New Lift

Today we went in to see Paul to pick up Eli's new shoe with the new lift put in. We also needed Paul to adjust Eli's leg, yet again, because this week it started to fall off again. I've felt pretty frustrated the past few days because its like, just when I think things are great, something else pops up. I know this is just how it goes, especially with an 11 month old baby with a prosthesis, but literally I have been going to see Paul once a week since July 29th.

So Paul tightened the socket up by Eli's right knee a bit and also put some padding on the liner to keep the socket on the liner. He said this is a common problem with babies that are crawling - the leg just falls off. He said that also because Eli is chubby, its hard to get a solid fit around his knee bones. The hope is that as he grows taller and leaner (and starts walking of course), the leg will fit better and not fall off. I am really trying to be patient here, but it is so frustrating to watch him crawl right out of leg, or be holding him and "plop" the leg falls to the ground.

So after we dealt with that we tried on the shoe with the new lift. The lift is enormous - shocking actually. I am really trying to be positive about it: 1) Eli doesn't seem to mind it and 2) he seems to be much more even footed when we stand him up. He still bends his right knee a bit when standing, but I think that is just him not feeling comfortable putting all of his weight on the prosthetic leg.

Here he is today - I stood him up while he was watching his show:

Usually when I stand him up, I have to hold him or he'll fall right down. Today he stood on his own for almost 5 minutes and had his feet spread apart like this:

In this picture you can see how big the new lift is:

Tonight before he went to bed, he was crawling around in my bathroom and pulled himself up to standing - he didn't have his leg or lift on. Its rough, because he is so strong - I know he can do it - he does do it, now the hard part...figuring out how to do it with his leg and lift. I know he'll figure it out - I just have to keep being patient.