Hip Dysplasia:

Conrad napping on Mama's bed in his harness, as comfortable as can be!

I've been meaning to blog about this topic, but hadn't had time between pumping, wiping dirty butt cheeks, kissing adorable fat little lips, and wishing for more hours in the day to take naps! 

Ever since my 6th month of pregnancy, Dustin & I started hearing a popping, or clicking sound coming from my belly throughout the day. So along with my list of other concerns every doctors appointment was my concern of the popping sound I was hearing. I asked my doctor if I should be worried about this sound, and she said it was the baby swishing around in my amniotic fluid that was making the sound of knuckles popping....

I didn't quite buy that explanation

So the day after Conrad was born, I asked the pediatrician about this sound, and he wiggled Conrad's legs around, and sure enough he said our baby had Hip Dysplasia which basically means that his hips pop in and out of the sockets. Which was exactly what Dustin & I had been hearing for months while the baby was in my womb.

At Conrad's first pediatrician appointment, we were referred to an orthopedic surgeon who then diagnosed Conrad with Hip Dysplasia, but wanted to have an ultrasound done to confirm his diagnosis. And in the meantime, he fitted Conrad in a hip harness to keep his legs bent like a frog so that he would not have the ability to move them in such a way as to pop them in and out of the sockets. 

At first, this diagnosis was heart breaking to me. I cried in the waiting room of the orthopedic surgeons office seeing all of these other children in wheel chairs, and with canes who could not sit properly in a chair because of bone deformities etc. I cried seeing my cold naked son being fitted in this crazy, velcro contraption and the tighter the doctor made his harness, the more he cried, and i cried, and my Mom cried....and then Dustin cried when I told him Conrad had to wear it....

You just don't want ANYTHING to be wrong with your baby. 

You want your baby to be like all of the other babies, and you don't want to have to explain to everyone and their mother what the heck your baby is wearing every time you go into Trader Joe's! And you certainly don't want other parents to pity you. 

When we stepped back and realized what the purpose of this harness was, and stopped being vain or insecure about our son wearing it, we had peace. 

The drawbacks are: it's hard to diaper him, I can't dress him in his cute new born outfits, can't wear pants! He has to wear it for 23 hours a day for 6-8 weeks, and it's annoying to us!

The perks are: his hips won't pop out of the sockets and cause him discomfort anymore, he has worn it since he was 4 days old and doesn't know anything different, he doesn't seem to mind it at all, and he looks cute as hell in it actually...he looks like a paratrooper, like he's about to jump out of a plane! 

So whatever, it's not so bad. It's not like he's terminally ill or something. It's a harness for

 God sake. Who cares!

We went last week to get an ultrasound done of his hip, and the ultrasound guy said that he only sees loose ligaments and he doesn't see Hip Dysplasia AT ALL! He said that babies with loose ligaments are extremely common, but not all babies have to be treated for it. He said that Conrad's hips looked normal and that he would walk just fine, and play sports just fine. There were no deformities in his bones! In the parking lot I joyfully thanked God and cried. My fears were relieved. 

These last 3 weeks have grown me in my faith and grown me as a wife exponentially. I feel like a new soul, a new person, i feel changed. I feel like when I hear him cry at night, I'm not burdened to get up and take care of his needs. I feel like I've fallen in love with my husband all over again, in a different way. Seeing him as a Dad is such a turn-on. It melts my heart to watch him give Conrad baths, or fall asleep feeding him while I pump milk in the middle of the night....

It's cool to see how God uses silly things like "Hip Dysplasia" to draw us to Himself and how a new baby in the house has made me so needy as a parent for God to care for me and show me how to be a mom, as I care for this new life.