Froggie's First Check up.

   

     Today we woke up EXTRA early, got ourselves dressed and packed up and hit the road.
     In reality it wasn't that much earlier than I typically get up but the difference of an hour with a toddler is torture. We made it for our 7:30am appointment with minimal complaint thanks to a lightning McQueen shirt and a "cereal nola bar".
     This appointment took forever! Big Brother played with the train table while we waited.

     A little while after we got checked in they took us back; Froggie weighed in at 12 lbs 7 oz a full pound heavier than our last appointment. She has grown so much in the last three and a half months, I had forgotten how quickly they go from tiny infant to big kid. We went through what has become our routine but this time made our way to the second exam room. This one had a cool fish light.

     So these were the questions I had come up with for our doctor:

     1. How long will she need to wear the harness/How long does it take for the ligaments/sockets to become stable enough to hold the ball of her hip on their own? This will take a long time. Our doctor said he wont even evaluate the harness' effectiveness (with an X-ray) until Froggie has worn it for 3 months. That means we have awhile left to wait until we know if this will do the trick or if we'll need to do something else for Froggie. 

     2.  What happens if the harness doesn't correct the problem? He didn't specifically answer this question but he said he was glad we had chosen to treat the issue now because if we would have taken a "wait and see" approach we may have had to take more invasive action to fix any issues that were unresolved. 

     3. Can I continue using chest carriers with her? He said yes! As long as the carrier I was using kept her legs out the way the harness positions them. He also said that if she's in the carrier and it positions her hips appropriately she could even be in it without her harness. Though I don't know if I'd take her out of the harness just to put her in the carrier and then put it back on when we're done. 

     Like I said this appointment took forever. We arrived for our appointment at 7:20am and left at 9am and this was just for a clinical exam! We left today with my few questions answered and the harness tightened a little bit. He chose to tighten it saying that sometimes once they fit the harness it "settles" and needs to be tightened so that the legs are once again held in the right position. We go back in a month for another clinical exam to check the harness' fit.

Froggie waiting for the doctor.

Froggie and Big Brother waiting for the doctor.