Brody is 20 months old and he's constantly on the go! He's climbing all over the furniture and getting into everything he shouldn't be. He's developing at the perfect pace but he's still not talking. He's making a lot of noises though! He says "mama" and "muh" for milk. He'll babble and say "ma ma ma ma" most of the time.
There aren't any new sounds developing and we're waiting VERY patiently for the members of the cleft team in London to call back about his speech therapy assessment. I've contacted them three times with a promise of a call back and nothing yet. I'd love to get the ball rolling with speech therapy before he's two because he should be learning to make new sounds.
I'll update again when he's assessed for speech therapy and let everyone who's interested know where we stand :)
Friday, May 6, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Updates!
So Brody is almost 16 months old already. Since he had his palate surgery in October, life has been so much easier. The surgery was a rough one but Brody was back to normal the morning after.
We're in the midst of teaching him to suck and blow and we're going to be starting speech therapy in the next couple of months.
His scars are healing beautifully and his teeth are coming in nice and straight so far. We couldn't be happier with how everything is going!!
Our plastic surgeon is confident that Brody wont need a lip revision in a couple years so his next surgery might not be for another 8-10 years!
Brody's almost walking and he's definitely found his voice. He likes to scream when he wants something and throws his food and sippy cups from his highchair. Kyleigh loves her brother but the sibling rivalry has already kicked in. Those two fight over toys constantly!! I guess this is a little look into what the future is going to be like for us haha
Thank you everyone for all of the prayers and support along the way. It's great to know we have so many amazing friends and family!
We're in the midst of teaching him to suck and blow and we're going to be starting speech therapy in the next couple of months.
His scars are healing beautifully and his teeth are coming in nice and straight so far. We couldn't be happier with how everything is going!!
Our plastic surgeon is confident that Brody wont need a lip revision in a couple years so his next surgery might not be for another 8-10 years!
Brody's almost walking and he's definitely found his voice. He likes to scream when he wants something and throws his food and sippy cups from his highchair. Kyleigh loves her brother but the sibling rivalry has already kicked in. Those two fight over toys constantly!! I guess this is a little look into what the future is going to be like for us haha
Thank you everyone for all of the prayers and support along the way. It's great to know we have so many amazing friends and family!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
New Palate Surgery Date.
So Brody's one now and doing great. He's eating a lot of normal soft food's and almost walking!!
He was supposed to have his palate repaired in August but it was rescheduled until October 25th. This being said, I'm SUPER nervous about this surgery!! It's going to be the biggest surgery yet and worst of all, he has to wear the no-no's for two weeks! He's going to hate that but not as much as I am.
I can't wait until this surgery is done and over with so we can feed him whatever we want. He'll be able to have anything and it's going to make life so much easier.
I'll try and post an update after his surgery to let you know how he's feeling and healing.
Prayers are welcome =)
He was supposed to have his palate repaired in August but it was rescheduled until October 25th. This being said, I'm SUPER nervous about this surgery!! It's going to be the biggest surgery yet and worst of all, he has to wear the no-no's for two weeks! He's going to hate that but not as much as I am.
I can't wait until this surgery is done and over with so we can feed him whatever we want. He'll be able to have anything and it's going to make life so much easier.
I'll try and post an update after his surgery to let you know how he's feeling and healing.
Prayers are welcome =)
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Palate Surgery!
So Brody will be 10 months old on the 28th of July. He's crawling around all over the house and standing up against furniture and toys =) He has three teeth and likes to scream when he wants something.
He's on solids and we finally weaned him onto a sippy cup, which he's doing great with. He's not allowed to have small bits of food until his palate is repaired but he does love his Baby Mum Mum cookies!! (They dissolve!)
Surgery is scheduled for August 16th unless they change it. I can't wait to have this stage done and over with so Brody can experience new foods and cookies!!
There will be more updates when his surgery is completed!!
He's on solids and we finally weaned him onto a sippy cup, which he's doing great with. He's not allowed to have small bits of food until his palate is repaired but he does love his Baby Mum Mum cookies!! (They dissolve!)
Surgery is scheduled for August 16th unless they change it. I can't wait to have this stage done and over with so Brody can experience new foods and cookies!!
There will be more updates when his surgery is completed!!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Updates on Brody!
Brody's 7 months old now. He started his baby cereal at almost 5 months no problem and he's on solids now which can be pretty interesting at times. Since his palate still has the opening, when he swallows, most of the time the food comes out hehe He gets pretty upset about it but nothing a bottle can't change =)
Right now we're in the midst of weaning him off the bottle onto a sippy cup to prepare him for the palate surgery. They'll be closing the gap in his palate and the surgery date is based on how well he uses the sippy cup.
Our last appointment with Dr. Matic went great. Brody's scar is healing wonderfully and he's developing perfectly.
We had a Genetics appointment in March to test Brody's chromosomes to make sure there are no other problems that are attached to the cleft lip. I'm pretty confident he's a very healthy boy. He's almost sitting up without support, has no problems with his voice and rolls all over the floor. At his last Pediatrician appointment, he was in the normal range for weight and above average for height. He has a big head, but I think that means it's full of brains =)
More updates to come when we visit the Plastics Doctor again!!
Right now we're in the midst of weaning him off the bottle onto a sippy cup to prepare him for the palate surgery. They'll be closing the gap in his palate and the surgery date is based on how well he uses the sippy cup.
Our last appointment with Dr. Matic went great. Brody's scar is healing wonderfully and he's developing perfectly.
We had a Genetics appointment in March to test Brody's chromosomes to make sure there are no other problems that are attached to the cleft lip. I'm pretty confident he's a very healthy boy. He's almost sitting up without support, has no problems with his voice and rolls all over the floor. At his last Pediatrician appointment, he was in the normal range for weight and above average for height. He has a big head, but I think that means it's full of brains =)
More updates to come when we visit the Plastics Doctor again!!
Friday, February 5, 2010
Lip and Nose Surgery Completed!!
Okay!! Surgery was the 3rd of February at 10am. It took three hours and they removed the Latham device that was pinned into the roof of his mouth and repaired his lip and nose!! Dr Matic is an amazing plastics Doctor. It couldn't have turned out any more perfect!
After surgery, we came into the recovery room to a crying Brody. He was just coming off the anesthetic and was very groggy. I barely recognized him - in a good way. The nurse handed him over and he stared up at me like he was relieved to see his mommy. I was soo happy and relieved to make it to this point and it wasn't as hard as I anticipated. I couldn't get over how much more beautiful he looked and I already thought he was as beautiful as he could be!! He was still whimpering a bit though so the nurse got us some glucose water to feed him. After he had something in his belly, he calmed down and just started babbling away, telling us little stories and smiling!!
We were moved up to his room around 2:15 pm and he was in and out of it at this point. The rest of the afternoon and evening were normal. He just hung out with us and was sitting up checking things out in the new place he was in. He slept great that night and was pretty much back to his normal routine.
We came home the next day at noon. Brody had a normal afternoon and slept great at home too!! He has to wear braces on his arms called No-No's so he doesn't put his fingers in his mouth. We obviously don't want him pulling on his stitches.
Right now, he has tubes in his nose (a stint) so his nose doesn't swell shut. The bridge of his nose is pretty bruised and his left eye and cheeks are pretty puffy too. He doesn't mind at all though. He gets the stitches out on the 10th and then he's a free boy again!!
Once his lip heals, we can start him on solids, which is going to be pretty interesting considering there is still a space in his palate. The next step is the palate surgery which will be done between 9-12 months old, so sometime throughout the summer time.
Again, I'll be updating my blog when anything new comes up!
Thank you for all of the prayers, love and support!
And thank you God for keeping my boy safe and happy!!
After surgery, we came into the recovery room to a crying Brody. He was just coming off the anesthetic and was very groggy. I barely recognized him - in a good way. The nurse handed him over and he stared up at me like he was relieved to see his mommy. I was soo happy and relieved to make it to this point and it wasn't as hard as I anticipated. I couldn't get over how much more beautiful he looked and I already thought he was as beautiful as he could be!! He was still whimpering a bit though so the nurse got us some glucose water to feed him. After he had something in his belly, he calmed down and just started babbling away, telling us little stories and smiling!!
We were moved up to his room around 2:15 pm and he was in and out of it at this point. The rest of the afternoon and evening were normal. He just hung out with us and was sitting up checking things out in the new place he was in. He slept great that night and was pretty much back to his normal routine.
We came home the next day at noon. Brody had a normal afternoon and slept great at home too!! He has to wear braces on his arms called No-No's so he doesn't put his fingers in his mouth. We obviously don't want him pulling on his stitches.
Right now, he has tubes in his nose (a stint) so his nose doesn't swell shut. The bridge of his nose is pretty bruised and his left eye and cheeks are pretty puffy too. He doesn't mind at all though. He gets the stitches out on the 10th and then he's a free boy again!!
Once his lip heals, we can start him on solids, which is going to be pretty interesting considering there is still a space in his palate. The next step is the palate surgery which will be done between 9-12 months old, so sometime throughout the summer time.
Again, I'll be updating my blog when anything new comes up!
Thank you for all of the prayers, love and support!
And thank you God for keeping my boy safe and happy!!
Friday, January 8, 2010
The Beginning of Brody's Life
When I was 20 weeks pregnant with Brody, we found out through a routine 20 week ultrasound that he would be born with a cleft lip. At this point, the Doctor's didn't know if the gum and palate were involved and said we would have to wait until I gave birth to see.
Cleft lip's and/or palate's (palate is the roof of the mouth) are NOT caused by alcohol, drugs or smoking - as most people assume. I've had ignorant people actually ask me if I drank or did drugs during my pregnancy. I find them to be very bold to ask a question like that!! Haha
Cleft lips are hereditary or one or both parents carry the gene. The odds of giving birth to a baby with this birth defect is 1/2500 if it is not hereditary. Those were our odds. Cleft lip and/or palate's are the second most common birth defects next to clubbed hands and feet.
The day Chad and I found out our baby boy would be born with this, we educated ourselves about it in every way possible. We had to go for testing and "high-tech" ultrasounds at St. Joseph's Hospital in London and my pregnancy had to be monitored every week until birth.
I was to be induced the first week in October, 2009 but Brody had a better idea. My water broke at home on September 26th and we drove to London (from Sarnia) to deliver and had our healthy baby boy at 1:20am on the 28th. He was 7lbs 2oz and 19 inches long.
Brody was born with a complete unilateral cleft of the lip, gum, primary and secondary palate - 11 mm wide. We use tape on his cheeks and steri-strips to pull his lips closer together for surgery and he has an appliance in his mouth called a Latham that was surgically pinned into the roof of his mouth on November 25th. We tightened a screw that's attached to the Latham 3/4 of a turn every day until completely tightened. By doing that, we pulled the palate closer together so there is less of a space in the palate. Brody's uvula (the little dangly thing in the back of your mouth) is split into two. ALL of this will be "fixed" before one year of age.
Brody goes for surgery to have his lip and nose repaired this month, January 2010, and we're very excited to see the end results :O)
From now on, I'm going to try my best to update everyone on Brody and his surgeries!!
Cleft lip's and/or palate's (palate is the roof of the mouth) are NOT caused by alcohol, drugs or smoking - as most people assume. I've had ignorant people actually ask me if I drank or did drugs during my pregnancy. I find them to be very bold to ask a question like that!! Haha
Cleft lips are hereditary or one or both parents carry the gene. The odds of giving birth to a baby with this birth defect is 1/2500 if it is not hereditary. Those were our odds. Cleft lip and/or palate's are the second most common birth defects next to clubbed hands and feet.
The day Chad and I found out our baby boy would be born with this, we educated ourselves about it in every way possible. We had to go for testing and "high-tech" ultrasounds at St. Joseph's Hospital in London and my pregnancy had to be monitored every week until birth.
I was to be induced the first week in October, 2009 but Brody had a better idea. My water broke at home on September 26th and we drove to London (from Sarnia) to deliver and had our healthy baby boy at 1:20am on the 28th. He was 7lbs 2oz and 19 inches long.
Brody was born with a complete unilateral cleft of the lip, gum, primary and secondary palate - 11 mm wide. We use tape on his cheeks and steri-strips to pull his lips closer together for surgery and he has an appliance in his mouth called a Latham that was surgically pinned into the roof of his mouth on November 25th. We tightened a screw that's attached to the Latham 3/4 of a turn every day until completely tightened. By doing that, we pulled the palate closer together so there is less of a space in the palate. Brody's uvula (the little dangly thing in the back of your mouth) is split into two. ALL of this will be "fixed" before one year of age.
Brody goes for surgery to have his lip and nose repaired this month, January 2010, and we're very excited to see the end results :O)
From now on, I'm going to try my best to update everyone on Brody and his surgeries!!
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