Henry came through his first cleft lip repair really well. We checked into Wolfson’s Children’s Hospital at around 6 a.m. this morning. They took him back for surgery at 8:15 am and made the first cut around 9 am. Dr. Obi (his plastic surgeon) came to talk with us around 10:45 am, so the whole thing was pretty quick. Within 15 min. of getting checked into the PICU, Henry learned how to throw off his no-nos (elbow braces) so we’re had to put restraints on him until we get some different braces from the Cleft Team. Dr. Obi repaired the complete cleft on the left side, but is saving the right side for a little later down the road. Because this repair caused so much stretching, he feels he’ll get better results by waiting until the left has a chance to heal.

He woke up from the sedatives pretty quickly and took some Tylenol with Codeine using the tube-syringe. He swallowed that really well, so we decided to give him some pedialyte. He took an ounce of pedialyte and about a half ounce of breast milk in just a few minutes, so the feeding method seems to be working well. Now, he just got a little morphine, so we’re going to let him rest and we’ll try for a full feeding when he wakes.

Henry is going to be one angry baby for the next several weeks. Aside from the elbow braces (to keep him from touching his face), he has  to wear nasal stints to help correct the deviated nasal passage and a Loman’s Bow. The bow helps take the tension off the suture so it can heal faster. And of course, there’s the whole thing about not being able to breast feed. At least this time he doesn’t have to stay intubated (silver lining). Still seeking prayers that he heals quickly and the rest of this month flies by so my boy can get back to being himself.