Second Opinion Update

Most of our friends and family are familiar with Nora's orthopedic issues from birth.  Though temporary in nature, they required many trips to the doctor and physical therapist on a weekly basis.  In a nutshell, the pediatrician who examined her at birth felt that Nora might have hip dysplasia.  It took a couple of weeks to show up on an ultrasound, but Nora was diagnosed with both hip dysplasia and torticollis.  These conditions arose from development in the womb.

Nora at birth.  Her legs appear 'twisted' and she always looked to one side.

I had a blissfully easy pregnancy with no complications.  For whatever reason, my uterus never grew large enough to accommodate her growth and she was "smushed" for the whole pregnancy.  Her hip was dislocated, dysplastic (misformed) and her neck muscles were weak on one side.  The good news was that these conditions are temporary.  The bad news was that the treatment was pretty intensive to correct these issues.  At three weeks old, she was suited up for a Wheaton-Pavlik harness and sent to physical therapy for her neck muscles.

Nora in her harness.  Don't diaper changes look like fun??

Initially, 12 weeks of treatment was prescribed with six weeks of full-time harness wear and six weeks of part-time harness wear.  However, her hip dysplasia was pretty severe warranting full-time harness wear for almost four months.  Once the follow-up ultrasounds began to show improvement, her pediatric ortho downgraded her to part-time wear, finally allowing this Mommy to put that sweet baby in all those adorable outfits!  We were fully expecting the doctor to release Nora from the harness when I took her in for a check-up last week.  Unfortunately, the doctor very casually explained that she wanted Nora to be fitted for a long-term brace that she would wear for 3-4 years at bed time.  I was pretty upset to say the least.  We really like Nora's ortho doctor, but this was completely the opposite of what I had been expecting.  My sister suggested (in a very loving, helpful way, not bossy) that I get a second opinion.  I had thought about getting a second opinion before, but it took us so long to find a pediatric ortho that was in our insurance's network that I knew seeing anyone else would be expensive. After the prescription for a long-term brace, I decided to bite the bullet and get a fresh pair of eyes on Nora.

Nora at our appointment.

The new doctor agreed with the initial diagnosis of Nora at birth - she needed the brace to stabilize that hip and capture any opportunity of normal formation due to the rapid growth of infants.  However, he felt that the hip had stabilized.  The X-rays showed that her right hip still hasn't caught up to the left hip in terms of development, but he felt that the hip socket would form more normally as she began crawling and walking.  In fact, he went in to the controversy in the pediatric orthopedic field about bracing children and treating them for orthopedic issues for which they have no symptoms or complications but might have issues when they are adults.  Nothing we had done for Nora up until this point hampered her development, he just didn't feel that extended brace wear was necessary. He said that a third of pediatric orthos would tell us to brace Nora until she was 5, a third of them would say to brace her until she refused to wear it, and a third of the doctors would tell us to take the brace off.  There just wasn't enough science to justify either approach once the hip stabilized.  So, we made the decision.  No more brace for Nora!  We will miss her sweet pediatric ortho she has seen every week since birth because we will schedule her annual follow-ups with the new doctor, but it had to be done.  Next week, she should be released from physical therapy for her torticollis treatment.  Everything is really coming together for our little girl - she will be crawling before we know it!

Happy 6 Months!

On Friday, September 13th, our little monkey turned 6 months old:

We've had a fun time with Nora, especially now that we are beginning to see her personality develop.  Here a few fun facts about our little girl:

Weighs 14 lbs, 6 oz (25% of her weight range), and is 26 inches long (50% of her height range).  Her pediatrician seems to think that she is on track to be somewhere between 5'4" and 5'8".  I was hoping she'd be closer to my height - 5'10" or even taller - but it looks like she might be a shorty:(

Wears mostly size 3-6 month clothes and size 2 diapers.  Baby clothes have crazy sizing - Nora has a 9 month outfit that won't fit over her head, but a newborn dress that fits just fine.

Rolls everywhere.  Has even "slow-crawled" a few times.  Nora gets angry after she slow-crawls, like she meant to roll instead.

Sleeps un-swaddled.  This is a bigger deal than it sounds.  I was so afraid to stop swaddling Nora, but I knew we were overdue.  Knowing that I would probably never stop swaddling her, JD put her to bed one night without swaddling her.  The result?  She slept just fine.  Turns out she spent the first few minutes of sleep always busting out of her swaddle before she settled down, I just never made the connection!  We quit cold turkey without any problems.

Still sleeps from 8-8.  These past few weeks she has been randomly waking up in the middle of the night, so we have been sleep training Nora again.  I think we are almost back to her sleeping 12 hours again.

Has FIVE boyfriends.  Seriously.  Her daycare room has six babies, all boys, all older than her.  When I pick her up after work, a few of the boys cry when Nora leaves.  I think being the youngest in her room has encouraged her to develop quicker.  She is one of the few babies who can hold her own bottle, play on her own, etc.  She can even sit up on her own for a short bit.

Still wears her harness to sleep.  After our last ultrasound, Nora's pediatric ortho was confident that she would not need surgery anymore.  However, after an X-ray today, Nora is going to be fitted for a different harness that she will wear long-term.  Unfortunately, it looks like she will be wearing a harness to sleep until she is at least 3-4 years old.  I was upset about this latest update, but I am choosing to just be thankful that she doesn't need surgery.

LOVES vegetables and her sippy cup.  She doesn't seem to be a picky eater, but I know that can change.  She conned my mother into thinking that Nora didn't like her high chair or green beans, that she needed to be held when eating her veggies.  I just rolled my eyes when my mother reported that to me when I got home that evening - what a sucker!

Continues to be the happiest baby - we love her so much!

Here are a few more photos:

Houston airport waiting on our flight back to Memphis - Nora has been on eight planes!

Goofing around on the new patio at Soul Fish in Germantown

Such a happy baby

Nora and Mommy before church

Daddy and Nora before church

Rolling around on Aunt Sarah's floor in Houston

One of the 'About Me' cards on the wall in her room at daycare - Buddy really did that.  Nora held onto his collar and he pulled her around the kitchen (slowly).  She was shrieking with laughter, but of course I had to intervene!

Nora's "magic cape" as demonstrated by her Mimi

Tugging on Buddy's whiskers - he is so patient with her!

Her first swing

Sweet potatoes everywhere

Nora wearing Daddy's SF hat

First day of school