meet Rhino and the first few days with him

meet Rhino

The 'Rhino Cruiser' is a hip abduction brace, designed to hold the hips in a position to hopefully allow Annabelle's hips to realign.

She'll be in the Rhino Cruiser until her closed reduction on June 4th.

Isn't she cute?!

The first day was the worst. She cried every time I had to tighten the brace. She got it on Monday. Today is Thursday, and she doesn't cry anymore. I think she's getting used to it. She has to come out of it to go in her carseat and have a diaper change, and she keeps her legs in the same position. It's kinda funny. Since she doesn't use her legs, I don't think the muscles are developing much, and her legs are REALLY floppy. She kicks them when she's not in the brace, but I don't see her move them much when she's in the it.

Check out her legs in the brace, and then not ...
and yes, car seat gurus, the strap covers came with the carseat ;)

CAST

During our ultrasound this morning, the Pavlik got to come off for a few minutes. Annabelle has gotten so long! I took a couple pics to document, thinking she'd be put back in the PH afterwards. I took some washcloths and baby soap to give her a quick sponge bath on her lower half. She was getting quite stinky.

I had a vibe after our ultrasound that a cast would be our next step. It felt like the big guy in the sky gave me a heads up so I would be prepared for the news. I was going to be brave and strong.

Dr. Olney came into the room, "How's this little girl doing?" he asked. "You tell us," is what I managed to croak. "Well ..." he began.

Long story short, the Pavlik harness did not work for Annabelle. He said she has shallow hip sockets. The next step is a procedure called a closed reduction. During this, Annabelle will be under general anesthesia for complete sedation so he can manipulate her hips into the correct position. Afterwards, she is in a Spica cast for ~3 months, with a cast change after six weeks to accommodate her growth (and any ick factor). If that works, great. If not, more surgical intervention is necessary when she reaches 6months of life.

In the meantime ... since the Pavlik isn't working, no more Pavlik. We're changing to a different brace, the Rhino cruiser. It's a harder shell of a brace, not a soft harness like Pavlik.
Pros: it can come off (yay!) and she can have a real bath (double yay!). It comes off for diaper changes, and it comes off in the carseat. She can also wear clothes under it, so all the cute outfits she has are once again a possibility.
Cons: it comes off, so it has to go back on. And she HATES it being tightened.

A fleeting hope ... newer studies have shown that a small percentage of DDH can be corrected with the Rhino cruiser when the Pavlik didn't work. We go back for an ultrasound in 3.5 weeks. If her hips are better, we go from there. If they're not, we continue with the scheduled closed reduction four days later. She'll stay overnight (at least) in the hospital. They'll even hook us up with a fancy carseat since her infant carrier won't work.

In my mind, I'm planning for the closed reduction. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised than the other way. He didn't sound hopeful that the cruiser would work.

Today has been rough. She does not like it being put back on. AT ALL. On a positive note, she got a bath, which she LOVED.

As for how I'm doing ... I'll blog tomorrow. I'm tired, and she's asleep, therefore I should attempt to be.

Trust me.

I woke up this morning for Annabelle's appointment, and logged into Facebook to play while Annabelle eats.  Courtesy of KLove, this is what I saw.   Enough said.  Hit me square between the eyes.  Thank you, Lord.

I should be anxious, and I'm not. (not a lot)

(this is a religious post)

Tomorrow morning we go back to see Dr. Olney to determine the next step in Annabelle's treatment...
Our ultrasound is scheduled for 7:30am (ugh, ugh, double ugh), and then we see the orthopedic Dr afterwards. 
I feel like I should be more anxious, and I'm sure I will be in the morning, but for now ... I'm just indifferent.  Calm, almost.  I've been praying about this.  A LOT.  Today, my devotional even spoke about fear, and how we should not fear and give all our troubles to God.  That's the mindset I've adopted over the past couple weeks.  I keep feeling like He's telling me to breathe; relax; He's got this.  I don't need to worry, I need to have faith in Him.  I feel like this is a test of faith He's thrown at me - to bring me back into trusting Him. 
I've witnessed/heard of a lot of things as of late that have made me truly thankful for my beautiful HEALTHY baby that is snoozing on my lap right now.  She's a healthy girl with a hip condition.  But she's healthy.  I'm so grateful and thankful for that.  I'm blessed beyond words. 

Breastfeeding with the PH

(WARNING: pics included, run away if you get offended)

Breastfeeding can be challenging enough with a little one. We had a lot of trouble maneuvering Annabelle into positions comfortable for her.

Most often, she was comfortable either lying flat on her back or slightly tilted to the side with her head turned.

As she got a bit bigger and has had more head control, she's been more comfortable nursing sitting up, straddling my leg, or in a diagonal position.

Occasionally, she's liked the football hold too. Sometimes it's trial and error. Bottomline: a hungry baby eats.

So you're getting a Pavlik harness?

I'll add to this list if I figure out more things, but here's what I wish I could have had someone tell me in anticipation of our Pavlik journey:

1) Give your baby a HUGE bath the morning before Pavlik. This one I had actually figured out, so I woke up extra early that morning to give Annabelle a deep clean and snuggle. Lots of skin-to-skin that morning. I took pics. Then I dried out the baby bathtub and put it away. We won't be seeing that thing for awhile.

2) Buy some plain t-shirts to put under the harness. Gerber makes them, and don't get the kind with the side snaps. Just plain t-shirts. I found them at our local grocery store for $5 for a pack of three. I can't find them anywhere else but on Amazon. These have been VITAL for us.
Make sure you take a t-shirt with you on Pavlik day. I honestly only change out the t-shirt when it gets gross or when I give her a "sponge bath". Sometimes she's in it for two or three days at a time.
You can put a onesie under it - and I frequently do, but it's a pain to change it out when it gets damp from a leaky diaper. T-shirts are much less likely to get icky.

3) Buy some babylegs/legwarmers or cut up some old socks to put over the leg portion of the harness. We got poop on one of the legs on the first day. The stain is still there, glaring at me in all its yellow glory. I now put babylegs over the leg portion so if they get dirty, I can just swap them out. Plus they're cute, and a little less distracting than the harness.

4) If anyone bought you outfits with pants, etc... better get your thank you pictures in now. Most days I just have Annabelle knocking around in a tshirt and diaper. (We cloth diaper, so at least they're cute)

5) If you have a drooler, or a kiddo that spits up a lot, buy LOTS of bibs. That way you don't have to change out the t-shirt/onesie underneath.

Cloth diapering with the PH, part 2

Annabelle has been out of her newborn diapers for almost two weeks now, and I've gathered a bit more data/opinion on different diapers with the PH.

Prefolds: feasible. No more a pain to put on with or without the PH. Not my favorite diaper option, but I tried it for blogging sake.

Contours - same as prefolds.

Fitteds - this is actually becoming my favorite option. Most of the fitteds that I'm using right now are the Muttaqin baby 3SR one size fitteds, and occasionally a KL0. The Mutts are more absorbent, and with a busy mama with a toddler and newborn, as well as Annabelle sleeping longer stretches, the Mutts are currently my fave. Especially because Annabelle has only been pooping twice a day with a few tiny ones in between. The extra elastic & gussets are NECESSARY!!!

Pockets/AIOs - a nice friendly option as always, but I've had more leaking issues because of gapping at the legs due to the angle that her hips have to be in the PH. Not always, but more than normal. I have mostly Bumgenius pocket diapers, a few BG AIOs, and my new favorite pocket diaper: the Rumparooz. RaR are WONDERFUL in that they have double gussets in their diapers. Sooo essential for NB poo.

Snaps vs. Aplix: Definitely prefer snaps since they don't drag across her skin. However, I've found with using fitteds/covers, if I pull the tabs of the aplix cover through the harness at the same time as the fitted and hold the aplix against the fitted, it protects her skin. A little more tedious, but better for my little girl. (I hope that makes sense!)