit to overlap the top of the cast. It doesn't cross over to the front much; mostly just the top of the cast.

After I did this the first time Kaitlyn's cast rash cleared right up. Once in a while the pads must be pulled out and replaced. Sometimes she pees up her cast soaking the pads and other times, like last night, the pads are falling apart and need to be replaced. Because of rubs she wears three pads, one under each arm and one in the middle.

Here's a couple videos I took last week after changing Kaitlyn's pads.