by Heide » Tue May 15, 2007 11:51 am
Hi Brandon,
Welcome to the group and congratulations on you and your wife's soon to be very busy household. Our little girl was born with a complete bilateral cleft lip and palate in January 2006. It was not detected prior to birth and perhaps it was easier to go through all the worries when we had her to hold.
For us, we met with the plastic surgeon right in the hospital that first day and he briefly outlined the surgeries and tried to tell us not to worry. It was difficult but the hardest thing initially was trying to figure out how to get her to eat, i.e. what bottle to use and to pump because bf was not an option for us. We met with the dentist the next day and she fitted our daughter with a feeding appliance (something to push the bottle nipple against with her tongue. We also did "taping" to stretch her lip prior to surgery. Some plastic surgeons seem to want this, some don't.
Our little one was little, so we had to wait till she was ten pounds for her lip surgery (5 months). I think most surgeons use the 10 pound mark and try to get the lip done as soon as possible, so your timing may be based upon this.
As and update and to let you know that all will be fine, our little one is now three months post op on her palate surgery and is doing well, the lip surgery was remarkable too. Take plenty of pictures because after they come back from that first surgery they look so different, still beautiful.
In closing, I have found this group to be so supportive. Those first few days I read all the old posts and stories, it helped me to realize how fortunate we all are.
Heide