Cleft Lip Surgery

It's amazing to think that my baby's cleft lip has been the least of my worries compared to (breastfeeding, lack of sleep, colic) these past 3 months as a new mom.  Since he didn't have a cleft palate or any other health problems and breastfeeding was normal from the start, his little cleft was just part of him.  Of course I wasn't always so zen about it. My husband and I found out he had a cleft when I was in my 3rd trimester during a 3D ultrasound-it was quite a shock since my doctor never noticed it in the earlier ultrasounds.  We didn't know much about it, turns out one in 700 children are born with cleft lip and/or palate and doctors don't really know what causes it.

We were devastated. It's hard to admit, but all parents want their babies to be "perfect" right?, but I soon realized I needed to get over the "ego" thing and focus on loving my child no matter what.  We found help at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego where surgeries are usually performed at 3 months or 10 1bs.  

Well 3 months is now here and while we have been waiting for this day and the surgery is relatively minor compared to all the miracles they perform, it is still very difficult to know your newborn will be going under general anesthesia and you will have leave your baby in the hands of someone else.  

The morning started with me timing his feeding.  He couldn't have anything 4 hours prior to surgery and check in was two hours prior.  So we tried to keep him asleep for as long as possible before the surgery.   He started to get hungry and cry, but we were able to get him back asleep so he was peaceful as we handed him to the nurse.  Then the door to the operating room closed and all we could do is wait. As I sat in the waiting room with other concerned parents I couldn't help, but get emotional.  We were all going through the same thing, but for different reasons.  

Good news is the surgery only took 1 hour, but then we had to wait for him to wake up. Only one parent at a time was allowed into the recovery room.  My little Aaron looked like an angel even as he was hooked up to an IV all sorts of wires and swaddled and propped up on a hospital bed.  I didn't know quite what do. I just stared at him and told him I loved him.  His swollen lip was covered with tape and you could see the stitches.  Then he opened his eyes.  Alert as ever he started kicking and staring at everything around him-back to his personality-even drugs can't keep my alert baby down. We stayed overnight at the hospital-which was hard.  We were in small noisy shared room.  You could hear the monitors beeping, patients next to us, and the sound of the emergency helicopters. Every few hours nurses would come to check his vitals, my baby was on morphine, but still didn't sleep well, either did we.  We sat in chairs and took turns holding him, fortunately he was able to nurse, but because he couldn't use a pacifier, he needed my breast to fall asleep.

He did very well and now we are at home-7 days of recovery before he can get his stitches out.