Time For The WHOLE Story

Okay, it's not as dramatic as all that but when I first posted about Maggie's arrival, I was just so happy to have her home safe and sound that I didn't feel like getting into all the not so happy stuff. Six weeks later, I'm in a whole new place and feeling very good about everything so I figured it was time to tell my nearest and dearest what's been going on with our precious baby girl.

As I said before, she was born at 11:28 on Saturday, August 2nd. Due to low blood sugar and a low temp, she was in the nursery for the next 24 hours. Meaning, I didn't get to really look at her or hold her until the next morning. That was freaking brutal, let me tell you. Ryan went to the nursery frequently and took pictures of her and I actually handled the whole thing surprisingly well. I knew that being hysterical and bawling all over the place wouldn't do anyone any good. Besides, I had my own issues to deal with. I suffered from anemia from almost day one of my pregnancy and my pre-op iron level was at a 7. Yeah, that's pretty darn low. My doctor was *this* close to giving me a transfusion but she decided to wait it out and see how I was after the surgery. I'm just now starting to feel better; not as many headaches or dizzy spells. The day after Maggie was born, I almost passed out which was INSANE. I've never experienced anything like that before and, thankfully, I haven't since.

When I finally got to hold my sweet girl, it was only to have the lactation consultant slap her right on my boob. All I wanted was to LOOK at her. Count her fingers and toes, see whose nose she had, look into her eyes. I was pretty bummed that that wasn't the case but I knew that if I were going to nurse, I needed to get started. Well, it was a complete bust. We spent almost an hour trying to get her to latch on. It was awful and I finally just said "Stop! Let's just continue with the bottle feeding and let her be." Ugh, it was so frustrating!

I figured out Monday morning why she wasn't able to latch on: she has a cleft palate. Not the lip, just her soft palate. You can't see it unless she's crying or yawning really big and it just looks like an arch at the back of her throat. That explained everything! Sucking is very, very difficult when that hole breaks up the cycle of pulling in the formula, etc. She'll get the momentum and then lose it when she hits the hole.

We took her to an otolaryngologist on that Thursday and he confirmed that she does indeed have a cleft and will need surgery when she's about a year old. We got special nipples that have made all the difference and she's gaining weight like a pro! As of yesterday, she's 8 lbs, 10 oz! Yay, Maggie!

The crappiest part of the cleft is that she's way more susceptible to ear infections. She's in the midst of her second one right now. She'll probably have to get tubes within the next few months but we've been expecting that. She also had yet to pass her hearing test but seeing as she's had an ear infection nonstop, that's not too surprising. We go back on October 22nd for another test - fingers crossed she passes! I also scheduled her palate repair surgery for August 13th. It's so weird planning for something so far in advance but Dr. Canady is a busy, busy man. :)

I feel like I just rambled through all of that but I'm at work and am trying to actually get stuff done. Ha ha!

OH!! Piper started preschool last week!! She's such a big girl, I can't even believe it. She loves it and I think it'll be so good for her. If you want to check out where she's going, click here.

That's all for now! I hope to be better about posting but until our computer is fixed, that will probably prove to be a bit difficult.

Much love to everyone!

K