Baby Harness

When Natalie was born, they did all their little newborn exam things, and her hips didn't pass the test they did to see if they were in joint, both of her hips slid a little bit when they pushed on them, aka Hip Click or Hip Dysplasia. So she's gone in for 2 appointments with an Orthopedic and she's had an ultrasound, they said to come back in 4 weeks so they could see if it fixed itself on it's own. Well, she had her follow up ultrasound and doctor appointment today, and her right hips has corrected itself, but the left one is still over half out of the socket, so....

 Into the baby harness she goes.

Looks slightly uncomfortable. She has to wear this for 4 weeks (20 hours a day) and then after her follow-up hopefully everything will be normal and she'll be free to go. Now that the cool fall weather is here, I'll just have her wear some light sleeper pjs and that should keep her from getting scratched or irritated by any of the velcro. She's being a good sport. So hopefully the hip dyspasia should fix itself in another 4 weeks. Until then, the harness looks like a big deal and so I know she will be getting lots of extra sympathy and kisses and love from her siblings. I'm sure their hearts will break for her when the see her after school - "Oh! Poor Natalie!!!!" Pretty baby.

One Down, 3 to Go

Natalie, you're doing great. 

She's endured one week in her little harness to help correct her Hip Dysplasia. She seems to be getting more used to it, but does take every opportunity to straighten out her legs, like when I loosen it to change her diaper. She's also in a good mood when I giver her an hour break.

She is sweetly resigned when I suit her up again. We all just think she's the absolute most beautiful thing ever. The kids shower her with kisses when they get home from school, and they can't walk by her without stopping to squeal and shout "Natalie, you are so adorable!!"

And she just replies with big eyes and raised eyebrows.

6 Months

Today was a busy day. First the morning school rush of course, then I started to get the little girls ready at 9 so we could leave for the church at 9:30 for a scripture study group. I had to leave that a bit early because Owen had his 6 month check up at 11. He passed with almost flying colors. He's nice and big and healthy, all his insides sounded good, also he's sitting up great, almost like a 9 month old she said. The only concern she said was this fold of skin on his leg. I've noticed it, I just thought he was chubby, and that might be all it is. (We jokingly say he has two butts) Anyway, I guess a deep thigh crease like that could mean that his legs aren't growing at the same rate or that his hips are out of line. So like Natalie, might mean there's some hip dysplasia. So after his check up and immunizations, we went over to the x-ray place and he got his hips x-rayed.

He let me get his bottom undressed and move him around without waking up for the first x-ray, but after that he had had enough and woke up for the second x-ray when they put his legs straight. Cause no relaxed baby likes that! So they held him down and then we got him dressed and headed home for a quick lunch. Then we were off again to pick up Hyrum for an Orthodontist visit. Went to Plewe for a consultation this time. I'm doing all my homework this time, just to be sure I've checked out all my options before we start forking out another $4800, yikes. I get that braces take a long time and it's a slow process, but I don't think that's should mean that braces cost as much as a car. Is it cause the metal providers have really jacked up the price somewhere along the line? Is there a Braces Union that escalates the costs? One thousand, maybe two - that would be reasonable, right? But 3 and 4 thousand? Almost $5 thousand, it just seems like a bit much. But I guess people pay it (like we are for Joseph) oh well. So at Plewe's office they were nice enough and it would be $700 less, but we definitely like McDonough better. I have a few more free consultations over the next week and then we'll give our official endorsement with all the price quotes for you (since none of them would give us a quote over the phone).

SO, after Hyrum's ortho appointment, we went to my mom's to drop off all the kids so I could go kids free to a dental cleaning for myself. It's been, gosh, probably 5 years since I had one. I'm pretty sure I did it shortly after we got home from Chile in 2011. I'm going back next week to get some of the sealants on my molars done again. Then we had the crazy busy Wednesday evening with music and activities and scouts and all that jazz. Tomorrow is Friday eve, yay! I live for the weekends. Love having all my kids home.