Surgery Date!

We have a surgery date for our sweet Carver boy!

We’ve been waiting for OR availability within the window our surgeon was aiming for, and we’re thrilled to share that surgery is officially scheduled for September 19, exactly 5 months and 5 days after his birth. This first procedure will focus on his lip repair, with his palate repair to follow when he turns one. We were relieved to find out that we’ll be staying overnight at the Iowa City Children’s Hospital. It gives us peace of mind to know we’ll be monitored closely after surgery.

We’ve been reading, planning, and preparing for what that week will look like, lots of contact naps, around-the-clock pain management, and soaking up all the snuggles we can.

Our strong little guy is adjusting like a champ.

Carver is doing amazing with his NAM device (on most days!), and we give him breaks when he needs them. His pediatric dentist recently said that the progress in just these first two months has been incredible! He even mentioned that surgery could be bumped sooner, though we ultimately left that call to our surgeon. Hearing that was such a huge moment for us. We’re doing this.  And we’re doing it well, despite the challenges. 

The NAM with the taping to push his lips closer

While we’ll be so glad to be done with the NAM someday, we know how important it is. In the next few weeks, his dentist will add a nose stent, which will help shape his nose before surgery. It’ll be attached to his NAM, and we’re hoping Carver doesn’t start tugging at it once he notices it. He’s so strong already, and we know he’ll handle it like he always does, with resilience. 

Our boy is thriving. His weight gain has been great! So great, in fact, that there’s no longer any talk of fortifying his bottles with formula. He’s been eating like a champ! We’re using the Dr. Brown’s specialty bottles, which come with various nipple sizes. For a while, we stuck with size 1, per our speech pathologist’s recommendation. But eventually, I could just tell it wasn’t working, he was taking way too long to eat, and it was so hard for him. One morning, I made the decision to bump him to size 2, and it was a game changer!

We’re still learning what nipple size is right for him as he grows and feeding him definitely keeps us on our toes. We watch every feed closely, pausing if he starts to cough or needs a break, and managing spit-up days with patience (and a lot of burp cloths). But we think the nipple change is part of what’s helped him gain so much weight, and we couldn’t be prouder.

Double chin!

What’s next:

Our next appointment with the surgeon will be in August for his pre-op visit. Until then, we’re continuing our weekly Monday trips to Iowa City for dental adjustments through July. In August, we’ll finally switch to every other week, and then post-surgery, Carver won’t need the NAM anymore, and those regular appointments will be behind us. Just saying that feels wild!

My FAVE pic ever. He is such a happy boy!

We still have a long road ahead, but when we look back at how far we’ve come, the first week, the first month, and now two full months, we’re overwhelmed with pride. It hasn’t been easy, but the support from our family, friends, and other cleft parents has made all the difference. We love hearing from other families about their experiences and everyone reaching out has meant so much to us. 

We’re counting down the days to surgery, but in the meantime, we’ll be soaking up every single smile (NAM and all.)