Jake's Terrble, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!

Yeterday was quite a day for little Jake. First we went to see an orthopedic surgeon, for those that don't know, we were referred because Jake's pediatrician thought that we should be safe and check out his hips since he was a breech baby born by c-section (I will explain all of this further in another post, but for now I just wanted to give his latest update). When he was born, the hospital pediatrician thought he may have felt a click in his hips, which would mean a dislocated hip, three exams later by three different pediatricians had different results-no hip clicks. We had an ultrasound done on his hips in late May, his right hip is completely normal and his left hip had what they described as a shallow socket, but no dislocation. We were referred to the orthopedic surgeon by our pediatrician and went to see him yesterday. Jake was diagnosed with left hip dysplasia and a very mild torticollis (basically a stiff neck on one side)...these two things usually go hand in hand, so neither one was particularly shocking since we suspected them early on.







Now on to the fun stuff-his treatment for the hip dysplasia will be a Pavlik Harness. This is what the Pavlik Harness looks like:

Basically, he will wear this for 23 hours a day for the next three months. He gets to have it taken off for baths and to wash it, but that's about it. He can wear a onesie under it and big, baggy clothes over it, you can change his diaper without taking it off, and he can wear baby leg warmers on his legs to keep the straps from irritating him. It's really pretty easy to deal with once you get used to it, but currently...he HATES it! For his neck, we will be doing physical therapy twice a week for six weeks and then he should be good to go. We will be following up with the orthopedic surgeon on July 1st for another ultrasound...cross your fingers that he can get out of the brace before three months!

We also had the two month visit to the pediatrician yesterday after he got his brace. We were there for 2.5 hours, probably 2 of which were spent waiting...fan-tastic. His pediatrician said he is doing great, he is up to 11 lbs. 4 oz. and is ahead of where he should be developmentally, which is great! He also got his shots-three in the legs and one oral-he was NOT happy! So, all in all, we had a big day of adjustments and shots, an afternoon and night of fussing, but we think he will be happy again tomorrow once the shots wear off and he gets used to the brace. If you have any questions about any of this, please feel free to ask us. My update tomorrow will be more in depth in explaining hip dysplasia and some pictures of Jake in his brace.