I saw a photo of your boy in your photos and he is GORGEOUS. Great smile. I don't have any photos up but at some stage I'll try to send you before and after photos. My boys name is Stephen.
Good luck with the lip op. For us the 1st day was awful but even that first night he was slowly trying out his new smile. He took a bit of milk with a syringe the 1st day. By the next day he was bottle feeding and he went home after 3 nights. I think it took about 2 weeks in total to really get back to his normal self. I really missed his face but now I love his new one just as much! And he still opens his whole mouth to smile which is beautiful. Now we've got his palate op in about 6 weeks which I am really dreading. Oh he also got ear tubes in with his 1st op.
I have to say even though it took a while to get used to his new face, the surgeon did a fantastic job. The result is brilliant. People can barely tell. The scar is fading well. His nose is slightly asymmetrical, but hey, he's a boy, he's bound to break his nose sometime
He feeds really well with the squeeze bottles and I reckon he's pushing 8 kilos. btw well done to still be going with the expressing and bottle feeding. I did it for 2-3 months but got lots and lots of mastitis and ended up changing to FF. It is masses of work so you are doing fantastically well. How is Kane doing? I don't know any other cleft mums. As much support as we have from family and friends, you really can't truly "get it" until you have a cleft baby.
Just wondering (As for me Stephen is my first bub) do you find any difference between him and your other kids because of what he has to go through? I feel that Steve will always be that little bit extra special IYKWIM.
Kids are amazing aren't they. They just don't notice differences. Steve has a 2.5 year old cousin who never ever mentioned his cleft nor ever mentioned that his face changed after the op. He's just "Cousin Seven" Shows what an infuence parents and peers have on these innocent minds.