Learning to walk again

Today marks the 3 week mark since Olivia got her cast off. I have to admit that I had this misconception that once she got her cast off, life would just go back to "normal". And that has not been the case. Although, we are extremely grateful for her surgeries and casting process to be over, it has been yet another transition for all of us. The first 2 weeks Olivia was very fearful of using her legs at all. She would not even let her feet touch the ground when I was holding her and still had to be carried everywhere. Something I read online said that for every week they are in the cast, this will be the amount of days it will take them to be ready to move again. For Olivia, this was true. She was casted for 16 weeks and it took her 16 days until she was brave to try using her legs again. Weird isn't it??

So we have been taking things slowly but it seems to be working. In the past week, she has made tremendous progress!!!! Last Friday she started crawling. And then she wanted to pull up on furniture. Putting weight back on her legs and feet was HUGE. Trust me, I had tried so many times to get her to do it, I was shocked when she finally did! And grateful! As of today, she can walk holding onto just one of your hands, is cruising the furniture and can even get herself up onto the couch and into chairs at the dinner table. I am happy to report that tonight just before bed, she tried to walk across the room from Craig to me. She took maybe only 2-3 steps on her own until we caught her, but I am soooooooooo excited! I know within a few days (if not sooner) she will be walking all on her own!!!!

It has been a strange experience to see your 3 year old doing things that a baby does....scoot, crawl, pull up, etc. Tonight when she was taking those steps it was exciting but it was also surreal. I told Craig I can't believe we are watching her do this. I still hurt for her that she has had to relearn so many things. But leave it to my hubby to point out the silver lining. He said "I think this is really cool! We are getting to see her take her first steps AGAIN! How many people can say they have seen their child learn to walk twice??!!!"

And he is right. Finding the good within the bad is what this entire journey has been all about. Not taking things for granted and not sweating the small stuff.

Can't wait to write the post reporting she is walking all on her own. Check back SOON!