Keeping up with the Joneses

This Thursday will mark four full weeks in the harness.  Miss Monkey is doing wonderfully in it acceptance wise - she really is.  Most days, I'm doing fine with it, too.  There are still times though when I curse the damn harness.  For example, each year we are invited by a group of friends to head out to a lovely little cabin out in western Maryland.  We have gone the past two or three years, and we always have a great time.  Hiking, hanging out, relaxing.  This year we passed on the invitation.

In hopes that we are doing everything we can to make sure the harness works, we are concerned about a few things.  First off, the car ride out there.  We were told to minimize the time Monkey spends with her knees pushed together.  That means long stints in the car seat are not a wise idea.  The drive out is four hours +, and doing that the way out AND the way back just seems like TOO long to me.

We also usually do a fair amount of outdoor exploring and hiking at the cabin, but I, too, worry about Monkey getting too cold in the Moby (that's the only carrier we have to use right now) and her hips getting too much strain being in the Moby that long.

All of my worries may not even cause damage, but as a Mom going through this battle with DDH, I can't help but be concerned.  So while our friends all head out for a long weekend of fellowship, we will stay behind and battle DDH.

We are two weeks out from our next ultrasound, and I so hope that she has continued to show improvement.

Life is "normal"

Tomorrow marks two full weeks in the harness.  We had an appointment last Friday morning with our ortho, and she actually showed us the ultrasound pics this time around.  We got to see the first round pics and the second round pics  - the second round being the pics of one week in the harness.  Amazingly enough, you could already see a difference!  Monkey's socket is getting deeper, and the angles we are looking for are improving.  We go back in in one month to re-evaluate.  Ultrasound at the hospital, then we head to the doc's office for evaluation.  We *may* have to make a stop by the doc's office in a week or two though just based on how fast Monkey is growing.

When the doc walked into the room last week she declared "WOW!  Is that the same baby??"  We had to get a fairly decent size adjustment on the harness in only a week - I assume we will have to do it again by the three week point.

Fingers are crossed that we will end full time wear of the harness by the end of the year.  After that, we will start to wean her out of it - out for 4 hours a day, then 8, then 12, then only naps.  We will do that til we get the phrase every DDH family longs to hear - "You've got perfect hips!"

I'm so proud of her though - she is just doing amazing and her strength inspires me.  The girl is tied up in a damn harness and still starts every day with a smile. She then pees and farts, but hey - she does start with a smile!