8/11/14. 12 weeks...and cleft lip repair

so i started this post last week....today nora is 13 weeks...3 months.... but that post will come later... i will do this one...
nora was born with a cleft lip and palate.
we found out at our 20 week ultrasound, and i was devastated. i cried for 3 days....
and we (i) decided not to tell anyone about the cleft, except family.
then she was born....and the clefts werent horrible, her cleft lip was only on the left side (could have been both sides) and not all the way up to the nose (which it could have been). and her cleft palate is only her soft (not her hard and soft).
she is a champ eater. i pump and she eats breast milk out of regular dr brown bottles that have a special valve in the nipple to keep the milk up in the nipple so she doesnt have to work so hard or suck hard, she more like gums the nipple!
initially, when they told us that they did surgery to repair the lip at 3 months of life, and the palate surgery is at a year...i hated the fact that we would have to wait THREE LONG MONTHS before we "fixed " her lip...i thought those 3 months would be horrible!

BOY WAS I WRONG!

in those 3 short months, i fell in love not only with my beautiful perfect baby

...but also her sweet, cute cleft lip!

aug 11, 2014 was surgery day....the week leading up to that day, i was an emotional wreck. i was finding myself sad that her lip was going to be "fixed"...

yep, i know, i am the same person that back in january was devastated to hear the news about my baby having a cleft....

we had to be at the hospital at 7AM and her surgery was scheduled from 830-noon.
the big girls had a slumber party at grandma and grandpas...
nora had her last bottle at 230AM...and we left for the hospital at 6AM.
we checked in and they had reserved us a waiting ROOM! i guess we are some sort of VIP!?!?
we waiting in OUR ROOM and they call us back to pre op.

they weighed her (12 lbs!) and then we waited some more. and met a lot of people that would be involved with her surgery....med student,anesthesia, NP, nurse, OR nurse, 2 more anesthesiologist....and then our surgeon, DR woo came and spoke to us for a minute.
i changed her into her (huge) hospital gown....hugged and kissed her...and took more pictures!

then at 830...it was time to go...so i carried her and followed the anesthesiologist to the OR door....kissed her and hugged her and took one more picture and handed her off.
she had fallen asleep about 20 minutes before all this...so that was great. the hand off went smooth, her took her and started singing old mcdonald to her...and walked through the doors.
i turned and walk quickly away...and went to the bathroom....and lost it!
handing her off is so hard...
then the waiting game began
the OR nurse was super nice, and called us in our waiting room every hour to let us know how things were going....

FINALLY... at noon she was done and we were able to go to the recovery room to see her.
she looked so sad! and was crying...so i immediately started to cry...
they gave her some pain meds and she calmed down some

we then went up and were admitted to our room.
nora had to stay overnight just so they could monitor her and be sure she could eat....
i stayed the night with her, and just held her all night!
 seriously...i held her all night! i only put her down the 3 times i pumped (and peed really quick)

she slept....and slept...
she didnt eat until midnight...almost 24 hours after her last bottle at home.
she had an iv in her foot...and a pulse ox on her left great toe, that she hated! and kept kicking off, so that dang machine alarmed all night!

her cleft lip looked really good! we were amazed at how well dr woo was able to match up the two sides! of course she was bruised and swollen...but she looked good! she has dissoluble sutures on the inside of her lip, and dermabond on the outside (like glue).

she has stents in her nose for 2 weeks until the follow up appointment, they help with her left nostril to not be as smushed down like it was.

she also has splints we can use on her arms, to keep her hands away from her face while it heals these first two weeks....we put them on her for the ride home....and she hated them!

so we havent put them on since. we keep a good watch of her (and her hands) and she hasnt bothered her face!

the surgery was one week ago today...and she is eating like her normal self again. she started that on thursday. she gradually started eating more until she was up to her usual 4 oz feeds...and gradually started eating more often because after surgery she was eating like every 6-7 hours rather that her normal 3-4. they gave us a prescription for tylenol and oxycodone...we used both around the clock monday and tuesday....then wednesday i gave her oxy in the morning and at bedtime and then just tyleonl since then. we have given her oxy twice (friday night and sunday night) but she seems to be doing fine with just the tylenol. the thing that bothers her most now are those stupid nose stents! they get boogies in them, and it make her all stuffy and its hard for her to breathe!

 shes such a trooper.... 

and i have had the pleasure of falling in love with her brand new smile....

 but i sure do miss that cleft smile she had for 3 months!