The begining

Our cleft journey began one year ago today. It was this day we received the news that our baby boy would be born with a cleft lip. As devastating as that news was at the time it makes me happy today. It brought us the most adorable, the strongest, and the happiest baby I have ever known. And THAT makes me one proud mama! I'm so happy he is ours no matter how he came to us! He's definitely an extra special boy.

Our journey has been one of tears and frustration but many many more smiles. If you ask me its all been contradictory. We were blessed with a perfect little baby and then told he needed a fixing. No, no he doesn't. He's already perfect. But we knew it had to be done. It wasn't an elective surgery because we wanted Hudson to look "normal". It was a very necessary surgery to improve eating and speaking habits which if not corrected could cause health issues and communication problems. If nothing else, that is the one thing I want other people to understand. We didn't need Hudson to look "normal" we needed him to eat with out problems and speak properly. Who wants to be normal these days anyway? Well it was definitely love at first sight when I first laid eyes on Hudson. And to think the face we fell in love with would have to be changed made me just a little bit sad. Ok so I was more than a little bit sad. But I have done my best to make this journey positive. So my come back to that is: we were lucky enough to be blessed with TWO adorable little smiles! Take that!

Hudson has seriously been the best baby I have ever known. And thats why I have to say, our cleft journey has really been a piece of cake. I feel totally and completely blessed to have been given such a cooperative baby with what lied ahead of us and him. We've had some rough spots don't get me wrong... don't make me have you go back a read our feeding difficulties, day 1 of the NAM, that moment when I watched my baby disappear behind those surgery doors and that heart breaking first cry when he was back in my arms. BUT in the big scheme of things Hudson has been a champ! He deserves an award! Although those trying times have made us all stronger (what doesn't kill you makes you stronger) I like to focus on just how amazing Hudson has been through what he has been faced with. I'm telling you he was MADE for it! I have definitely enjoyed our journey. Hudson has made it more than worth it.

Ok ok enough of how amazing and wonderful Hudson is, well you are reading my blog...

Hudson and I made a familiar drive back out to Phoenix for a check up with his surgeon Dr. Beals yesterday. I was rather excited to meet with him again after a long 3 months. I had a few questions and concerns I wanted to get out of the way. If you have not had the pleasure of looking into the mouth of Hudson then you don't know that he has 2, yes 2, uvulas. Dr. Beals assured me he would sew them together to make one. I was tempted to ask him to leave the 2 but decided against it. :-P He also explained to me how he would close his cleft palate, but to save you all from confusion I'm not going to try and explain it. Rest be assured it sounded good to me. He also wanted Hudson to meet with an ear doctor. I told him Hudson just had his first ear infection last week and that he handled it so well that we didn't even know about it! But by what he said to me I got the impression he wanted Hudson to have tubes put in. He told me cleft babies are more prone to ear infections and can't handle all the extra drainage caused by the cleft palate. Which I knew and thats why I was so impressed that Hudson JUST had his first ear infection. I'll still meet with the ENT but I almost want to decide against tubes since his ears have not been a problem for us but on the other hand since he is more prone to them I want to go with the ear tubes just as a precaution. Decisions, decisions... Hence why I will still meet with the ENT.

Hudson also had a mini photo shoot while we were there. If you know Hudson he loves having his picture taken. Which is why ALL my pictures of him are smiling ones. I assured the lady taking the pictures that he will smile for her. And sure enough he didn't let me down and right as she was about to snap a photo he flashed her one of this breath taking smiles. And continued to smile until he had to lay down. He wasn't about to lay down for nobody! She though it was so funny that he actually smiled for the camera. That's my boy! He knows how good he looks!

My main excitement for this appointment was to get an idea on when his palate repair will be. Dr. Beals does palate repairs between 9 and 12 months and said that Hudson is ready for it. So we spoke with his surgery coordinator. Although I knew what her answer would be for me. Since Curtis lost his job and has yet to get a new one we are in the middle of applying for AHCCCS. With surgery in our near future I wasn't about to go without insurance. So with that in mind the coordinator told me once we are approved to give her a call and THEN we can set a surgery date. I was hoping we wouldn't have to wait but we couldn't avoid it. She told me it would most likely be in January right after is first birthday. Awesome, Hudson will get to pig out on cake right before surgery. That should give him the extra weight he'll need!


All in all everything was covered and our journey continues.