Jul 31, 2015

Staying strong for this special little nugget


I hate to end the week off with a bit of a downer but I’m going to do my very best to be brave and courageous for my son in the next few months.  This week, after a followup x-ray exam on Will’s hips (because he was a breech baby for most of the time in the uterus), we found out that he has mild hip dysplasia.  His left hip is slightly separated from the socket so he’s going to need to wear a brace full time (23/24 hours of the day) for a minimum of three months.  Then if things look ‘good’ he can graduate to wearing the brace for the next three months only at naps and through the night.  So truthfully, six months with this thing that we've nicknamed 'Betty'.
  
Cut to momma crying. 

Actually, cut to momma sobbing.

Initially, I was totally fine with the news until we took him to the children’s hospital and we all saw the bloody thing.  No lie - it’s a monster.  I’m planning on taking some pictures of it, but imagine a torture device used in the late 1800’s complete with tight bandages and metal and hard nuts and bolds all over the place.  Yah - totally uncomfortable I can only imagine.  The poor sweetheart is basically sitting in the side splits all day long so that his hip bone will begin to grow appropriately, but man, I used to be a dancer and asking one of us to sit in the splits for any longer than an hour and we would have been complaining like nothing else. 

So, major tears from me.  I said to Nate that he’ll either be a hockey goalie, an Olympic gymnast or a sumo wrestler with this soon-to-be-found flexibility, but until then, we’re all going to be stuck with a pretty fussy little man wearing this awful contraption, and his trying to put on a brave face mommy.  I guess as one of my girlfriends mentioned - better now than later.  And I agree, it’s for his future health.  If anyone has any tips, tricks, words of encouragement or suggestions, I'm all ears.  Would love to hear of anything that can help this baby's discomfort.

Hope you all have a great weekend. 
LUVS!
Kate

xoxo




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