8 months and the journey has just begun

My how time flies. Riley turned 8 months last week. He is doing well. As you can see he enjoys his food anyplace but his mouth. Last night he thought it would be funny to spit his food out but as soon as daddy was called over, he ate like a champ. Daddy handed the food back over to mommy and he kept spitting it out. Tony ended up finishing his feeding. He is such a daddy's boy! Riley's lip is healing well and the scars are fading. We are very happy with the repair but are anxious for the upcoming surgery to fix his palate.

The other night I went back and looked at pictures of Riley from his pre lip repair days. I don't know why but when I looked at them I thought he looked so different and I was almost taken aback that he once looked that way. Then, I felt guilty. When he was born, I saw right past his lip and loved him and thought he was the most beautiful baby. I still think he is the most beautiful baby but I was stunned when I went back to look at his other pictures. It is amazing how much one surgery has changed him. I can't lie about how I felt while looking at these pictures and I feel bad when my heart skipped a beat. It's just a gentle reminder that we have a long way to go but I love him so much and wouldn't trade him for the world!

Plastic Surgeon Woes

We purposefully picked our plastic surgeon for a few reasons:
1. He denied he was leaving his practice
2. He wasnt plannig on retiring soon
3. He had good background and experience

It was important to us for Riley to have continuity of care. So much for that. We got a call saying that Dr. Goldstein is leaving the practive and is also living the valley and is no longer seeing any patients. No letter or any warning at ll. Im really bummed because when you find a good physician, especially with something that is so specialized. It's not like I can pick some Joe Smoe physician. That was a little bit of a set back so we are a little bummed out. Our case manager is helping us find another one so we are keeping our fingers crossed. There is another plastic surgeon who is in the same practice so our case manager is looking into the availability of him.

And thanks Courtney for the advice. I didn't even think about giving him avacado but that is filled with healthy fats so I will give that a try.

Busy Busy Busy

It's been crazy how busy Tony and I have been lately. It seems like if its not one thing then its something else. Riley had his first ENT (ear nose and throat) appointment as most cleft palate babies have to have tubes placed in the ears. With cleft palates the eustacian tubes do not close all the way which can lead to a build up of fluid in the ear which causes ear infections. We drove all the way to Mesa-took us about an hour to get there. We waited over an hour past our appointment time and was with the physician for maybe 10 minutes. She said his ears looked fantastic and was very shocked that Riley has not had an ear infection. She asked us to come back in August to have his hearing tested and to check the movement of his ear when there is sound. If he needs tubes, she will try and coordinate at the same time as his palate surgery. We also asked about his tear duct as this was affected as well on the right side but she referred us to an opthamologist. Our insurance is great for coverage but a pain in the butt to get in with a new physician. We have to call our primary who then calls in the referral and then we call and make an appointment. We plan on driving up to Idaho and Washington in late August so his ENT follow up once we get home from our trip.
Tony and I are continuing to work full time. My parents are leaving on Friday to go back to WA for the summer so it's a little stressful not having child care in place. Riley still continues to fuss and cry when we try to feed him anything but his rice cereal or formula. We are trying to get his weight up because if he is underweight at the time of his surgery the surgery will be postponed. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know!

Sad arguments

Lately on my facebook page, some of my friends whom I shall named unamed have been posting politcal opinons. I have no problem with this.....however some of the comments that follow the original postings are pathetic. For example, people are making comments that simply state things like Tea Party members are stupid. Okay, but why?

Why is it now that when someone has an opinon you are automatically called stupid or ignorant or some other form or deragory comment. I feel that people are quick to put down someone but can't defend their argument in an educational matter. It doesn't matter what topic it is people have opinions about subjects but can never back up their arguement. I used to enjoy debating arguements but I'm tired of people being so mean just because you don't agree with their stance.

This leads to the point of this post. Something important I learned this year after having Riley, is not to have an opinon on a topic you know nothing about. For example, one of the most frustrating comments people made to Tony and I when we found out is "oh that's easily fixed". Yes to someone who isn't educated about this subject, it seems that it is such an easy procedure and he's fixed. Nevermind the fact that he has to have another lip repair, at least one surgery on his palate, at least one nose revision, speech therapy, tubes in the ears due to the common ear infections that are commen in cleft lip palate babies, and a stent placed in his tear ducts because this was also affected with his cleft. Yes it is fixable. Yes it is not fatal and yes it could be much worse. However, people cannot fully understand how stressful this situation is until you are actually going through it. I alway thought I would knew what to do if there was something wrong with my child. I thought I'd new how I would react but I reacted in a completely different way that I thought I would. As a social worker, the experience of having Riley has made looking at my patients and families differently. It has improved my practice and my life experiences. To summarize, you if you going to argue a point or be supportive for someone try to educate yourself first.

New front yard, no more constipation, and 1st Easters

Yes, I know it's an interesting title. It's been a busy couple of months. I have finally uploaded pictures of our front yard. Before it had lighter color rock and sporatic, ugly plants planted. Our front yard looks 100 times better and we are enjoying it.

Riley is doing great. He's been having constipation problems for the past few months and I think that we are getting over that. The pediatrician told us to increase his fluids between feedings. The problem with that is Riley hates every type of pedialyte and also hates apple juice. We even tried to dilute the applejuice but that didn't work. Developmentally, he is doing well. He's making the funniest expressions. For one day, he kpt his face in an O shape and the other day he found his tongue and kept sticking it out at everyone. Not fun for when it was time to feed him his rice cereal. We just moved Riley to mixed grain cereal for a week and then we get to start him on jar foods next Sunday. I think we are going to introduce apples first. Riley also got to go to his first b-day party on Saturday. His BFF turned 1 on Saturday.

Yesterday was Riley's first Easter. Unfortunately, he's a little too young to put together an Easter basket or color eggs (although grandma colored eggs). However, he did get his first Easter bunny. You can tell that he isn't a big fan of it. It sings If Your Happy And You Know It and claps but when we turned it on last night, Riley just glared at it. We didn't do too much. Tony and I actually had a Sunday off together so we spent the day at home relaxing. We did have a very very yummy prime rib dinner at my parents and then Tony and I came home and watched the new Harry Potter movie. It was an enjoyable night and sure nice to be with my boys for the weekend.

Another milestone and 6 month well check

I think one of the hardest things about being a working mom are the "firsts" that I've missed. Wednesday, Riley figured out how to flip onto his stomach from his back. Of course he does this while I'm at work. It was still amazing to see and he did it for me when I got home later that evening. What a stinker. He loves his mommy but there is no doubt in my mind that he is a daddy's boy. They are so cute together and my heart fills with pride when I see them together. Riley had his 6 month wellness check yesterday. It couldn't have come at a better time since the poor thing has been pooping nuggets. He happened to poop right before the dr walked in so I was able to show her. She suggested to increase his fluids so to give him pedialyte between feedings. It's starting to get warm down here and he is becoming more active thus the need for more fluids. He's still on the small sign but seems to be developing normally. The dr said that he is a little underweight and gave his a layout of a new feeding regimen. We will be adding oatmeal to his diet this weekend. Right now we have upped his rice cereal and he's eating about 4 tablespoons of it (before I add the milk so it is probably twice as much). He seems to be doing well with it. He's now just a little over 25 inches and weighs 13 lb 14 oz. Yesterday evening, Tony got Riley's footprints tattooed on his arm. It looks really good.

6 months old and almost 6 weeks post op

I've been really bad about keeping up on my blog but the last few weeks have been busy. I have been sick for the last week and a half and have been so busy with work. I can say that the last 6 months have been such an emotionally charged 6 months but I wouldn't trade them for the world. Tony and I are so thankful for how Riley's surgery has come out. The conformers (the plastic thing that was in his nose that kept his nostrils symmetical) were removed yesterday finally. We are excited and plan on having his 6 month pics taken at Walmart to show how different Riley work. Tony and I have also started Riley on rice cereal. For those of you who do not have a baby with a cleft palate, moving to solids is a bit tricky. Because there is no palate, large amounts of food tends to come out the nose. Riley also sneezes frequently resulting in the spray of rice cereal shooting all over me, Riley, and the kitchen floor. I have gotten smarter and will place his bib over his nose when I can tell a sneeze is coming on. My best advice if someone is reading this that is going to have a cleft palate baby.....invest in a ton of bibs!!

In other news, Tony and I got tired of our front yard and so we (or I should say Tony and my dad) redid our front yard. We just got done with it Tuesday which was also Tony's 29th birthday. It looks beautiful. The only pics we have are on Tony's phone so I promise to take pics of what it looks like now and post it on my facebook page shortly.