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.