Paige's Palate Surgery December 12

We psyched ourselves up to have her palate repair surgery on Nov. 18th only to have it canceled the day before because the ENT and Plastic Surgeon made the call that her ears were too infected.  They were draining a lot of yucky stuff and fluid was building behind her right ear drum, where her ear tube has been working its way out.  I know there are a lot of people who have dealt with or may have to deal with tubes for your cleft baby...they are common and so many kiddos go through it but this is what we have learned:

1. The surgery is good practice for the big cleft surgeries upcoming, if they don't plan to do it during the cleft surgery.
2. You will feel stress about not feeding your little one 6-8 hours before but you all with get through it.
3. They work! Paige failed all newborn hearing tests before and passed after.
4. They may not last the 1-3 years they say they would...Paige's right one is working its way out at 10 months.  She woke up with a lot of blood coming out...all over sheet, her face, and my husband. Which can be very scary if you don't know where it is coming from.  Both ER and ENT was prefectly relaxed about the amount of blood. But as parents we weren't!
5. Sometimes an ear infection isn't bacterial or viral.  After two kinds of ear drops and a round of oral antibiotics....they cultured her ears and discovered a fungal/yeast infection in them. 

Ok so NEW SURGERY date will be December 12th.   

Here we go again...gearing up for her surgery to fix her palate.  We will keep you updated about her healing and any must know advice for others who may be going through this too.  I'm a little bummed about the new date because she will be wearing arm restraints for Christmas and the doctor said puree food only for 6 weeks which means NO birthday cake on her 1st birthday January 2.

On my list so far:

• Snuggle Wraps...I got them for Paige's first surgery in small but at 3 month she was too tiny and they came all the way to her finger tips.  We used them the night her ear was bleeding to keep her hand out of it at 10 months and they fit perfectly. They are so much cuter/more comfortable and less bulky than the hospital No-no's they provided.  Not happy she had to use them already but glad to get the trial run.  She was able to crawl and pull up with them;  Just not able to put things to her mouth which makes sense but frustrating for her. http://www.snugglewraps.com/

How will she survive not feeding herself!

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