A Little background

Addison 6 days old all dressed up to go home from hospital

On February 26, 2011 my husband and I welcomed our first child...a beautiful little girl that we named Addison. She came into the world through a difficult delivery that ended she and her mum in the hospital for a week following her birth due to a blood infection her mum developed during labour. That first week in hospital was very difficult because the doctors were concerned that Addie may have contracted the infection as well, so she was very closely monitored, hooked up to IV antibiotics and poked and prodded a lot (poor little bean)! When we were finally able to take her home we were so thrilled, it was such a great feeling to have her home with us and get this family act on the road!

The following week I took Addie in for her two week check up and my doctor started asking me about whether or not there were any hip issues in our family. My husband's sister had hip dysplasia as an infant which was caught at 6 months and corrected by wearing a brace for three months. My doctor decided to send us for an ultrasound that week to check into little Addie's hips and to also check her kidneys as she was also born with a little skin tag on her right ear. Following the ultrasound we got the good news / bad news. Good news was that her kidneys were gangbusters, no issues there but nothing prepared us for the bad news... both of her hips were dislocated and the orthopeadic surgeon was reccommending we put Addie in what is called a Pavlik harness for three weeks, at which time we will do another ultrasound to see where whether or not the harness was working as it needed to.

Addison in her Pavlik Harness

The day they put the Pavlik harness on my little angel, I cried....a LOT. Her dad was also very emotional. It was so hard to see our perfect little girl confined to that harness. It looked like some kind of medieval torture device, but the doctors reassured me that it didn't bother her at all and was not as bad as it looked. Well Addison didn't get that message, as she had two pretty fussy days. She was inconsolable the first day she had it on but by day three she was getting used to it (and so was her mum and dad). Each week we had to visit the doctor at the children's hospital for a harness "adjustment" and after three weeks we returned for another ultrasound. This ultrasound, unfortunately, did not give us the news we were hoping for. The radiologist informed us that her hips had shown no improvement. So, back to the orthopedic surgeon we went. Yesterday the surgeon removed the pavlik harness (which was great!) but gave us information on the next step which is what is called a closed reduction. The closed reduction is a surgical procedure during which they will put Addison asleep, inject dye into her joints and try to position the hip joints into place manually. Following surgery she will be placed in a spica cast which goes from just below her armpits to her ankles...poor beanie!

Finally out of her Pavlik

While I am so happy to have my little squishy baby back free from her harness, I am very scared about the closed reduction and how she will tolerate the spica. Let's face it, I am concerned about how I am going to tolerate the spica! According to our doctor, they will try to do the surgery around 3 months of age. Addison is now 6 weeks old, so I have promised her that she is going to have daily baths and lots of skin to skin cuddling for the next six weeks!