Hi There,

We have a surgeon from the RCH called Leo Donnan. He has been fabulous with Hailey. They are in the the hip spica following surgery for six weeks at a time. Hailey only had plaster for 6 weeks. Believe it not, that time will actually go really quickly. The time after the plaster in a brace is completly dependant on how quickly/slowly the hip joint grows while they're in plaster. usually 6 months to 18 months. Due to complications hailey only had the brace (rhino cruiser) on for 6 weeks. She now sleeps in it only. In the 5 weeks she's had it off, she has learnt to go from dragging hrself, to sort of crawling, to crawling properly and now standing on her own- easily and quickly.

We have Beema Q 3 wheeler pram and Hailey fitted in it no problem, as for the car sear you have to buy an extension stap from the RCH ($15) for you existing car seat and the nurses pad the seat to fit your daughter. You not be discharged from hospital until she is in a safe car seat.

As for the walker, definatly not. It's hard to imagine and I don;t know how to post any photo's of Hailey in plaster for you to see but their legs are very wide apart in plaster and so she won't fit in a walker. Even in the rhino cruiser, after the plaster, she probably won't fit.

The hardest thing I found was shopping. No way can they fit in a trolly. So i'd carry hailey in, drag a trolly, go staring to the coke isle and get a box of coke cans for her to sit over, in the trolley- worked beautifully! We fed her in the pram, or sitting on someone's lap, they won't fit in any high chair. But after plaster, get a "Dinky Diner" about $15 on ebay. Attatches to a chair and you tie them in. Awesome.

Hailey spent a fair bit of time propped up on cushions, sitting on our laps, sitting over (tied into) small chairs and dragging herself aroun. Pretty boring for them so it's toys that she can use herself while sitting still that work the best- such as books.

Hope this helps a bit. Please ask anything you like, I remenber how horrible it was before Hailey's surgery-just not knowing what was going to happen and what to expect.

Warm regards,