Hi! I recently stumbled across this site, and I have already been so inspired by all of your stories! On June 29, I delivered a beautiful baby boy. Shortly after he was born, my best friend, who was also my L&D nurse, told us that Jackson had a cleft palate. My husband was also born with a cleft, but his mother was told that it was caused by a medication she had taken during her pregnancy, and that it was not hereditary. My first son was born completely healthy, so we were shocked to learn about Jackson's cleft. At first I was actually not very concerned, after all, my husband shows no signs that he ever had a cleft, and he doesn't remember anything about it. I guess I was just clueless about all of the things Jackson would have to go through! At the hospital, they told us to just feed Jackson with a normal bottle, but by the time we went home, he had a lost over a pound, and was almost dehydrated. So, we met with the cleft team at Children's Hospital in Birmingham and began using the Haberman feeder. It was only after that visit when I realized what an impact this was going to be on all of our lives! I still can't imagine my precious baby having SURGERY! Since then, he has already gotten tubes in his ears, and we are having quite a bit of trouble with reflux. He is also still only sleeping about three hours at a time. I know we have a LOT ahead of us, and I look forward to getting all of your tips when surgery time gets here! Right now, we are scheduled for surgery in April 2007, but we have an appointment scheduled with another surgeon who operates at 6 months instead of 10. Does anyone have any feedback about doing the surgery sooner? Also, we seem to be having a HORRIBLE time learning to eat with a spoon. Does anyone have any suggestions? Sorry to be so long, but thank you for looking! You can see pictures of Jack at
www.babysites.com/sites/astand/
Thanks again!
Allison