Prenatal Care

We started seeing our specialist at Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM) every six weeks starting in August until “Peanut” was born. They performed growth scans to monitor his cleft lip and tried to confirm if his palate was affected, but they never could because of how the nasal cavities appeared on the ultrasounds. Hey, at least we got to see our little guy more often!

Since they couldn’t confirm the palate, we prayed it would only be the lip, as that would mean just one, possibly two, surgeries—depending on whether his gum line was cleft as well. I was really hoping it was only the lip because I wanted to breastfeed more than anything. If the palate is affected, babies have a much harder time creating suction. Babies with cleft palates often burn more calories trying to feed than they actually get from the milk, so specialty bottles are a huge help.

The specialist referred us to meet with a cleft team at Primary Children’s in Salt Lake to get more information and prepare us for what was to come. Let me tell you—there is a lot to come. They talked to us about the different types of clefts, things we could do to help lessen the gap before surgery, and all the surgeries Jack might need. You guys, I’m not kidding—there are about 20 different surgeries cleft babies could go through, depending on their situation. Some surgeries are confirmed at birth, while others depend on how the baby grows. Most surgeries are done while they’re young, but some can’t be done until they’re teenagers.

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