Update on our little patient

Does this guy look like he just had a big surgery?

I can not believe that Parker's palate repair was over a week and a half ago!  The little guy has been so tough, and we were shocked at how well he handled the pain after the first day.  Since we have been home, we are still using pain medicine each day, alternating the tylenol/codeine and motrin.  I'm giving him less and less as time goes on.  However, our poor little guy started teething again this last weekend- perfect timing, right?  As though his mouth needed more discomfort!  His drooling got worse (hard to imagine), he wants to gum and chew even more than usual, and we can see two spots on his lower jaw where some buds are about to emerge.  Starting Saturday, he started to wake up every 2-3 hours for a few days, but we are starting to come out of that and get back on our regular routine.

I went looking for Parker the other day, and this is what I found- the 2 boys playing together!!

Parker loves his Honey

Debbie (Spencer's Mom) was so sweet to fly here on Friday to help out with Parker's recovery.  Fortunately- Parker was not nearly as bad as we had worried he would be.  Of course, she had to endure his teething period, but overall- he was still really enjoyable.  Sadly we had to take her to the airport yesterday- so sad to see her go!  I can't say enough how nice it was to have her help- even just leaving Parker with her for a couple hours to run errands and go to the grocery store.  I didn't realize how tired I was until I realized how I felt refreshed having a break here and there.  And it is such a treat for me to watch Parker be around
Debbie and our other parents.  I always hope and pray that he will have the joy of knowing his grandparents as well as I know mine.  It is such a special relationship.  And this coming weekend, my mom will be here, so we will have another fun visit!

Waiting to see Dr. Chen

back to real food- so exciting

We went back to Dr. Chen on Wednesday for our post-op follow-up.  I was really worried about what he would say because I was able to see a hole the size of a pencil eraser in his hard palate.  But Dr. Chen said everything looked great otherwise.  He thinks that the hole is just on the oral side (hopefully), and said it is possible that it could close on its own with time.  If it doesn't, or if the hole goes through the nasal side, it won't matter because he won't repair it until his next surgery in 5 years.  I felt a lot better after this report.  We got the go ahead to eat regular food, and we won't go back for a year.  It feels so strange to have all of this behind us- hallelujah we are done for a while!

Using the sippy cup for the first time.  We are trying to get away from using the Haberman, and transition to sippy cups after the surgery.  He doesn't quite know how to really suck well- He's never had to so far, but we are working on it.  On some of the cups, I've taken out the valve so that milk flows freely.  He's very messy for now.  I'm just trying one feeding a day with the cup, and the rest with the Haberman.  Eventually we'll drop the Haberman.

Did I mention he's teething?  He quickly lost interest in the milk (difficult to drink) and decided to chew the cup

MELT. MY. HEART!

I don't mean to minimize Parker's cleft lip and palate.  Obviously we have had to do a lot of extra things that most babies don't deal with in his first year.  But for something that caused so much anxiety to Spencer and me a year ago, we have realized that this defect is such a small thing.  We have a beautiful, thriving child who is the happiest little boy I've ever known.  He has overcome everything like a champ so far.  There are so many things that are more challenging and more difficult to overcome- the cleft was such a small thing in the great big scheme of things.  We have really grown throughout the experience, and in so many ways we have experienced so many blessings, answered prayers, support, and made new relationships with so many people we otherwise would not have had!