Casts and Braces

Monday was a hard day for little Xan. We scheduled his circumcision for 11, and our pediatrician scheduled an orthopedic visit for him at 9:30. Turns out they wasted no time getting the first set of casts on, so he ended up with a double whammy that morning.

Here are his feet before the casting:

While his club feet are not a blessing, the fact that the technology to fix club feet is a wonderful blessing. The standard technique used is the Ponseti Method. That is what our doctor will be using. He says he gets 5-7 babies with club feet a year. Not all that much, but not all that rare either.

Xan will have his left leg in casts for 8 weeks total, getting a new cast each week. Each new cast allows them to move and mold the ankle a little at a time. At week 6, they will do very minor surgery to release the tendon, allowing them to move everything to its final position.

The right leg isn't quite as severe and so will only need 6 weeks of casting, with a couple weeks mixed in without a cast until the left leg catches up.

Now the big question... How many people does it take to put a plaster cast on a newborn?

Apparently 4. The doctor, his two techs, and me! (He needed 5 at the beginning when Alene was feeding him a bottle at to keep him calm!)

Happy that we're done getting them on!

Xan certainly wasn't himself with so many traumatic things happening to him that day, so we decided to show him and his cast a little love:

Once both legs are done with theirs casts, both legs will be stuck in boots on a board 23/7 (yes, that's one hour shy of 24/7) for 3 months! The braces looking like:

Once the 3 months of nearly constant boot wearing are over, for the next 3 years, he'll only have to wear the boots at bedtime and nap time. Pretty strict, but definitely do-able and worth a brighter future!

Xan!!!

Alexander (Xan) is here!

AND We are sooo happy!

Born 10/20/2010 @ 11:41 AM

7 lbs 14 oz
19 inches long
3 hours of active labor
Small amount of light brown hair
Gray eyes (we'll just have to wait to see the final color later!)
Bilateral club feet but still adorable! (left foot more severe)
Kissable chubby cheeks
Adorable round face
Sweet little man

Xan!

I'll try and do a more detailed post about the labor experience later, but for now here are some flicks... ENJOY!

Are you ready?

Are you ready for Halloween? Camden is!

First time in his tiger costume... he loved it!

PS We're also ready for baby #2! Come on out Xan!

First Hair Cut!

Hey all you Camden Fans!

This is Camden! I just wanted to tell you about my first hair cut! My mommy is really tired because she is due with my baby brother in 3 week so I'm going to do a post for her.

(Me with my new hair cut!)

Because I didn't have very much hair as a baby, I have not needed to get my hair cut until now, even though I am 1 and a half years old! But my hair was getting to be a little long so my mommy cut it.

I was a good boy during the whole thing. My daddy put on one of my favorite movies and since I had my binky in my mouth, I didn't mind the loud noise of the buzzer. My mommy put a towel over me so the hair wouldn't make me itchy.

It's hard to see the difference in the pictures but my mommy cut off 2 inches of hair from some parts of my head. Now I have a big boy hair cut just like daddy!

Before Shot and.... After Shots

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Triathlon

Well, I've given Alene an excuse for way too long. She told me "You can do the post about the triathlon!" and I said "Sure!" Did I do it? Nope, never got to it. It was back in late April this year. We can't have too many posts in between the post and the actual event, or just the fact that I hardly ever contribute and she wants me to... something like that has been an excuse for us Cutlers not posting.

First things first. For those of you wondering:

Yes. I can swim.

No. I cannot swim well - I sink anytime I'm in the water.

How? I survived because it was only a 350 meter swim and there were shallow parts I could walk in when I was cramping.

For those of you wondering about Alene:

You're crazy. She's amazing, of course she can handle it! Ok, ok, you've got the right to wonder - after all, she was 13 weeks pregnant! She did awesome anyway!

About the Triathlon:

TELOS Reverse Sprint Triathlon with shorter than usual swim... 5k run, 15k bike, and 350m swim (instead of 800m). Started, transitioned, and ended all at the Orem Fitness Center. Almost 300 participated. Both my parents and Alene's parents came to support - as well as Jase, my younger brother - THANKS! We both survived and did quite well for our categories considering we were both in the 25-29 year old categories which is a prime age for those who really get into the sport.

For us, it was fun and something that we looked forward to, but only prepared here and there when we had time.

For me, I went swimming when I had the chance - Alene joined me a few times to try and correct my desire. I say desire because I wanted to just do a make-shift breast stroke, she wanted me to do the crawl/whatever that normal form of swimming is. So I learned. Didn't use it much during the event though because I was drowning (from exhaustion, crowds, and eventually a cramp), but it was good for me to learn something my wife is so excellent at (swimming).

Alene spent sometime running and biking. She was already doing well at both and simply wished the swim was longer so she could more time to pass all the slow runner/bikers like me.

Many thanks to Wyatt Brockbank for the use of his road bike, and thanks to my parents for (as a B-day gift) renting a road bike for myself. :-D It was a great thing to not have to ride my old mountain bike and Alene's super old paper route bike.

Pictures, and then... the RESULTS!

signs made by Jase (the other side of mine says "Don't sink Kelv!")

Jase cheering us on

the rest of the gang cheering us on (my dad was on the run getting photos at various places)

the start (my dad took these without ever spotting us/knowing where we were)

can you spot me?

can you spot Alene?

first leg, still going strong (even though my hair's quite long)

Alene saying "I'm hanging in there!" (again - 13 weeks pregnant here, had thrown up numerous times in the 48 hours preceding - she's awesome)

this was the FUN part!

looking good hon!

I forgot my goggles!!!!! SAVE me!!!!

excellent form sweetie!!! (it was a mad-house out there with people having bad form - a.k.a. me - flailing their arms, and whacking anyone trying to pass - a.k.a. Alene)

tired? Alene - no, Kelv - oh yeah

family shot

I got a medal!

Me:

Overall: 29th; Age Overall: 3rd; Age Run: 3rd; Age Bike: 2nd; Age Swim: 18th;

Yes, pathetic swim placement. I made up huge times in the bike though.

Alene:

Overall: 125th; Age Overall: 5th; Age Run: 15th; Age Bike: 7th; Age Swim: 2nd;

Alene, you made me proud with your bike section and of course in your swim. Only out swam by her good friend who does get into this sport - Becca Lau!

Sugar and Spice...

Sugar and spice and everything nice?.....

Well, maybe in the future that's what our baby will be made of, but it looks like for now...

It's a BOY!
(Sorry to the 77% of you who voted sister! Don't worry... I was one of them!)

We're so excited for the party to continue and foresee Camden and Baby #2 being great friends!

And it looks like we already have a competitive streak between our two boys! Camden was born with some pretty inverted feet but they reshaped nicely as he began to put pressure on them as he grew older and stronger. (If you notice the earlier weeks in Camden Grows slideshow, you'll see what I mean). No biggie, it was just a result of being housed in a mama with a short torso and he sort of ran out of room.

Well, Baby #2 appears to be trying to outdo Camden by already having pretty severely turned in feet. So much so, it looks like he may be born with club feet. So to investigate a little more, we have another ultrasound (yeah for the extra chance to see the baby at least!) with the perinatologist tomorrow to take a little closer look. I just feel so blessed that we live in a day and age where technology has advanced enough that they can treat club feet with only a series of castings. They rarely even do surgery for it anymore! What a blessing, and how great that everything else with Baby looks to be developing fabulously!

And as Camden's cousin Troy so appropriately educated Camden back in 2008...

(Cousin Troy is also getting a brother in October too! Fun huh?!)

Voting time once again!!!

Hey All!

Yes it is almost that time again! In one week (June 8th) we'll be getting our gender ultrasound! Yeah! So we want to know what you guys think the baby will be?

Just make sure to vote by Monday night June 7th!