Surgery - Check!

Abby had her cleft palate repair surgery February 13. The surgery lasted several hours and was successful! They didn't let us go back to her right away. Instead of the usual 5 minutes, it took 45 min before we got called back. Turns out that when they gave her a sedative after the surgery, she immediately stopped breathing. They intubated her, but she pulled it out about 20 min. later and stopped breathing again. They called us back when she woke up and started breathing on her own again. I am soooo glad I had no idea what was going on at the time. Nebulous worry is much better than seeing your kid stop breathing and docs shoving a tube down her throat.

After the surgery she was grumpy but immediately started making new sounds that were impossible before the surgery. We were expecting the recovery to be difficult, but the doc said she didn't need to tie her arms down. We didn't, and she wasn't interested in messing with her mouth too much. She began drinking from a bottle right away, but obviously wasn't interested. She was on a liquid diet for a week or two, then added in mushy stuff with a spoon. Eventually, she had soft finger foods like noodles and as of yesterday she is eating crackers again. She will sometimes eat 4 or 5 oz. from her bottle on her own and occasionally she actually sucks, but she is not yet consistent. She loves to eat and asks me for food or milk all the time. The GI doc took her off formula, so she is eating everything kids normally eat. The stomach tube will come out when she stops using it for 3 months. I am soooooo looking forward to it, but it will probably not happen until sometime between two and three years old. Thank you all for your prayers! She is doing great!

This is the only picture that I have found of her actual cleft. It is a horseshoe shape. See the dark patch? The light edges are her top gums, the dark patch is the hole. You are looking into her nasal cavity. You can actually see both nasal passages in person, but this picture is not perfect. Her stitches have not fallen out yet, but when you look inside now, you see a normal mouth! It is amazing!