a little bit of yoga, a little too soon.

Audrey was doing some serious yoga moves in the womb. 

She was not only breech, 

she had one foot in a "high kick" by her head,

and the other foot curled up by her bum. 

She stayed that was for weeks near the end of my pregnancy. 

and apparently when you start yoga too soon your hips don't develop properly. 

So our little angel was diagnosed with DHD. 

Developmental Hip Dysplasia

It broke my heart. 

She has had the best care and we are so grateful for Shrieners Hospital in Salt Lake. 

they have gone above and beyond to help our little girl. 

The day she got her Pavlik Harness was a hard day for me. 

She cried a lot, as would anyone strapped in a permanent squat position, and that made me cry. 

She was five weeks old at this point. 2 days prior to getting her brace she started sleeping through the night....

but that all changed. 

The first few nights with her harness were sad, sad, nights. 

 (getting the harness fitted at Shriener's with her Orthopedist.) 

This tricky little brace made it so hard to bond with my baby. She had to have the brace on 23/7. which meant it only came off for baths, or clothes changing. 

It took me a few days to realize that the both of us crying about this was doing no good. 

I was taking a bath one day to just try and relax and James brought her in to the tub with me. i held her for over an hour and we both felt so much better from then on. :) 

It was the first time i've noticed the importance of bonding with my babies.

After that bath, she gave me this little (gas) grin. Just to let me know we were going to be ok. 

 oh, i love her! :) 

 She got lots, and lots, of love during these long days. it actually made it much easier for the boys to hold her. they rushed in my room every morning to snuggle their little sis.

 the public however, was a little interesting. 

i never got offended. 

to be honest, i'd never seen a baby like this either and i'm sure I would have wondered too. 

I heard things like:

(always behind my back)

"did you see the baby with no legs?"

"oh, that poor little baby."

"do you think they broke her legs?"

"holy cow, that baby has two broken legs."

Thus, the baby wearing started!! 

I bought a wrap and wore her a lot. 

Turns out, after some online research its actually one of the best things you can do for a baby with hip dysplasia. And it helped so much with our momma, daughter bonding! 

 more visits to Schrieners...

She soon was comfortable in the little brace! 

and after 6 weeks she only had to wear the harness 18/7.

and now, is only in the harness at night time. 

We are SOO thrilled with her quick progress. 

 Though, this unexpected diagnosis was hard on us. 

we were so incredibly grateful for her doctor. 

(who, actually never saw any signs of DHD but wanted her to get an ultrasound anyway just because of a hunch. and then the Orthopedic Surgeon who noticed her reading at LRH was read wrong, and wanted to test her again.) 

Both her hips are now within normal range. 

She'll wear the brace at night for a few more weeks and then she should be in the clear for the rest of her life. 

The most questions I get are:

will she walk?

run? 

and the answer is YES!! 

Her hips will be normal. 

Had we not caught it as early as we did, it could have been much much worse. 

We feel so blessed. 

Update: Audrey's right hip fell back out of the socket. She is back to wearing the harness 23/7. We are hoping and praying for a strong recovery this time.