Update!

So nothing new yet, but we do go in to Primary Childrens Hospital here in Salt Lake City, Utah on Wednesday to meet with the nurse in charge of scheduling us to meet everyone involved in the cleft clinic. We have decided to take the clinic approach for sure so we know what to expect from the start, and to be able to have all of the doctors working together. I will post an update after our meeting there.

Also Happy Birthday to Dad! Art is 31 years old today.

I thought maybe you would all also be interested in this drawing, wouldn't it be fun to tour around with the little ones! (also on the sidebar)

Baby Update

We went into the doctor today for an ultrasound. Our little girl is doing very well. She finally decided to cooperate for some pictures so we could see her lip. It turns out that it looks like her cleft lip will be pretty minor. We were so realived to hear this. We are going to be referred to the cleft clinic at Primary Childrens within the next couple of days and should be attending soon. Here is a picture of her ultrasound, where you can see the cleft image. It is on the left side and it doesn't appear to go all of the way to her nose which is great news. It is amazing what they can do with technology these days. They did try to look at the Palate, and they told us that it is very difficult to see on an ultrasound. They were not able to see any fluid in there, so they think that is a really good sign. Sometimes when they are more severe you can see the fluid and know right away that the Palate is affected. They also looked again at the rest of her features. Here heart is good, her brain looks good, and they don't see any other concerns. Yeah! For now, we are just going through each day and looking forward to going to the clinic so we can learn more, and know what to expect. Isn't our little girl just beautiful! I can't get over her peaceful little look. We love you baby girl!

What Went Wrong!

After I found out that Grace was going to have a cleft lip, I asked myself what I did wrong. I was told that often times it can be genetic, however, neither Art or I have any history in our family of cleft lips. So I continued looking through my research online. Many articles say it could be because the mother exposed herself to something that caused this to happen. I felt so horrible, that maybe it was my fault. My doctor reassured me that indeed it was not my fault and things like this just happen. Our little girl just picked us, and she is going to be just fine. For those mothers going through their lists out there too, just to see if there is anything that happened, here are some of the precautions that I took, and our little girl still has a cleft lip.

-Grace was a planned baby and we wanted her so badly. In preparation I started taking prenatal vitamins five months before I became pregnant. I even took the vitamins to my doctor to make sure they had all of the correct and healthy ingredients needed. They did!
-Upon conception, I no longer drank any alcohol (although it was occasional prior to that)
-I have never smoked a day in my life!
-I stopped drinking caffeine-oh how I miss my coffee and mountain dew on occassion!
-I started eating healthier-more fruits and veggies, soy milk, cheeses etc. No hot dogs, sushi, or cesear salad etc.
-I even contacted the EPA to ask about the quality of the water from my home and workplace to make sure it was safe to drink. I shared the results with my doctor and pregnancy risk line and was informed by both, that the water in my locations would be way better for my child than bottled water.
-I bought a metal water bottle, so as to avoid any plastic issues in my water.
-I called the pregnancy risk line and talked to my doctor to make sure my face/body wash was safe for my child.
-I continued to exercise, but was much more careful, not pushing it, and not playing any contact sports.
-I didn't paint in my house, clean with harsh chemicals, or work in the garden. My husband was very helpful. Later in my pregnancy I did paint a dresser, but I wore a mask the entire time.
-I didn't go in places that I was worried would not be healthy, I was aware in every way possible.

Needless to say, I was very careful. I did the best that I could do to give my baby a good start. I still wonder what happened, but I know now that sometimes it just does. It doesn't pay to be hard on yourself or cause added stress. Sometimes it just happens and we love our girl no matter what! Now we move forward and try to make sure that we give her the best chance going forward, the same as we did in the past. So for mother's out there in my same position, I hope to share the message, that it isn't your fault. It just happens some times, and your baby will be okay!

Welcome

My name is MeriAnn and I am starting this blog to tell all about our journey and experiences relating to our child with Cleft Lip. My Husband and I were at our routine 20 week ultrasound. Everything was going well, until the technician started turning her head to the side and then left the room to grab the doctor. We became very worried, as we weren't sure what was taking place. The doctor came in and he too, started looking very closely. Our little girl is so active, that they had a very difficult time being able to get a good view of her nose and lip area. Finally he got what he felt was close enough, and informed us that our little girl (Grace) was going to have a unilateral cleft lip. I cried, and although the doctor was informing that it is probably minor and cleft lips are something that are very common and easily fixed, it didn't quite set in for me at the time. I started to worry about my little girl having to go through surgery, about her being made fun of in school, and about all of the hardships she would have to face. I couldn't stop crying. It only got worse when the doctor informed me that sometimes cleft lips can be a part of a bigger problem, and that they would be doing additional testing. My Husband and I spent the day talking about it, crying, and feeling so sorry for our little girl, and so worried that we would have more to face. Three days later we recieved a call from the doctor that the additional testing had come back negative and that they think it is an isolated issue with just the cleft lip, although they can't see the palate. A huge wave of relief took us over, and we knew that she would be okay. Although the worry of having Grace have any hardships in life won't ever pass, we are more prepared to face the future with a positive outlook. Some people call me the internet research queen, as I am a huge internet fan, and spend a lot of time, just learning and figuring things out, so that is where I started my search to become as knowledgable as possible about what we had to look forward to. I found many medical sites, but really wanted to hear about personal experiences. I found it difficult to find individual stories from people about their experiences, and I wanted to create a place for people in my shoes in the future to go to find information and connect. I have recently seen some blogs about children with cleft lips, but they are under their own names and difficult to find, in a search engine. I will be updating on our experiences and thoughts, as well as hopefully posting some new ultrasound pictures soon where you can see it, hopefully we can get those. Please feel free to email me or comment here with any questions, or to leave your personal blog that details your story about cleft lip or cleft palate that I will link to on the side. Welcome everyone, and I hope this is helpful.