Surgery update

Ken and I and Leo met with his plastic surgeon yesterday. That sounds weird to say, my newborn baby needs a plastic surgeon. Hm... I wonder if he'll do a two for one - cleft repair for Leo and tummy tuck for me?

Anyway, the waiting room was super nice, which is good because we'll probably be spending a lot of time there over the next 18 years. There was a family with a little boy who had a cleft lip and palate. He had had his lip repair quite a while ago but his palate repair was 7 days earlier. He was 16 months old and looked just fantastic! He was playing and walking around. I talked to his mom a little, and she said that the past week had been pretty miserable for everyone, and that day was the first day he'd been back to his old self. Wow, only 7 days! That's certainly doable.

First of all they weighed Leo and took pictures of him. Last Wednesday he was 8 lbs 13 oz and yesterday he was 9 lbs 10 oz! I couldn't believe that weight gain. Then we met with the surgeon. He showed us some pictures of a cleft like Leo's and explained a little about how they would do the surgery. He said that Dr. J, Leo's pediatrician, would keep a close watch on his ears, and instructed us to take him to the doctor if he has a high fever, so he could check his ears. I asked if he could fly on a plane, and he said "Absolutely." He also said when we start solid food with him, just do what we did with the other two kids, and he shouldn't have a problem. He said he thought he'd do his surgery around 15 months. I was pretty happy about that because he had said 18 months before. Both my kids have talked in complete sentences by 18 months, so I think the earlier the better. He said there is a slight possibility he'd need another surgery if his speech is affected, but that wouldn't be until he was 4-6 and after speech therapy. We are going back in 6 months for a check up. I'm just happy he's doing so well now.

I had a nice surprise today at Mom's group. I left the two big kids in the nursery during the meeting. When I went in afterwards to get them, one of the babysitters pulled me aside and said, "That Madeleine is something else!" (That scared me for a minute, I won't lie.) I asked her, "Good or bad?" She said, "Good!" and then proceeded to positively RAVE about her. She said she had such a great imagination and she could tell she was so creative. She said she was so cute and she reminded her of Shirley Temple, and was very helpful with her brother. Then the other babysitter came over and said that she must be really fun to hang out with. I was Thrilled! She heard most of this conversation but I made sure to tell her how proud I was that she was so good!