Leo's surgeon appointment

First of all, another view of this boy standing. He stands constantly now! He just got it. He's trying to cruise around furniture already, and standing straight up even holding on with just one hand. He's already causing destruction! The other day Madeleine was eating a bowl of grapes on the couch and he came over, stood up, and threw the bowl on the ground, scattering grapes everywhere. And now he can get the small box of little, miscellaneous toys off the toy box and scatter it everywhere! Silly boy!

So the surgeon appointment. Dr S. was thrilled with his size! His speech therapist wrote a three page letter to him about his progress. He was very happy with how he's eating. He did say that he wouldn't be able to use his paci or bottle after surgery, so it's better to get him off of them before. This really makes me sad! He loves his paci and bottle. And I love giving him his bottle, especially in bed in the morning and rocking him before naps and bed. But he's working on his cup and making progress, and he only gets his paci in his bed now. Does anyone know how to get him off his paci? He loves it. He puts one in his mouth and holds one in his hand while going to sleep. If he wakes up at night and can't find it, he cries until we come stick it in his mouth. This is NOT gonna be fun.

So the surgeon said that we could do the surgery in February. He'll be 14 months. He is going to see an ENT in January to evaluate whether to do ear tubes at the same time, while he's already under. Even though he has only had 2 ear infections in his life (VERY good for a cleft baby!) they might do it to prevent future ear infections - apparently the eustacian tubes are attached to the muscles they pull together during the surgery, causing them to flatten out, so kids can have trouble with ear infections afterwards. He's also going back to the surgeon in January, and they'll tell us everything we need to know. I do know that he will have to stay in the hospital probably one or two nights, until he starts eating there. He said some kids refuse to eat or drink and then they have to stay longer. He'll have to wear arm restraints for THREE WEEKS to prevent him from putting anything in his mouth. And he also has to eat very soft foods for 4 weeks - off the side of a spoon.

This is all really scary, especially thinking about him being in pain and recovery being hard on the whole family. But after it's over, he'll be able to start making lots more sounds, learn words, and eat a LOT more different kinds of food than he can now. I'm definitely looking forward to that. I'm trying to focus on that instead of thinking of him being scared and in pain. Poor baby. :(