Making the boots and bars ‘normal’

As ‘Happy Feet’ babies grow up, they only need to wear their boots and bars at night.. and this is usually until around the age of 5.

At the beginning of the treatment, this sounds such a daunting prospect.. 5!!!! – that seems so long away.

To help Jessica (and ourselves) we made the boots and bar part of the bedtime routine.. so in our house we did tea time, play time, bath, pj’s, bottle/milk, boots on and then a story (with cuddles) and bed time..

Compared to some other babies I know, Jessica seemed to get into a great routine and for this I blame her boots and bars! see (another positive there 🙂 )

Jessica had never known any different so to her, wearing her magic boots at night was normal.. it was her life and because we tried so hard to keep her routine consistent, she expected to have them strapped on and almost never complained or kicked up a fuss..

In fact, the older she got I remember occasions when she would go and get her boots when she was tired to say “mummy, please put me to bed – I’m shattered”.

I will say that we kept her in a cot bed with the cot sides up for much longer than we would have probably without the boots and bars, because we were scared of her falling off her bed and hurting her knees and joints with her feet attached to each other, but this was no big deal.. When we finally did remove the cot sides, we just made sure we kept the stair gate up so that if she did get near the stairs, she wouldn’t tumble if she tried to get down forgetting she had her boots and bar on..

The state of those cot sides were hilarious! the banging and crashing that they had endured from the nuts and metal on the base of the boots and bar made them look like there had been a caged animal gnawing its way out.. ha ha

The strangest part about Jessica finally having the cot sides removed (later than most of her friends), was the fact she mastered how to get into our room.. in the mornings.. one of the most precious memories I have is of Jessica caterpillar crawling across the landing into our room and kneeling up with her hands in the air saying “mummy, I can’t walk can I ?” laughing her head off and pointing to her boots.. she took all of this in her stride and for that I admire her so much. 🙂

As I keep saying, we are very lucky in that we have wonderful close friends… who also have children… two of those children were to be Jessica’s first ‘sleep over’ memory..

I remember having all three girls to get ready for bed and at the time Jessica would have been 3, with one of her friends 4 and the other  2 and a half.. all was as it would be with 3 girls 4 and under.. they giggled, played and ate treats.. When bedtime came, I was so proud of Jessica because I overheard her explaining to her friends that she had to wear magic boots to bed so her feet would be like theirs..

I will never forget overhearing these three beautiful girls talking (very maturely) so matter of fact about Jessica’s feet and her treatment.  Jessica was not phased by their questions and they were not phased that Jessica had to wear her boots.. they just ‘got on with it’.

These young ladies are and will always be in Jessica’s life as their parents are our son’s godparents and are also dear dear friends.. .but even so, I will never ever forget the image of the three little ladies, chatting (like little old ladies) about the differences in themselves.. and also more importantly, the acceptance.. because difference is amazing.

Some adults could learn a lots from children…

xxxx

---