Abby's Surprise

We were so excited to meet Abby! We had no idea of the surprise she had planned for us. She was born with a cleft palate (although not the lip, thank goodness). Our first day in the hospital was exciting because no one working at the AF hospital at the time had ever seen a cleft palate baby. We were the talk of the ward! Unfortunately, she has no suction so we can't nurse, but I started expressing right away. We fed her with a dropper (like a goat!) for a day, but she did much better when we got teh special cleft palate bottles. She bites the bottle while we squeeze milk into her mouth. She also has Pierre-Robin syndrome which is a fancy way of saying that her chin is short and so her tongue likes to block the airway. Luckily, we have found that the binky is an excellent way to get her to pull her tongue back forward. She will eventually have surgery to repair both, but in the meantime, she is a happy, growing baby.