Primary Children's: Part 2

This morning we went back up to Primary Children's and met with the orthopedic specialist.  I discovered that he's pretty much an awesome guy!  There was an article on the wall in the waiting room about how he spent time on a medical ship off Africa's coast treating people there with leg deformities.  Also, he created some of the tools and techniques used for those surgeries.  Needless to say, I feel pretty good about having him take care of my baby!

Here's how it went down: Lexsi's hip sockets aren't formed properly, which we already knew.  A normal socket covers at least 50% of the ball joint in the leg, and the socket is at a 60 degree angle.  In Lexsi's hips, one socket covers 19% and one covers 20%, and the angle of one is 37 degrees and the other is 40.  So, her hips are pretty much terrible.  They told us that this condition is most common in first children who are females.  Not sure why that is, but I did feel comforted knowing that, and they said they rarely see siblings with the same problem [which made me think of Ranee and her feet].  For now, we have to keep her in a little harness, which she has to wear all day, except to bathe her and to wash the harness when it needs it.  Here's what it looks like:

We call her our "Little Froggy," since her legs are held out like that.  She can still move them around, which will hopefully cause the ball joint to kind of carve itself into the socket, helping it form correctly.  She really doesn't seem to mind the harness, which is a blessing!  She can't wear pants any more, so she'll be rockin onesies and nightgowns for the next month.  We'll go back up for another ultrasound and meet with the orthopedic doctor again next month and see where we need to go from there.

I feel incredibly blessed that our pediatrician caught this issue, because all the doctors have had a hard time actually popping her hip out of joint, so I think it would have been easy to miss.  However, since they caught it so early (the day she was born), we can treat it early and hopefully get it fixed quickly so she can be ready to crawl and walk before we know it!

In other news, this sweet little girl is one month old today, and I took her monthly pictures with her lion.  Today, I even got a little smile out of her:

I just adore this little lady!  She was worth every minute of the wait it took to get her here!  And even with these medical issues she's dealing with, I wouldn't change this opportunity of motherhood for anything, especially with this little angel I get to call my own!!!