Mommy Returns!

That's right - it's Mommy posting! After a several-week hiatus, I figured I'd return to the blogosphere. I have no pictures tonight, but I'll try to keep it short.

Life with Willa has been wonderful so far. She's a good baby, doesn't cry much except when hungry or in need of a diaper change, or working on a burp or a poop. For the last two nights, she's been sleeping in 4-4.5 hour stretches; we think she's exhausted from a growth spurt that spanned the weekend and into Monday. She was drinking 120 mL (4 oz.) of milk from a bottle and nursing for a VERY long time (4 hours off and on Sunday night).

We had quite an adventure today - we spent the day at CHOP. Willa had a hip ultrasound this morning followed by an ultrasound results review with a pediatric orthopedist. It was determined that Willa has dysplasia of her hips and needs to wear a Pavlik harness for 6-12 weeks. She has to wear it all day, every day so we'll have to adapt...and are glad that she's small because her clothing that's too big will now fit over the harness! We had to go to the brace shop in the hospital, get fitted, and head back to the orthopedist so he could adjust the harness to his liking. We now have to go back in a week for a checkup, have a follow-up hip ultrasound in 3 weeks, and have continual follow-up appointments until the doctor determines that the hip dysplasia has been resolved. Here's a picture of the harness, being modeled by some other baby (I know she's not in pain, but I wish she didn't have to wear it. Oh well, at least she won't remember it).

On the bright side, she was weighed today and she's now up to 7 pounds and change. She's breastfeeding very well (very, very well some days!) and thriving, which is wonderful to see. She's even outgrown several of her preemie outfits. Now we look forward to new fun, as her vision improves and she hopefully begins to do the social smile (smiling at people instead of unconscious smiles), and the coos and laughs start. She continues to be more alert and we sometimes just watch her in amazement. We're so lucky that such a sweet little creature is ours to treasure and cherish.