Cleft Repair

The usual plan of action when a baby has a cleft lip and palate is to repair them in three stages during the first year of life (done to reduce scarring).

Our daughter's first surgery was the lip adhesion, performed by an amazing doctor on December 9, 2010. The surgery lasted a little over an hour and we were released from the hospital a few hours later. Her recovery wasn't too bad, she was very hungry after surgery but didn't eat much at first. Within a week she was back to her normal happy self :)

Her second surgery was on St. Patrick's Day. This time around they fixed her lip line and placed a stent in her nose for the muscles to form around. We were also released the same day, but later in the day since we had to wait for her doctor to get out of surgery. The recovery was a little harder since they did more work but it lasted around a week as well.

Her third and final surgery of the year was done July 21, 2011. There was little, if any, change in her face as it was the palate repair. The surgery took about three and a half hours and was by far the toughest recovery wise. My mother and I spent a week in the hospital with her since she wouldn't eat or drink and the temperatures were over 100°F. By the time we went home she had given up the bottle completely and was drinking from an open cup.