Welcoming Lucy and Her Harness

  *Originally written in early May 2013

Welcoming Lucy!

Lucy is our first child. Michael and I were married March 31, 2012 and found out we were expecting our perfect little miracle on July 22, 2012. Lucy made her debut after a long and hard induction on March 18, 2013 at 2:04 a.m. Our sweet baby weighed 8 lbs, 10oz and was 19.5" long! We were surprised to welcome such a big baby! She looked like the most perfect baby doll I had ever seen and that's the moment that we fell in love...

After-birth Check-Up:
After Lucy was born, she went over to a special bassinet where she received care for having a lot of fluid in her lungs. I remember watching from the bed where I was being cleaned up. I could hear her cries and couldn't wait to get my hands on my sweet, little bitty baby. After this initial check-up, a few physicians and nurses came in (at what seemed like the rate of every five minutes!) to poke and prod her--to make sure she was healthy. One of the doctors noticed a slight "click" of her hips. I head her say to her resident physician, "Do you hear that?" I perked up instantly to listen to their discussion. They briefly mentioned to us that sometimes babies hips are dislocated and make that sound. They said, "It might be something to have looked at soon." Having never heard about babies having hip dislocations and not knowing much about what that could mean, we said "okay" and put that in the back of our minds. 

The following two days, while we stayed in the hospital, Lucy's "hip click" was mentioned once more. The physician told us she'd put in a referral to a specialist so it could be looked at further. We took the yellow sticky note with the orthopedic doctor's office phone number on it and tucked it into our going home bag. It was time to take Lucy to our home! We couldn't wait to welcome her home, show her where she'd live, let her meet our dog, and adjust to life as a family (how exciting!). 

In the next few days, we called the orthopedic doctor's office, but her referral hadn't come through yet. Over the next week, we called back a few times to check the referral status and ended up having to have it re-faxed. It was a mess trying to get her an appointment, but long story short and after several mis-communications, we finally did. That appointment was on April 24, 2013, just five weeks after we welcomed her into the world. During Lucy's first five weeks, we grew accustomed to snuggling her baby soft skin, dressing her in sweet outfits, and bathing her in her pink bathtub over the kitchen sink. She slept in the Fisher Price Rock 'N Play Snugamonkey Sleeper, which was inclined and kind of encompassed her lower body to make her feel secure. I enjoyed rubbing her back and massaging her with lotion before bedtime. We began to get on a schedule with our girl and she was sleeping about 4 1/2 hours at night--pretty good for such a new baby! We were thrilled to begin a routine and felt a little more rested as each day went by. 

On April 24, we took her to have an ultrasound of her hips and to see the pediatric orthopedist at Nemour's in Pensacola. For the ride over, I dressed her in a footed sleeper, patterned with the most lovely floral print. She had outgrown the newborn size, so over the previous weekend, I had set off to Belk to buy the exact same outfit one size up in 3 month. I thought she looked so sweet in her carseat! I had washed her matching blanket and covered her lightly when I tucked her in for the long ride over. Mike left work and met us at the ultrasound around 2pm. 

 During the ultrasound, the technician undressed her from the waist down and scanned over her joints. Sure enough, she found that both hip sockets were "immature" and "too shallow" to accommodate the head of the femur bone. We had expected to hear news like that, so we weren't too shocked. The technician also said that sometimes the physician will be able to manipulate the hips and see if he can get the bone into the socket. I thought to myself, "That sounds a little painful, but if that's all she has to have, it'll be okay!" I re-dressed my darling little baby in her snugly, footed sleeper and placed her back into her carseat carrier. Off to the orthopedic appointment we went feeling hopeful that she wouldn't need any treatment other than some physical manipulation of the joints. 

When the physician (who I'll refer to as "Dr. F.") walked into the room, he held a package with some sort of white velcro device in it. He greeted us and we handed Lucy over to be examined. Within the next minute, he was unpackaging the white velcro thing placing it around her tiny body while explaining to us that it is called a Pavlik Harness. Instantly, I felt a wave of emotion like none other on the inside. I tried not to show any of it in the exam room as Lucy's little body was configured to fit in this funny-looking device. As he placed it on her and she screamed (so loudly), he continued to explain..."This cannot be removed by anyone but me. Don't undo it for diapering or baths. Just sponge bathe her from now on. She can wear a onesie under it, but no other clothes are going to fit. She'll need adjusting, so we'll see you next week and go from there. Sometimes this works to fix the hips. We may not have to do surgery. It's over 90% effective, but she's pretty severe. Maybe we can just reduce the dislocation. We'll see..." My heart sank as he handed me my velcro-wrapped, 11 lb. baby and told me to put her in her carseat (clothes-less), blanket her, and come back next week. I could hardly stand looking at her like that. What was I to do with her snugly, footed sleeper? I put it in the diaper bag and tended to getting Lucy in her carrier. "How long should she wear this harness," we asked. "Probably 12 weeks or so," Dr. F. said. "TWELVE WEEKS?! How am I going to care of her with this thing permanently on for TWELVE WEEKS?! Doesn't he know how much she LOVES her baths and her little clothes, and snuggling her mommy, and getting those lotion massages at night?!" was all I could think. Leaving the clinic was a sobering experience as I walked out to wait for Mike to pull our SUV up to the curb. It was pouring rain. And, he we were, taking home our snugly, little bitty baby in a velcro harness contraption that cannot be removed (?!) even for a bath in her little, pink tub or to breastfeed or a nighttime lavender lotion massage or to wear her sweet outfits or to sleep in her Snugamonkey sleeper or to lay on her tummy and play with her toys... Here we were. Starting life with a baby in a Pavlik Harness. And, so far, it has been nothing like anything I was prepared for.

 While seeing Lucy in her harness is still very new to me and super emotionally draining, the good news is that there is a change this harness with heal her hip joints and she won't need further, more invasive treatments. So far, she seems a little uncomfortable in it, especially during feeding and sleeping. She doesn't like diaper changes now and cried all the way through the sponge bath I gave her earlier today. She has limited movement of her arms and fully restricted movement of her legs. She can't kick them anymore. Her arms move without control up and out. It has been so hard to see my little girl in this harness and to have to change every routine we'd established during her first month of life. It makes me wish we had been able to begin the harness sooner, so I wouldn't have gotten used to all of those "normal" things, but it also makes me glad I had that time with her, since we don't know how long this will last or what she may possible need next. 

We are so thankful for the gift God gave us. Lucille Anne is the most wonderful present we could ever get and we love her so very dearly. We pray this harness will be short-term and that she won't need further treatment to stabilize her hips. We are proud of our little girl and know that she is strong. Someway, somehow, with lots of onesies, we'll get through the days of wearing this harness.