Tough Day

Today was a very tough day. We had to bring Jackson to Children's Hospital to have an ultrasound on his hip. When he was 1 day old the pediatrician had felt a "click" in his hip and was worried that maybe there was a problem, but they could not do an ultrasound until he was three weeks old. So now that he is three weeks and 2 days old today we brought him in and they found out that he has something called "hip displaysia". Basically his left hip socket isn't deep enough and if they don't deepen it now it could cause bad arthritis when he is older. They said that it happens to about 4 out of every 1000 babies, and has to do with him being breech when he was in me without enough room to grow.

Luckily it can be fixed with a brace. They fit him for the brace today and they say that it does not hurt him, but it also does not allow him to straighten his legs which drives him crazy. As a parent it was so hard to listen to him scream in agony all day because he could not straighten out. Over time he will get used to it, but for now it is difficult. It is also incredibly difficult to change his diaper because we have to wrestle it under the brace. He can wear clothes over the brace, but they have to be pretty baggy to fit, so I guess that we are moving on to all of those adorable 3 month clothes that he has! It is also hard to figure out how to hold and cuddle him because there is so much Velcro and we don't want to bend him into an uncomfortable position.

It's only going to be for 6 weeks, and hopefully then he will be healed. We will go for a check up at Children's every week and then have another ultrasound at the end of the 6 weeks and hopefully that will be it.