Catching up!

Okay wow it has been a long long time.. hopefully I can do better about keeping this up!

Jack Alan was born 3-21-09 via c-section weighing in at 5#7oz and 19 1/4in long! He was doing great but ended up in the NICU anyhow I think mainly for the cleft to make sure he would eat okay. He does wonderful with his Haberman bottle! He stayed 4 days in the NICU and we came home just in time to get snowed in! 18 inches.. yes 18 inches of SNOW in the middle of March! ha!

Jack is a wonderful baby.. he loves his bouncy chair most of all and loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He is just like any other baby only he has a cleft lip and palate. Really people aren't usually insensitive about it all.. most people just say how cute he is like they would any other baby. Occasionally people will comment that so and so had a cleft and you can't even tell now that they had surgery. I actually like to hear these things! There are occasional idiots that will just stare and stare and let their children question and stare instead of using it as an oppurtunity to teach them. A lot of kids ask about what is wrong with his "nose" and I just explain to them that it's actually his lip and it did not grow right in my belly and the doctors will fix it when he gets big enough. Kids are curious creatures and they aren't being mean by asking at all.. I just get irritated at parents who fail to take the chance and teach the kid. There is always someone... :)

Jack had his first lip repair 6-24-09.. called a lip adhesion. It actually doesn't repair the lip but sort of preps it if you will. I think their main goal was to close in the gaps a little. Surgery went good.. he was back for only 45 minutes.. The worst part for me was waiting and wondering... I was so scared of losing "my baby" I know it sounds crazy but I didn't want his looks to change. That big wide smile that can just melt my heart away. It breaks my heart to think about what he thinks also.. I mean he fell asleep and next he knows he is all drugged up and hurting and can't have a bottle or paci or his hands. :( But we have made it through. He is doing okay now.. today is actually better than most mainly because he is FINALLY napping! He had his follow up yesterday and got his no-no's off and we were told he could have his fingers and lay on his tummy again. But still no paci.. now.. here is the bad part... I still give him his paci just long enough for him to fall asleep. I just can't take it away from him while he falls asleep and in my mind it has got to be better than his fingers/hands because he will put his whole fist in there and sometimes he will grab his lip and pull so I still swaddle his hands down and let him have the paci long enough to fall asleep. I know I know I'm bad.

The final lip repair isn't until September and I'm dreading it already. :(