Ugly: First Pair of Shoes = Epic Fail!

When Baby E was a tiny baby, we tried putting shoes on him exactly 2 times.  The first time, at around 6 weeks old, we tried these tiny little sneakers.  Baby E curlled his little feet up into tiny balls, we thought we finally got the shoes on, and 5 minutes later, they were falling in the floor.  He hated shoes so much from the get go that I vowed not to worry about it until he started walking

The next time we tried shoes was a month of two ago as we worked our way through a couple of bags of hand-me-downs.  I saw these little shoes and knowing that winter was coming and that time was drawing near when we would NEED shoes to protect our little walker, I decided to try again.  It went almost as badly as the first time.  I gave up in a matter of minutes declaring all the shoes the wrong size.  I don't know yet whether or not I was wrong, but I plan to go back through the shoes and find out this weekend.

Yesterday my mom picked Baby E up from daycare early and brought him to meet me after work.  It was time to fight the shoe battle and with his fat feet we knew there would be no choice but to go to the Stride Rite store and get some good walking shoes.  I talked it up big and tried to get him excited about his big boy shoes, but I think he knew all along that this was not going to be something he enjoyed. 

As we drove from my office to the store across town, Baby E sat in the back seat saying "Nanananana... Dadadada" (translation... daddy says I don't need these expensive shoes and I don't want them!).  B had already asked how many people I thought had learned to walk throughout history without $40 baby shoes... I just hate it when I don't have an argument! So as Baby E sat there saying "Nanananana... Dadadadada".  I had this feeling of dread that this was not going to be pretty. 

We got to the store and the first step was to measure his little foot.  The right foot went well, but apparently Baby E has a complex about his left foot.  When the sales clerk sat his left foot on the metal foot measurer thingy (yes that is a technical term), Baby E began to get angry.  Well we did discover that he was going to need a 4 1/2 wide or possibly an extra wide.  We picked out a pair or two of the "learn to walk" level 2 shoes to try on and then the fun started.  The toes curled, the feet balled up, and eventually, we straightened his right foot out enough to get the shoe on.  Whew... 1 down 1 to go.  Then the left foot.  The best we could ever do in the store was to get the left shoe on with his toes still curlled up.  The clerk said to stand him up and let him do some walking in them and eventually he'll uncurl those toes.  WRONG!

The first pair of shoes we tried.  The soft soles are meant to mimic walking barefoot.

Baby E tried very uncomfortably to walk in those shoes crying almost the whole time.  He was walking pidgeon toed, rolling his ankle over, and doing just about everything except walking like he normally does.  I felt like a mean mom who was torturing her child.  We pulled off that pair of shoes and attempted to try on a second pair but never even got into them.  The sales clerk suggested we move to an extra wide to give him some more room since the velcro straps on the wide shoes were just barely holding on. 



Pair #2... The ones we didn't even get on. 



Hoping that he was just uncomfortable and the shoes didn't fit, I agreed.  The kicker was that to get a shoe in an extra wide size we'd have to go to the level 3 "I know how to walk" shoes.  So I picked out another pair to try on and we went through the whole foot curling, toe scrunching process again.  Again, Baby E couldn't really walk in these shoes and now he was getting tired and hungry.  Ugh! I gave up on this being a pleasant experiance. 

The extra wide shoes did look like they fit better.  The velcro would at least close all the way.  So this tired mom handed her tired hungry baby to his grandmother and paid for the expensive shoes.  We left the shoes on Baby E's feet hoping that if we wore them while he was in the carseat he'd get a little more accustomed to them.  Any exposure is good, right???  He kept them on for about half the ride home (the half that he slept through).  Then he was pulling and tugging at them and getting generally ticked off.  We surrendered and took off the shoes.  It didn't fix things but it helped a little and we eventually made it home.

The winner... Level 3, not that he can walk in these either!



This morning the torture began again.  While Baby E was eating I pulled on some thin socks (since last night his feet were sweating when we pulled the shoes off) and then started getting the shoes on.  This morning, the right shoe went right on without any problems.  The left foot was trouble again!  The first attempt ended with the shoe in the floor.  I decided we'd put it back on in the car.  With Baby E strapped in, B and I tried for what felt like 5 minutes to get the shoe back on.  After much work and some tears from Baby E, we had it back on (I think). 

Baby E sulked all the way to daycare.  He usually babbles happily and plays but today he just sat and stared at us with a look saying "I don't like either one of you right now."  Normally when we get to daycare, he doesn't want to leave my arms.  Today he reached for Miss Angela and watched me leave without a tear.  I think he was just a little angry with me.  I told Miss Anglea to try to keep the shoes on until 8:00.  That would leave them on around 1 1/2 hours and we'll just build up from there.  I don't know how its going to go.  I'm hoping that with all the other kids around he might forget that he's wearing shoes and just fall into playing.  It should be a busy day since today is their Christmas party.  With any luck, there will be lots of distraction today especially. 

I'm not going to call today to see how things are going because with the party and everything I know that the ladies are super busy.  But I'm definately interested to find out how things went this morning when we pick Baby E up this afternoon.  I do hope he didn't fuss too much for them.  I know I'm dreaming but wouldn't it be wonderful to pick him up and find him still wearing his shoes?  Naaaaa... that is just too much to hope for. 

There hasn't been much that I've done with Baby E that I'm sure I'll do different with Baby #2, but this will be one thing.  Prepare yourself Baby #2.  You will be wearing shoes frequently from the day you are born.  I won't create another battle like this one to fight.