Show me yours...

So I had this little mental goal in my head of posting at least one cleft related blog each week during the month of September. I'm not doing such a good job of that, but I'm going to try.

This week I figured I'd give you some pictures.

A lot of times, what people envision in their heads when they think of cleft just isn't the reality, especially in Little Miss Sunshine's case. So I thought I'd post some before and after pictures so you can get an idea of what her cleft palate actually LOOKED like.

Miss Sunshine's formal diagnosis is an Isolated Cleft Soft Palate with Bifid Uvula (meaning her uvula was split as well). To date, we are not aware of any possible genetic contributions, as we are waiting on insurance to kick in so we can have genetic testing done to eliminate any disorders, but she does not have any markers of any of the more common disorders associated with cleft, so our cleft team believes she simply has the isolated cleft. I will go into more detail about what the different clefts are and even touch on some of the possible disorders that can be associated on a later blog. For now, we'll concentrate on the ICSP that she has.

Here is what her palate looked like before surgery: (Bear with me - it's darn near impossible to get a clear picture of the inside of an infants mouth, much less the roof of their mouth... so these aren't the highest quality, I know)

It's kind of hard to see from these pictures, but you could see straight into her nasal cavities (which always made for fun eating time)

And this is what her palate looked like one week post op...



Again, sorry for the quality. When you look at these pictures, you can see where they cut on the sides of the roof of her mouth to release the tension in order to sew the cleft together. There is a lot more involved in cleft palate repair, including recreating the nasal lining, rearranging the musculature of the roof of the mouth, as well as the closing of the roof of the mouth. I'm working on some diagrams, etc, to help explain all of these and will post it on a future blog.

For now, I hope these pictures were able to make it a little bit more clear to you what a cleft soft palate looks like and what we have been through with our Little Miss Sunshine...

Okay, Okay...

I am REALLY bad about posting pictures. I realize this. My excuse these days is lack of a working camera other than the one in my cell phone. Not much of an excuse, I know. But it's the one I'm working with.

I know I promised pics of Little Miss Sunshine a few days ago. I'm finally getting around to getting them up for you - aren't you happy now?

Miss Sunshine LOVES to climb on things. The, well, whatever it was, in our hotel room was no exception... I don't know how many times I took her down off that thing during our stay... I did mention that while she likes to climb UP on things, she hasn't quite gotten the getting DOWN part yet, didn't I?

Another love of ours these days is Mommy's purse. I cannot leave that thing anywhere CLOSE to within her reach, or the contents will be scattered near and far. I even had to go get a new wallet because she figured out how to open mine, and I spent the better part of a day searching for where she hid my Driver's License.

And let's not forget cell phones. I mean, really, what toddler DOESN'T love cell phones? Miss Sunshine is drawn to them like... well, that metaphor isn't really appropriate for this post... but she's drawn to them. This is an old phone I had in my purse which she helped herself to. On the bright side, she kept putting it up to her ear and saying "ah-oh", which I believe was "Hello" in Sunshine speak. Because it wasn't "Uh-oh" which she says perfectly... So technically she has a new word in her vocabulary. Along with down, which is a necessity, since, as I previously mentioned, she can't get herself down off of things she climbs on. Well, she could, she just hasn't realized that yet, so she won't...

A picture is worth a thousand words...

So THIS is what happens when you let a one year old feed themselves oatmeal with a spoon, for future reference! She actually did pretty well for a while, and then decided she was full and would rather use the spoon as a paintbrush...

Surgery Photos!

Alrighty - here they are as promised - photos from surgery day.

Pre-Op

I unintentionally managed to match her BabyLegs to her hospital gown!

So excited because she doesn't know what is coming yet!



She was all over the place that morning...



Post-Op



This is her "Why the heck are you taking my picture NOW, Mom?" look...



She was pretty out of it thanks to the Fentanyl.

One Day Post-Op


They let us take her down to the cafeteria for breakfast, and she passed out in the stroller in the middle of eating.


Looking much better than the day before, but still pretty out of it...

Cindy Lou Who

So, I think I officially entered "Mean Mom" status the other day. I just couldn't resist. And there is photographic evidence to back me up...



Yes, those are pigtails on her head. Here is a good "rear" view:


We are also fans of BabyLegs here in the Mac household. When she was first born and I saw them, I thought they were just the most ridiculous things. But really, they are a WONDERFUL invention - keep baby's legs warm but don't have to mess with pulling down tights every time you go to do a diaper change! And they are just so freaking cute! She is rocking out the whale pattern in the above photos, and here she is in some stripey ones:



And here she is just looking darn adorable: (I know, I'm showing off tonight!)




And a few family pics for you all just because I figure you might be curious what Daddy Mac and I look like...

(Pardon the about 30 pounds I still need to lose and the fact that Daddy Mac JUST realized he is thinning out on top!)