Tough Kiddo

This surgery recovery has been hard. More than what I expected. Ricky was such a go with the flow kind of baby I thought he would go with the flow. Well we got a peek inside of his mouth to see the repair work.

1. His gums - his cleft went to the gum. He had two small gaps on each side of his front teeth. Well now he is sewn up there.

2. Stitches in the middle of his palate.

4. Packing on each side of his mouth. For those who don't know, how they fix the cleft palate is that they basically remove the skin off the palate - what is there basically and they shift it to the middle to close the whole. The sides are left raw since tissue will go back there - they place dissolveable packing there with several stitches.

No wonder why this kiddo is in pain eh? Well Thursday we really hit rock bottom. One word to those who are following with children still needing the repair - STAY ON SCHEDULE. Okay more than one word but stay on schedule with Tylenol with Codeine. We were going with the way Ricky was acting not on schedule. Well he was fine so we didn't give him medicine. Well then it hit him and it took hours, long hours to get him back to feeling okay. We ended up having to syringe force feed fluids into him because he wouldn't eat or drink.

Eating and Drinking really isn't normal. Ricky was a pig about eating. Well he has definitely slowed down. He just have no real interest in eating unless it what his Sissy is eating. Oh yeah, we have gotten his addicted to Diet Coke. He wasn't drinking at all but shown interest in Daddy's coke. So we got desperate. Yes he drank Diet Coke. Now when he sees a can he gets all excited. We are weaning him off.

Ricky has also become the Velcro baby. Those familar with adoption know that sometimes when you get home from China - the baby doesn't want to be put down because he/she is anxiously attached to you. Ricky was never really this way. He liked to be held but was much more independent. Well I think he has finally figured out we are Mommy and Daddy. He is very much a Velcro baby. We are trying to accomodate him but also try to teach him his independence. He does like to sleep on us now - never did before. He also comes for us to comfort - never did before.

Sleep is another issue. Ricky was pretty good about sleep. It did take the first month home to really get him to sleep through the night. Well now we are up 2-3 times a night. We are very very tired. Hopefully this regression will go away as he starts to feel better.