Paige without her NAM!

This is Paige this morning without her NAM. Check out her poor little baby acne! Gotta love when Mamma's hormones come back out in the form of little icky pimples! All of my kids have had it at this stage! Should go away in a few days!

Crawford County Fair with Mommy and Daddy!

We love taking the kids to the fair every year. Maddie loves the horses! We let the kids play a few games and ride the Merry-Go-Round. It was fun until it started to rain! :-) Here are a few pictures from the day...







Paige's first fair!

Cleft Palate and Lip Awareness Month

As I'm learning more and more about this #1 Birth Defect in children, I will share with you. Just thought I would let you all know that this month is Awareness for Cleft Palate and Cleft Lip. Here are a few facts for you to learn to be more knowledgeable on this topic.

Cleft lip/ Palate is the #1 Birth Defect in Children. 1 in 600 children are born with it!

CLP (cleft lip/palate) is both hereditary and caused by environmental factors. You do NOT Have to have someone in your family who has it and just because you do, doesn't mean you are going to have a child with it. Case in fact...I have 2 beautiful children prior to Paige who are not cleft affected (nca). There is a 4-5% chance that ANYONE be born with it.

A "HARE LIP" is an offensive term for CLP. DO NOT USE THIS TERM as it really offends MANY People. If you are using it after reading this, shame on you!

There are many types of CLP. Paige has an unilateral cleft lip and palate. There is also a bilateral cleft lip and palate. This affects both sides of the nose. Paige's is only on the one side.

More boys are affected with cleft palate than girls.

Most children with CLP have their lip surgery from 3-6 months of age. Their palate surgery can take place anytime between 9 and 18 months.

Not all babies who have CLP have speech problems. 99.9% do not have any hearing loss.

CLP develops when the baby is around 6 weeks gestation. This is about the time when most moms find out they are actually pregnant. I knew I was pregnant with Paige at about 3 1/2 weeks gestation because I chart my cycles and can tell easily that I'm pregnant.

70% of babies with cleft lip also have cleft palate!



There's just a few of the facts that I have learned. There are so many more as I learn more and more about this birth defect! Please feel free to share this knowledge!

Just remember...

that this is a blog. If you are easily offended, maybe you should skip some of my posts. LOL I'm just in one of these moods where the words that come out of my mouth might not be to everyone's liking. :-) If you know anything about me, you know I'm very opinionated. However, just know that I usually make sure I know what I'm talking about prior to saying anything. If I don't know, I won't say anything. But, this blog is to help me get through all of Paige's surgeries and to be kind of therapeautic to me. So if I say something offensive, I generally don't mean it. I'm just going to speak my mind. Most people (I should say my friends, generally NOT family) think that my way of thought is refreshing. I generally don't sugar coat things and I definitly don't speak of anything that I am ignorant of. But, as of now, I'm going to speaking a little more of my mind concerning issues that bother me. Read, or don't read. That's completely up to you.

Well, now that my 3 year old is reminding me that I really need a shower, I had better do that!

Owen's first day of Kindergarten!

Pics to come soon!!

Owen had his first day of Kindergarten. We got up early, Hal made pancakes and off we went. Stopped at the store to get him a drink for his snack time and then walked with Owen and the girls to the front door. I handed him off to his teacher and said our goodbyes. When we got home, I realized I forgot to give him his drink...so back I went. Good start, already forgetting stuff on the first day. Silly mom!

Owen said he had a great day and was excited to see all of his friends from Pre-K. He shares a class with 2 of them so he was pretty happy about that. He said they went outside twice, watched a movie, ate pizza for lunch with chocolate milk, drew pictures, took a five minute rest time, and had fun. He enjoyed the short bus ride home too. Good times. He was pretty talkative when he got home and begged for a snack. All in all, he enjoyed his first day and wants to go back tomorrow!

Second Appt at Children's Hospital

Paige had her first adjustment to her NAM today. It took them about 15 minutes to complete the entire visit. We drive 2 hours down and 2 hours back for a 15 min appt. But, she is now weighing 8 pounds and 15 ounces (her birth weight). The dr at Meadville Peds said she was 9, 2 last week but I am just going to go with Children's as they will weigh her every week. I also asked about the scope that they want to use on her. They want to put a scope down my poor baby's throat in a month to check on the strider that she has. Regina (nurse practioner) said that if she is not having any difficulty breathing, than we can probably go ahead and cancel it but that we will wait a little longer to make sure. To me, I say cancel! The risks outweight the benefits here. Strider is something they can outgrown (Madison did). She's NOT turning blue or anything. I'm still worried about it but I also have to trust that they know what they are doing. I do NOT want the scope if all possible!!!

Paige does have thrush but it's not on the back of her throat like her Ped thought. That was actually because the NAM was too big for her mouth and was causing a sore in her mouth. Poor baby! So we are going to continue the meds and they made her NAM shorter so it won't bother her anymore. Thank goodness for that!

All in all, it was a decent appointment. We took Owen and Madison with us so they could see where Paige has to see the doctor to "fix her lip." They have no idea of the palate as I think that might freak them out at this point. We are trying to keep it simple for them and let them know that Paige is in good hands. We will explain all of it when the time comes and they are able to understand it a little better. There are no secrets about it but just taking it one step at a time.

Paige's next appt is next Wednesday at Children's Hospital and also in Meadville at Audiology on Friday.

Madison has finally achieved...

a DRY BED AT NIGHT! Yeah! She has been potty trained for about 9 months or so but she has had to wear a diaper to bed just in case. Most nights and she's dry so we decided it was time to go without the diaper. So far, so good! 3 nights and only one accident. Let's hope this keeps up! They grow up so fast!!