Just when things were starting to feel normal around here...

Bubble Baby had an ultrasound on her hips on Wednesday. On Thursday we were informed that there was an issue with the ultrasound and a follow up appointment was hastily scheduled for today (Friday) at an orthopedic center. It turns out that she has something called hip dysplasia. Her hip is in the right place, but it dislocates partially when stressed. If not corrected, it could lead to a lot of hip pain later in life, and arthritis. This fairly uncommon (about 0.4% of babies have this) and was likely caused because she was in breech position (legs down instead of head down) when she was born. She was in breech position most likely because of my wife's rupture. (The less amniotic fluid there is, the more likely that the baby will be in breech position.)

So, they are going to try to correct it by having her wear a special harness for 3 months. She will need to wear it full-time for the next six weeks, and if all progresses well, they will begin to wean her off of it after that. It's going to take a little while to get used to dealing with the harness since we cannot remove it. At the very least, diaper changes will be a lot more difficult. And unfortunately, Bubble Baby does not seem to be comfortable in it and has been extra fussy since it was put on. Hopefully she'll get used to it. We will have a follow up appointment in 2 weeks to check on her progress.

On another note, Bubble Baby had a follow up eye exam on Wednesday. Since she was on oxygen for the first 8 days of her life, she's at greater risk for developing vision problems and blindness. But after checking her out, the eye doctor says that her eyes look excellent. She will probably need glasses when she's older, but that's mainly because of the genes she inherited from us. She does have a wandering eye, meaning sometimes one eye will follow an object but not the other. We were told that this is a normal preemie thing that should go away. If not, we'll have a follow up appointment later to deal with it.