When I found out my baby was going to be born with club feet, I wanted to know what others had gone through in similar situations. It was hard to find much on the internet besides a few people's random postings of their experiences. I'm hoping I can keep a nice document of our journey to correct his feet to help others out who find themselves in similar situations.

I was 4 months pregnant when I was told that my baby would probably be born with club feet. I didn't know what to think at first, but then I got scared he would be born with other problems too. Luckily they did a lot of tests and it looked like the feet were an independent problem and nothing else seemed to be wrong otherwise. We ended up going to way more ultrasound appointments than most people go to throughout a pregnancy. The plus side to having this complication though is that we got to get several 3D ultrasounds which aren't typically covered for Kaiser patients. It was fun to see a picture of my baby's face before he was born.

I had prepared myself for the journey that was to come. I knew my baby would be born somewhat odd looking and I knew we would be having weekly appointments with the orthopedic doctor starting in the first week of his life. I was ready for the casting process and the possible surgery that might be in the future. I think it was good to get ready for a funny looking baby, because when he finally came out he wasn't funny looking at all. His feet were messed up, but they were way cuter than I could imagine.

Owen is almost 2 weeks old now and just got his first set of casts this week. Before we went in, his feet looked like this:

It was actually cute how they folded up so neatly. It was like a little package. The only problem was that he kept kicking himself in the privates and often would put is foot in the mess as we would change his diaper.

At his first appointment to get the casts he screamed the whole time. I got to hold him, but he turned himself pink with all the screaming and eventually screamed himself to sleep. The first day at home he screamed every second he was awake. It was a rough day for all of us. I imagine the pain he was feeling was like what I felt whenever I got my braces on my teeth tightened as a teenager. It always hurt so badly the first day or two but then I didn't notice it. I'm hoping the next appointment goes a little smoother.

Here he is after they finished the casts, asleep and ready to go home: