Hi everyone!

I've had a name change, but I'm still here, same old, same old

Karma - Yay for DD! They just seem to adapt some how, don't they? And we battle along. The Cast Cooler sounds like a great idea. For the smell, we tried to rub baby powder into the plaster (avoiding the openings) and when that didn't work anymore (or we became accustomed to that smell too), a squirt of perfume on my hand and then rubbed onto the cast would help. Very weird that you can't put DD on her tummy for nappy changes, but your doctor obviously has his reasons.

Cailinhsmom - My daughter was the same age as yours when she was officially diagnosed - they noticed that she had a clicky hip at birth, but it wasn't until she was 7 weeks old that the diagnosis was made. Bathing will depend on the severity of her hips - for the first four weeks of our brace, and then into our plaster cast, we were only allowed sponge baths. The brace wasn't to come off at all. Breastfeeding I found to be easy. Still in the same position, but with her legs splayed apart. I would put one leg between hers so that she could rest the leg on top and the leg below I would let dangle - sounds terrible, but after a few days of it and me being stressed and anxious, I realised it wasn't bothering her at all. Sleeping - we put a flat cot pillow under her legs so that they weren't stuck mid air and if you're still swaddling her, we had to transfer into a sleeping bag. After a few nights DD was totally fine with it. In her first brace, she was still little enough to fit into her basinette, but once the plaster went on, she was in her portacot as she was still in our room. As far as the swing and carseat goes, and your pram too will depend on the brace and the size of these things. DD still fit into her carseat in the brace, no problems, not so well in plaster. The pram, we had to convert ours from the pram with the basinette bit on top, straight into the stroller style instead, if that makes sense, as her legs were too wide for the basinette. On our pram we had to remove the handle that goes over their legs (you see toys and things hanging across it), and without that, she fit no problems. Get yourself some socks - children's sizes, not baby sizes and cut the toes off - these will wrap around the bits of the brace that touch her legs and will provide a thicker buffer between the brace and her skin than the gauze strips the orthotic people will give you. Where abouts are you hon? I'm in Melbourne. Big to you. Keep coming in here with your questions, to vent, to cheer, whatever you need.