What does your unborn child look like? When you imagine and dream you think about that baby smell, soft skin, giggles, diaper bums and that sweet baby rosebud mouth.
At our 20 week ultrasound Paige was healthy and everything looked good. She would not show her face so the doctor asked us to come back in two weeks. On August 30th, 2010, we went back feeling light hearted and excited about seeing our baby girl again, expecting everything to be routine. When the doctor got the view of her face, we all could see without words that there was a shadow indent on the right side of her lip. The doctor confirmed that she had a unilateral cleft lip but the palate was unclear and we would try again four weeks later to get a look. We were sad and overwhelmed but knew she would be fine. Phil wanted to tell the world and let them know that we will be ok, our baby is healthy and surgery would definitely be apart of her early life. It took a few weeks to gain some understanding and acceptance around this reality, but we were still so excited to meet our beautiful baby girl.
We went back to the perinatologist for another high res ultrasound and confirmed that her palate and gum line are involved. The pic above shows the cleft in her gum line looking up from under her chin.
That day we handled it okay. I think in many ways we were expecting the news and felt more educated about what it means, than when we first found out about the cleft lip. We are still so excited to meet our little girl, though this news makes me more nervous about feeding her.
The day after we found out about her cleft, we announced that her name would be "Paige" to friends and family. I took a picture of my tummy with her name on it in alphabet letters and posted it on Facebook. We decided to keep her middle name a surprise until her birth.
As much as we feel like we know this little girl already, we think that she will be full of surprises and a very special person.....because she has already shown us that and as my husband puts it, "She is a DeVaul after all." Thanks to all who have kept us in your prayers. We will go on this journey together with your support and love.
