Sadie's hip

At each appointment from birth on, babies are checked using (from what I can tell) is called the Ortolani test and Barlow maneuver.  Basically, they move your babies legs around  and bend them up.  Sadie's leg movement did not raise a red flag until her 2-month appointment.  Our pediatrician heard a right hip click and continued checking to make sure that it was there.   She then referred us to an orthopedic surgeon who we went to see a few weeks later.  I, of course, was expecting nothing to be wrong with her little hip.  Once we saw the ortho though, he confirmed that he also heard a hip click and wanted us to get an ultrasound of both hips to check them out (their bones are not yet dense enough for an x-ray).  The ultrasound confirmed that her right hip was not in place like it needed to be, but it was not out of place which of course would have been more severe.  I cannot remember whether he actually used the words hip dysplasia or not, so I'm just going to keep referring to it as a right hip click. 

Since she is under 6 months old, the treatment option that the doctor chose to help her hip get back to where it needs to be and grow correctly, was the pavlik harness.   The harness can come off for diaper changes and bath time, but other than that, she wears it all the time.

The wonderful things are that 1- her hip does not hurt her, 2- the harness does not hurt or bother her, 3- this was caught early enough that hopefully this treatment option will fix her little hip.

Please being praying for proper development of her hip and selfishly, I am praying for her hip to "heal" quickly.  As a mom, that appointment day was filled with lots of tears from me, but I know that she is so little that she will not remember this.  We go back to the doctor in about 2 weeks, so hopefully we will have good news of improvement at that appointment. 

Sadie's first day in the harness (a few weeks ago)