Paisley's Hip Dysplasia Update

We had our follow up appointment and ultrasound today for Paisley. We started out with the ultrasound and Paisley was so good while getting the ultrasound. Emery was with me and I think she was a little freaked out by the atmosphere and watching Paisley lay there. After the ultrasound, the radiologist came in to read the results. She told me the results and the numbers and I knew right away that Paisley's hips were not where they should be. I immediately had a fear that the pediatric orthopedist would tell me the harness was not making enough progress and we would have to take more extreme measures.

However, after a 90 minute wait (don't you love that about Dr. appointments) we finally met with the Dr. The good news is that the Pavlik Harness is working. Paisely's left hip is 100% normal and right where it should be. The right hip still needs some work.

So, we are down to 18 hours per day in the harness. I went to the appointment expecting to go down to 12 hours per day. There is something about motherly instinct that amazes me all the time. When I was packing the diaper bag for the appointment today, I thought about packing a cute "normal" outfit for Paisely to wear. There was just something holding me back and I decided not to.

Throughout this experience, Paisely has adjusted very well. She has never fought the harness or cried from being in it. I feel like I have had to do way more work with adjusting to it. I finally have and I'm fine with the harness. I know that we are doing what we need to to make sure Paisley is happy and healthy as she grows. There is still a part of me that misses all of the cute little outfits, but it is better for our finances that I can't buy them right now.

We go back in 5 weeks (it should be 4 weeks but the holiday's pushed us out another week) for another ultrasound. If all goes well, we will be harness free at that point. Once we got home today, I immediately took off the harness and let Paisley go harness free for 6 hours. It was wonderful! I worried about her fighting it after having it off for so long but since we have been so blessed with easy going kids, she was totally fine when I put it back on.

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers for Paisley!

Thanksgiving Week Wrap Up

We had a great Thanksgiving week that included a ton of activities. Makayla joined us for the week and it was great being able to spend time together. She was a huge help to me with both girls and Emery was so happy that Makayla was her buddy for the week.

Just a random picture of me and my girls!
Emery dressed up in Makayla's boots, hat and gloves trying to be a big girl gangsta
Sweet Paisley enjoying some harness-free time .. it started like this
and quickly went to ..
Makayla and Paisley
We headed up to Heber Valley the night before Thanksgiving to do the Polar Express Train Ride. We had never been before but thought it would be a fun outing. It was quite cold (it was the day after the huge BLIZZARD here in Utah where most businesses closed early for the safety of their employees). While we were in Heber it got as cold as -6. We bundled up and ended up being fine with the cold. We stopped to eat at a BBQ place right by the train station and had a great dinner.
I had to bribe Emery with a huge gumball to get a picture of her. The whole gang waiting to board the train .. This guy was standing next to the train as the customers were getting on. As soon as Emery saw him she said, "Papa, is that the Muffin Man?" Too funny! Ivan has a CD in his car of kids songs and her favorite song is the Muffin Man.Emery and Makayla visiting with Santa. He stopped and talked to the kids for a few minutes and then gave them each at top.Thanksgiving day started with much anticipated playing in the snow. This was the first time this year Emery had played in the snow. Makayla was patiently waiting since the day she got here to get to play in the snow as well. First off ... snow angels
Then eating some snow ..
And making snowballs to throw to Carter
Later that day, we hosted Thanksgiving here at our house. We had a small guest list but it ended up being great food and great company.

Auntie Silv with PaisleyAfter dinner we made a Gingerbread HouseEmery wanted a piece of candy and thought she had to get it with no hands ...
The day after Thanksgiving the girls and I went to the movies to see Tangled. We saw it in 3D and Makayla brought the glasses home. We all really enjoyed the movie and Paisley slept through most of it.

Emery's 3 Year Stats

Emery's well baby visit went smoothly today. She had to get 2 shots and took them both like a champ. She didn't cry at all. She's one tough cookie!!

Height - 36 1/4 inches - 30th percentile
Weight - 29 lbs - 25th percentile

Emery Turns 3 !!!

We had Emery's 3rd Birthday Party on Sunday, November 7th. She is obsessed with Spiderman, so we had to make the little girl happy with a Spiderman birthday party. We had a great turn out and I think this was Emery's favorite birthday party yet. Thank you to all of our friends and family who came to share in celebrating Emery's birthday!

My girls ... I promise, Paisely was happy, she just gives that face sometimes :)
The Spiderman cake I made. After being successful with the Elmo cake for Emery's 2nd birthday, I was confident that this cake would be just as easy and didn't do a trial run. I didn't even bake the cake until 9p the night before and the party was at noon. As soon as I took the cake out of the pan/mold, I went into panic mode. The outline of the design didn't show up at all and I was tempted to go to the store to just make more cupcakes and ditch the whole cake. However, Emery had been looking forward to her Spiderman cake for weeks, so I went for it. So, I basically did the design by hand and looking at the picture of the cake. I impressed myself!As you can tell, the cake was also yummy! I ended up finding little hand prints of red throughout my house on doors and door frames. Good thing it came off easy.Emery was spoiled as usual. She got a ton of toys, including her very own scooter. She loves to ride the scooter from the living room to her room on her way to bed every night.
As we started to sing Happy Birthday, Emery was excited ...and then a little embarrassed ..
At the end of the party playing with her Spiderman Web Toy (silly string)
And lastly, a few key items on Emery at 3!!

• Has some imaginary friends that go everywhere with her. They include: Spiderman, Max & Ruby, Jessie and the Witch
• Is obsessed with Spiderman (hense the Spiderman birthday party). Emery says she is Spiderman, Ivan is the bad guy and Paisley and I both are Mary Jane (but she says Mary Jame)
• Everything is "no, I do it myself"
• Is the best big sister! She does a great job of giving Paisley her binky and "shhshing" her when she is fussy and I'm not able to get to her
• Tries to get up from nap time 15 minutes after being put down and saying "Good morning" - nice try Emery!
• Picks up every single thing I say and is a "mini me" for sure.
  
• Absolutely loves to rough house with Papa and be thrown around whenever possible
• Still sleeping well - usually 930p to 830a. However, she likes to come into our room between 3-4a nightly and get in bed with me to cuddle.
• Nicknames are Mama and Em

Emery is the best little girl. I cannot believe she has been in our lives for 3 years already - the time has flown by. She makes me the happiest person in the world. She is so sweet and kind hearted and hilarious at the same time.

Paisley's Smile

I was finally able to catch Paisley's smile with my phone. So cute!

Halloween

We started the Halloween festivities with Ivan's work party on Thursday night. They had a great set up with a ton of games and activities and Emery had a blast.
Emery refused to let me take a picture of her. Take one ..
Take two ...
Take three ..
I finally gave up.

One of the employees is sisters with a Utah football player, Matt Asiata. Ivan was so giddy and excited and asked to have his picture taken with him. Go Utes!!
I tried to get the girls in a cute picture together. It didn't turn out so great, but at least I have one picture of them together in their costumes. My cute little ladybug and witch. On Saturday, we went over to my friend Mandy's moms house to Trick or Treat and hang out. The weather was horrible - it was freezing cold and windy. Luckily, I grabbed Emery's heavy snow jacket before we left. We ended up Trick or Treating for about 15 minutes and Emery went to about 10 houses. I was pushing Paisley in the stroller and she was a trooper. Mandy is the best and carried Emery around since she was cold and said she was too tired to walk.

I had to bribe Emery to get this picture of her. I told her I'd give her one more piece of candy for a cute picture. I think it was worth the extra piece of candy.Here is Emery's loot from Trick or Treating. I do have to add that I think half of the candy came from Mandy's mom and dad. Every time Trick or Treaters would come to the door, Emery said Trick or Treat to Mandy's kids and nieces and nephews and they gave her candy.Thanks Mandy and Ross family for having us over and sharing the Halloween festivities with us!

Here are some recent pictures of Paisely. This is from this week during her one hour/day without her harness. She loves that hour of the day as much as I do. It's so nice that she can kick her legs around and be "free". I also love that I can snuggle up with her. It's the best hour of our day.

After bath time. Paisley loves her baths. We are bathing her in a baby tub in the kitchen and as soon as we move into the kitchen and she sees the lights, she gets excited. She kicks her legs and squeals.

Paisley's Hip Dysplasia

The Diagnosis
At Paisley's 2 week check up Dr. Ring mentioned that she felt a click in Paisley's hips. She scheduled Paisley for an ultrasound at 5 weeks old as a precautionary measure. Dr. Ring said that we shouldn't worry and she didn't expect to find anything at the ultrasound and that it was routine to do an ultrasound when they hear clicking in the hips. I didn't think anything of it and spent less than 10 minutes googling clicking of the hips in newborns.

Three weeks later, I took Paisley to the ultrasound on Tuesday, 10/26. The radiologist came in to go over the results and told me that Paisley had hip dysplasia. I lost it right there and started crying. I tried really hard to listen to what the radiologist was telling me but my mind was running a million miles a minute. He told me that Dr. Ring would be calling to refer us to a pediatric orthopedic surgeon to have Paisley put in a harness. I remembered what the harness looked like from the few minutes I spent googling it and my heart sank.

I cried all day Tuesday. I was a wreck. I was so scared and worried about my little girl. I felt like I had done something wrong to cause this. I was worried about her being different and being judged. I had fear of the unknown. I was sad that due to the harness, she wouldn't be able to wear all of her cute clothes. Between tears I spent the day on the internet doing further research.

We had a follow up appointment with the pediatric orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Holmes, on Thursday, 10/28. The nurse was great and spent some time talking to us about hip dysplasia and answering any questions we had. It's amazing what you can learn from the internet - we basically already knew everything that the nurse told us.

The Game Plan
The good news is that Paisley's hip dysplasia is very mild. She will be wearing a Pavlik Harness 23/7 for five weeks. Luckily, we get to take it off for one hour a day and still give Paisley normal baths. At five weeks, we will go in for another ultrasound. If Paisley's hips are back in line, we will start to wean her from the harness and she will wear it at night for four weeks. We will do another ultrasound at that time and if her hips are still in line, we will be done with the harness. We will have follow up appointments at 6 months and 1 year to be sure her hips have stayed in line. Dr. Holmes is confident that four weeks of the harness should be sufficient.

After meeting with Dr. Holmes and hearing the game plan, I feel so much better. Dr. Holmes put the Pavlik Harness on Paisley and she didn't even react to it. However, when I got home with her a few hours later, she had a crying fit for 15 minutes. I tried everything to soothe but nothing worked. Paisley never really cries so it was tough. I took the harness of and she was fine. We put it back on a couple hours later and she's been fine since.

The doctor is still surprised that Paisley has hip dysplasia. There are common factors that put babies at risk for hip dysplasia, being:

1. breech in utero
2. family history of hip dysplasia
3. first born
4. female

Obviously, the only one that Paisley fits is that she's female. We don't know what caused the hip dysplasia, just that we need to get through the next few months and be strong. I still have fear in the back of my mind that things will not go as planned. The good news is that if hip dysplasia is caught and treated within the first 6 months of life, there is a 90% cure rate from the Pavlik Harness. However, if the harness does not work, it would involve surgeries and body casts. I pray that the harness works and that we have great news at the follow up ultrasound in five weeks.

Here is a cute picture of Paisley in the Pavlik Harness. She's basically covered in Velcro from head to toe. But, we have to remember that Paisley is not in any pain whatsoever from the dysplasia or the harness. It's much harder on Ivan and I (well, me) to see her in the harness than it is for Paisley. The tough part is that she can't wear pants at all. I will be purchasing her a bunch of dresses and leg warmers so the baby actually has some clothes to wear and keep her warm.

Paisley - One Month

I cannot believe Paisely is already one month old - time is flying by. She is the best little baby. She only cries when she's hungry and other than that, you almost don't know she's around.

She's a chunker - she weighs 10 lbs (based on my home scale). She's eating roughly every 3-4 hours and about 4 oz of formula. She's a great sleeper too - she usually wakes up around 3a and 6a to eat and then she goes right back to sleep.

She is just starting to stay awake a little more during the day. Her limit is an hour and a half. Anything past that time and she's exhausted and ready for bed. She loves the bath and has really good head and neck control. She's starting to smile and it's the cutest thing.

The Flu Sucks!

I have been dealing with the stomach flu for 7 days now. I had it for 2 and now Emery has had it for 5. I am up to my eyes in throw up and poop. I wish it would end already. Luckily, Emery is still in good spirits and just has her moments where she is whiny, cranky and really needy.

Carter has been protecting Emery all week. Isn't this the cutest picture?
She's still in good spirits while eating toast and drinking water. She fell asleep between the couch and the ottoman with her bum in the air. I knew she couldn't be comfortable but I didn't have the heart to move her. She was exhausted and needed a little nap.Luckily, Paisley has steered clear of the flu. I'm crossing my fingers it stays this way. Here she is enjoying a little tummy time on the boppy pillow.
Emery just has to try out all of Paisley's baby gear. Here she is in the bouncy chair.