update: post-palate surgery

Most of you know that Judah had his palate surgery this past Wednesday.  After a few long days in the hospital, we came home Friday afternoon.  Recovery has gone slow -- poor Judah is absolutely miserable!  His surgeon told us that Judah's repair was pretty extensive (more than most), but that's because his cleft was bilateral and very wide!  (BTW- we love Judah's surgeon, Dr. John Grant, and the cleft team at Children's Hospital of AL!)  We'll see Dr. Grant in about three weeks, and at that point he should see good indication of Judah's healing, or foreseeable complications.  Of course, you know what we're praying for!  For now, it's a soft food diet and arm restraints.

Judah's nasal cavity, palate and top of his throat were all reworked (for lack of a better term), which I'm sure is extremely painful -- but he also has a low-grade fever and what appears to be a sinus infection.  Not only is he learning to breathe with a reduced air-way, his air-way is full of snot!  I think the most difficult part for him is sleep, simply because he cannot breathe and therefore constantly wakes himself up.

I've also wasted more juice, milk, pediasure, pedialyte, sorbet....he just is not in the mood to eat or drink...nothing feels right in his mouth.

All that said, he's been a trooper!  I really am proud of him!  He sure has been through a lot in the first 20-months of his life!  Gracious thanks to you who have been praying for him -- you're prayers are felt every day!!

all about judah!

It's been a really, really long time since I've posted an update about Judah...sorry!!!  It's not that there isn't anything to tell...because there is!  But life with two toddlers is simply busy.  And blogging just doesn't make it to the top-few things I try to accomplish during my 1-2 hours of daily peace-and-quite.

So, Judah...

He's doing amazing!!  I like to call him my sweetness.  He's so laid back, and loves to cuddle and giggle -- and he is totally a mommy's boy! He is still playing catch-up -- but he makes progress every day!  We like to joke that he's a marathoner, NOT a sprinter (like his older brother)!  When he came to us in December, he knew nothing!  Literally!  Could not sit up, hold his bottle, feed himself...you name it!  He was a 14-month old new born.  But he's now doing all those things!  He started crawling in April, and he should be walking by the end of the summer. 

They (the professionals) say that for every month that a child is institutionalized, it will take as many subsequent months for them to catch up.  So we're looking at Feb 2012 as our goal for Judah to have mastered his age-appropriate skills (well, minus speech).

His cleft lip repair has healed nicely -- though it will be several more months before the scar tissue is gone.  We are now totally used to his new mouth!  It's hard to remember his precious, super-wide pre-repair mouth, so I'm glad we took tons of pics before his first surgery.

His palate surgery is scheduled for this Wednesday (Lord willing).  Our surgeon, Dr. John Grant (who is AMAZING) said there is a 90% chance that this will be the only palate repair Judah will need!  DEAR FRIENDS- will you please pray with us that this is the case -- that God will heal Judah with this surgery!  We don't ask for healing for selfish reasons, but that God would be glorified!  Judah will still need a gum line bone graft when his adult teeth come in, but that's several years down the road.

Once Judah recovers from his palate surgery, we'll start to hit speech therapy pretty hard!  He's so ready ready to talk (and sing)!  And he already tries to repeat much of what we say!  Some of his words -- mama, amen, I love you -- are actually a little intelligible.

sweetest little face! his little heart is open-wide!

first game of chase with big brother!