Day 6 - 04/28/2010

Wow, almost a week old already. Not much news to report today; we talked to the another new pediatrician who said that we would like to see him get all of his feeds through his bottle- he is supposed to get 50 cc every 3 hours. Well this morning he got around nine, and then this afternoon he got four! He sucked consistently for forty five minutes straight and was awake the entire time and they are trying to tell me that it's because he is premature and isn't very interested in eating...... Well when I finished feeding him (they don't want him to try for longer then forty five minutes) he still acted hungry and attacked his binky- it's not that he isn't interested in eating, it's because he has a CLEFT PALATE!.... :). Any way he took a hearing test today and passed which is awesome because the ear is closely related to the mouth and nose (your auditory tubes) so kids with cleft palates are prone to ear infections and hearing problems. He took a bilirooben (however you spell it) count test today too and passed that as well, I'm telling you the boys a stud. Well thats about it as far as NEWS for today- the rest of this post will cover exactly what is cleft lip/palate in general, it's effects on children, and treatment.

Overview
Cleft lip and palate are birth defects that affect the upper lip and the roof of the mouth.

Symptoms
A child may have one or more of these conditions at birth.

A cleft lip may be just a small notch in the lip. It may also be a complete split in the lip that goes all the way to the base of the nose. A cleft palate can be on one or both sides of the roof of the mouth. It may go the full length of the palate.

Other symptoms include:
Misaligned teeth
Change in nose shape (amount of distortion varies)
Problems that may be present because of a cleft lip or palate are:
Failure to gain weight
Feeding problems
Flow of milk through nasal passages during feeding
Misaligned teeth
Poor growth
Recurrent ear infections
Speech difficulties

Treatment
Surgery to close the cleft lip is often done at when the child is between 6 weeks and 9 months old. Surgery may be needed later in life the problem severely affects the nose area. See: Cleft lip and palate repair
A cleft palate is usually closed within the first year of life so that the child's speech normally develops. Sometimes a prosthetic device is temporarily used to close the palate so the baby can feed and grow until surgery can be done.
Continued follow-up may be needed with speech therapists and orthodontists.

Causes
Risk factors include a family history of cleft lip or palate and other birth defect. About 1 out of 2,500 people have a cleft palate.

Prognosis
Although treatment may continue for several years and require several surgeries, most children with a cleft lip and palate can achieve normal appearance, speech, and eating. However, some people may have continued speech problems.

Complications
Dental cavities
Displaced teeth
Hearing loss
Lip deformities
Nasal deformities
Recurrent ear infections
Speech difficulties

Ok now that our little Wikipedia health class is over I can tell you a bit more real life stuff and things particular to Rocky. We found out that Rocky had cleft lip/palate at our twenty week ultrasound. Savannah had a rough time at first but we came to accept that our little baby wasn't going to look just like every other one. We had a lot of doctors appointments both at the womens health clinic and at Timpanogos Regional Medical Center. The appointments at Timpanogos were with perinatology through St. Marks hospital- they did a thoughough ultrasound every four weeks at first, then as the pregnancy progressed every two weeks, and eventually every week. They checked his heart and his brain and everything to make sure that he was growing normally. They told us at our first visit that they were pretty sure that he was going to have bi lateral cleft lip and cleft palate. They also noticed that he was not growing very well and that his abdomen was very small- which is why Savannah was induced.

When Rocky was born it was difficult for me at first- every one expects the perfect pregnancy, perfect labor and delivery, and perfect baby. Rocky IS perfect- it just took me a minute to see it at first. Savannah- who had a harder time with the news at first, before he was born- fell in love instantly (as mothers seem to do).

Rocky has a very difficult time getting any suction in his mouth to feed from a bottle or to breast feed. Babies with cleft palate generally spit up more, and need to be burped often. So feeding him takes a very long time. We've been told that they choke and sputter a lot but Rocky hasn't seemed to have much of a problem with that; also they can be very fussy and needy- Rocky on the other hand is the most easy going little guy in the world. On nurse who has worked in the NICU for thirty years said that he was the most easy going happy baby with cleft palate that she has ever seen, and he hasn't had any of the problems that they tend to have- like I said, a stud right?

That should about cover it, if you have any questions just ask in the comments section... I think I know how to use that. Thanks for reading and thank you again for your prayers and support!

Love,
The Fordhams