Froggie in Her Tadpole Days

APPOINTMENT #1

Froggie at her 1st appointment

     Before we left the hospital we had received a letter with our appointment date and time at Shriners Hospital for Children and before my driving restrictions were over we were there. On Valentine's Day we showed up to Shriner's toting our precious bundle and 2 year old son and there we sat in the waiting room.
     We met with a wonderful doctor with a thick accent. (To this day I don't think my husband understood a word that was said during that appointment.) He asked for our daughter's history, which was brief since she was only 2 weeks old, and did the same hip exam our pediatrician had done the week before. So far the pediatrician at the hospital thought her hips were "too lax" and ours felt a "Hip Click" and was glad we were heading to Shriners.
     FYI "A “hip click” refers to an audible “click” or “pop” that occurs when a baby’s hips are being examined. When an infant has a “hip click” it does not mean that a baby has hip dysplasia. While some infants that have a hip click will be diagnosed with hip dysplasia, there are babies with hip clicks that have normal hips." (http://www.hipdysplasia.org)
     This doctor was now telling me that babies hips are SUPPOSED to be loose at birth and that he didn't feel any glaring abnormalities. He followed this up with telling us he wouldn't let our daughter slip through the cracks in case she did in fact need corrective action.
     We left that appointment with mixed feelings. I was happy to hear that our daughter's hips felt normal but a little worried that he wanted us to return in a month for an ultrasound. We resumed our daily lives adjusting to being a family of four and tried to be mindful of keeping her hips positioned appropriately but gave little thought to her hips until her next appointment neared.

Froggie at her 1st appointment

APPOINTMENT #2

My sulking Froggie

     This appointment was bitter sweet. My husband had begun a new job and my son had returned to day care in preparation for my return to work the following week. My daughter and I waited for the doctor and made it through this appointment alone.
     We had the same staff at this appointment as our first and our nurse and doctor were wonderful again. They took ultrasound images of both her hips. He explained to me what they were looking for and began to sound frustrated that he could not get the image he was expecting with her left hip. He then switched to her right hip and easily got images he was happy with.
    My Froggie and I were escorted to exam room 1, the same room we always seem to get, that was decked out with a reptile border, sky light cover and a picture of some sort of large cat as a cub. My daughter was mad! She was bothered by the ultrasound and being twisted and moved to get the images needed. She sulked and pouted for the rest of the morning. (I felt so bad that we went straight to Target and I bought her a Taggies blankie which she has been attached to ever since)
     Once the doctor returned from reviewing the images he had just taken he did another hip exam while he explained to me what he had noticed in the ultrasound images. Her right hip seemed to be fine but her left hip socket seemed to be too shallow to hold the ball of her hip properly. We were told to avoid jumper seats, swaddling and anything that would either squish or not support her hips properly but we did not have to take any corrective action yet.
     He stated that as she grew over the next few weeks this may become a non-issue and that he wasn't going to tell us she was in the clear yet. We were scheduled to return for a pelvic X-ray and told that if the images looked good we wouldn't have to come back at all for her hips!
     Once again I left the appointment confident that the next appointment would involve only good news and I thought little about it until appointment #3 got closer.

The awesome sky cover on the lights.