Braxton's 6 week ultrasound

Braxton was breach the whole pregnancy, every ultrasound we had, it showed him in the breach position with his head and feet by my ribs. Babies that are born breach or in breach position during pregnancy can have hip dysplasia, meaning dislocation of the hip.

"Developmental dysplasia (dislocation) of the hip (DDH) is an abnormal formation of the hip joint in which the ball on top of the thighbone (femur) is not held firmly in the socket. In some instances, the ligaments of the hip joint may be loose and stretched.The degree of hip looseness, or instability, varies in DDH. In some children, the thighbone is simply loose in the socket at birth. In other children, the bone is completely out of the socket. In still other children, the looseness worsens as the child grows and becomes more active."

I thought that described hip displacement pretty well, although it is common sense and most people know what it means but just in case I found this info.

Anyway, the next day after he was born the peditrician checked his hips for (DDH) and one of the hips, (I wasn't told which one) but one of them made a popping sound when she put the hip in a certain position/direction which is a sign of DDH. But at his two week appointment that sound was gone, but she said that it's easier to treat as a baby so she still wanted an ultrasound done at Primary Children's just to be sure.

So I took some pictures of the tech taking Braxton's ultrasound. The doctor came in shortly after and said that the left hip looked good and was where it should be. He said that the right hip is 50% which is normal but they usually want to see it greater than 50%. He also said the pediatrician will either order another ultrasound in 4-6 weeks from the date of the last ultrasound or around 4-6 months of age they'll do an x-ray to check the hip. My pediatrician already called me and said that we'll just watch it and follow up with an x-ray later on at 4-6 months if needed. I did ask the doctor at primary children's if there was anything I could do to help make sure the hip continues to stay in socket and he said to not swaddle him/his legs. Let his legs be loose or move on there own and don't wrap him tight/swaddle in a blanket. Which works for us because lately, a few weeks back, Braxton seems to always get his arms out of the swaddling and doesn't seem to like it much anymore. I also asked what would be done to fix his hips if they needed to be fixed and they showed me a picture of a baby in a type of brace as shown below.

Which the tech said babies do okay in the brace, the moms just have issues with dressing the babies and not know what clothes to put them in, especially girls, which make sense. It'd be hard to put a baby girl dressed in a dress in that brace.

Anyhow, as I said earlier, Braxton's hip placements were both normal and will just need to watch the right one as he continues to grow. Braxton did great at his appointment, enjoy the pics! I think it's kind of neat to see pics of stuff like this just to show what happened at the appointment.