Guardian Angels Are Real

I know that one such angel is named Jennifer. I received a call Wednesday, November 30th, at 8:14 in the evening from Jennifer Bowen from the UAB Cleft and Craniofacial Center. I had called the center and left a message inquiring about what bottles I should send in our care package, if any at all. God love this precious lady who called me back on her own personal time, at night even! I tell you she is an anwered prayer! She immediately put me at ease letting me know that she would personally make sure that I knew all that I needed to know BEFORE we go to get baby Hope. She said she would help me come up to speed on bottles, and lip care and feeding and all those things that are making me insane because I cannot find any information on cleft care as it relates to a toddler! There is this huge vaccum of nothing as it relates to taking care of a child whose lip was not closed at 3 months and palate soon there after. I'm thinking it has to be out there somewhere but not even Eric could find it. In all my spare time raising 3 kids I'll be working on getting that remedied. But back to wonderful Jennifer!

She told me all about the cleft clinic and told me that she would help me get in touch with a feeding specialist there who would be able to tell me what I can feed Hope, how I can feed Hope, and all that feeding a toddler with an un-repaired cleft lip and palate entails. She also told me about the "clinic" days they have where they see tons of kids in the clinic. She said I might like to come to clinic one day and just watch everything. I think bringing Noah to clinic would be a fabulous idea. I hope to try to help desensitize him a little before we bring Hope home. I think if he could see children in different stages of the healing process it would help him. If he could see a baby with an un-repaired lip...even better! She said she would send me some resources for Noah, to help him understand and adjust.

She was so reassuring and funny and helpful. I'm thrilled to have this resource! She let me know about a study that just came out that they had done. They did a comparison with regards to speech delays and issues with children who had their repairs done at 1 year (normal amount of time if born with cleft in a country that can repair it) and with children who had their repairs done at 2 years old (children like our Hope). What they found was that there was no significant differences at all with regards to speech issues or success. The clinic is very concerned about children not being ridiculed about speech issues and are on top of that issue, it is very important to them. Which is awesome!

Jennifer was just so reassuring and calming. Can I say that enough?! After talking with her, I finally felt like I could really handle all of this. I know that I would have handled it without knowing Jennifer and the cleft clinic, but now it is going to be sooooo much easier. Resources people! Always search out your resources!