Surgery Meeting

Yesterday was a long day. We had our first meeting with Savannah's surgeons and also met with her assigned cleft clinic nurse at their office next Children's hospital. She screamed during the entire meeting. It made it so hard to have a decent conversation! They believe that Savannah will only have to undergo one surgery to close her palate. They are expecting to do the surgery around 7 to 9 months old. There is a small chance that she will need a second operation in a couple years if they can't completely close the opening but they said this does not happen very often. They also believe that her jaw should experience "catch up" growth. I wanted to ask more questions but it was hard to concentrate with all the screaming. We have another followup appointment in two weeks, in which I will be sure to write down the questions ahead of time so I am ready just in case Savannah has another repeat performance!

We also discussed how Savannah's feedings have been becoming increasingly more difficult by the day. In the last couple of weeks she gets half way through her feeding and she starts screaming and bucking. It  makes it so hard to get milk in her and Brian and I were worried about how many calories she was burning. She also has a hard time sleeping and will not settle unless she was being held on our chests in an upright position. It is making for some long days not being able to put her down in her crib or bassinet to sleep. After hearing the symptoms she told us that it sounds like Savannah has reflux and recommended that we see her pediatrician. So after the meeting at the clinic we made an appointment for that same afternoon.

Savannah's pediatrician agreed. All of her symptoms point towards reflux. The doctor told us that she normally does not medicate right away but with Savannah's cleft and the fact that we have already done many of the things she recommends (holding her upright, sleeping on an incline, watching my diet) she gave us a prescription for Prilosec. Apparently the only place you can get baby Prilosec prescriptions filled is Children's hospital. So another drive back to where we started the day since her pediatrician's office and Children's hospital are 25 minutes apart from each other. Oh well, it is definitely worth it if Savannah starts to feel much better and it brings a little peace back to the house!

Since I like to add photos, I thought I would finish today's post  with a picture of Savannah being fed and a picture of her Mead Johnson bottle. Savannah's feeding position may seem unusual to some people but the reason she sits upright is so that the milk does not go into the exposed nasal passages on the roof of her mouth. Milk in the nasal passages may be inhaled and cause aspiration pneumonia. The bottle is made specially for cleft babies. Since Savannah can't create suction, the extra soft bottle allows us to squeeze the milk into her mouth.