Maci has been a blast this past week! She is even more alert and stays awake longer post feedings. Maci has started to smile but they are so sporadic that I haven't been able to catch one on film yet but trust us that it is adorable!! In addition, Maci has been taking at least 3-4 oz per feeding which is huge because she was barely taking her 2 oz each feeding just last week! Maci and I have also been working on "tummy time" to help strengthen her neck and help her to support her head. The jungle gym from the Brandenburg's is the perfect mat to help her practice tummy time on. After her last tummy time, I let her flip back over and just stare in awe at the animals and lights. However, this time Maci found something even more exciting! There is a mirror on the gym and she found her reflection in the mirror. I am sure she couldn't tell who or what she was looking at but her reaction in this video is priceless!!
Also, since Maci is so much more vocal (cooing and gurgling) and alert (staring into space) she doesn't really like to be laying in her pack in play unless she is napping. However, this can get quite difficult when Clint or I are trying to get things done because it is hard to do things one handed with her in the other! So last night we decided to try out our baby Bjorn infant carrier. Maci LOVES it! She gets to stay close to us, staring around the house and we get stuff done! It is perfect, plus it is a good position for her hips - more to come.
On a not so fun note, we had Maci's hip ultrasound today. I swore it was going to be nothing more than a precautionary check. Unfortunately, I got the call from the pediatrician later this afternoon and they said the radiologist saw some issues with her hips that show hip dysplasia and they would want an orthopedic specialist to review. Maci will most likely need to be in a Pavlik Harness 24/7 for ~6 weeks. This is the standard treatment for babies that are diagnosed with hip dysplasia. The good news is that when you find it this early, the brace is extremely successful and it is typically off within 6 weeks so Maci will never remember this time of her life. The brace will help to hold her legs in a certain position so that the hip socket and bones can form into the right position. While they don't know exactly what causes hip dysplasia, it is more common in breach babies, girls and first born girls for that matter so Maci fell in all those camps. If untreated, this can cause pain in walking later in life as well as arthritis in the hips so we definitely want to take care of it now. This is extremely treatable and again should hopefully only last 6 weeks but it is hard at times to think of yet another thing our lil Maci has to deal with. Yet, as Clint reminds me, these are by no means the hardships that many others have with their babies and fortunately all of her issues have been treatable conditions that she will not recall later in her life. We go to the orthopedic specialist on Wednesday to see what they have to say. We will keep you all posted through this blog and if she does need a brace, I think she could be the new Pavlik Harness model because she is pretty darn cute!!!
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