Drew has been eating better each day. His diet mainly consists of stage 2 baby foods, baby oatmeal, and yogurt. He also has been drinking a lot of water and milk, although he usually gets a little choked on the water... We have been offering him food about every couple of hours or so which is hard to get use to since we were use to just feeding him 3 meals and one snack a day!
During the day, he plays really good and instead of taking one long nap a day, takes a few shorter ones. He has been choking and coughing a bit and whenever he does that he immediately comes to me for some snuggles :) Don't get me wrong, he is definitely fussy sometimes, but nothing that I can't manage! I think I had expected things to be much worse!!
Daddy is the "medicine man." We are giving him regular Tylenol during the day and the stronger stuff at night. Tomorrow will be the last day for the antibiotic, thank goodness!! I am here by myself today (I'm off work all week) so I guess I will have to try to get the Tylenol down him...
As for the nights, I think I am as tired now as I was when he was first born. Drew has always been a good sleeper and was sleeping consistently through the night from about 11 weeks on. Even after his surgery in February, he only woke up maybe once during the night for the first two nights we were home. Of course he was smaller then and he slept with us on an incline with pillows on each side to keep him from turning over. I don't think he would go for that now! So, we put his arm restraints on him and he stays asleep in his bed for a couple of hours or so but I think that when he wakes up, he feels stuck because of the arm things and that fully wakes him up. I end up going to get him and putting him in bed with us, but he still wakes up a lot. We even had a mini play session at 5am this morning - ugh! Plus, I don't sleep well when he is in bed with us.
Luckily, our plastic surgeon is not a big believer in the arm restraints. He thinks that babies are smart enough to know not to put anything in their mouths because it hurts. We only put them on him at night and he sleeps without them some of the time. So far, he has only tried sneaking his fingers into his mouth a few times... Of course, we don't let him out of our site for a second!
One thing that is better about this surgery is that the wound is on the inside of his mouth. The first two times we had to be so careful with him and he couldn't be on his belly or have his mouth against us. Since Drew is a belly sleeper, I am glad he can still sleep that way!!
As for the mom's who are still preparing for their little ones palate surgery, here a few tips:
1. Take food with you to the hospital. Our hospital only had rice cereal, which Drew ate, but he really loves oatmeal cereal. They also had a few jarred fruits, but if you have a picky eater, just be sure to take what you know he or she will eat. I also packed my own baby juice (the kind that comes in the little 4 oz bottles). And I brought all of my own cups and spoons.
2. His room at the hospital had a tv and dvd player so if your little one has a favorite movie, bring it along! Drew is a big fan of Baby Einstein, but I didn't think to pack it.
3. We really like the open tops cups that Drew is using. Although we have to hold it for him, he does really good with it. The ones we use are by the First Years. What I like about them is they are little (only 4 ounces), clear (so you can see how far to tip it up), and they have little grooves on them so they are easy for him to hold, when he is able to again. Here is a link to them...
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2793340
(We use them without the lids.)
One thing the speech therapist told us to do was put watered down applesauce (or anything) in an open top cup and let him practice drinking from it while sitting in an empty bathtub right before bath time. That way if he makes a mess it doesn't matter because he is getting ready to take a bath. This helped Drew learn how to tip the cup, although, as I mentioned above, we are doing it for him now.
4. Ask your p/s if they will be using packing in his palate. Our p/s didn't say anything about it, but I heard about it from another mom, and sure enough, today this white cotton-like stuff starting coming out of is mouth! They say it is safe for them to eat it, but he spit most of it out. I would have been freaking out if I hadn't heard about the packing before!!!
That is all I can think of for now, but will let you know if I think of anything else.
Of course I can't do a post without sharing some cuteness! From last night...
2 comments:
ok...I have some questions.
*how old is Drew, I read that he was completely off the bottle, but Avie will only be 6 months at the time of her surgery....
*did he ever take a pcifier, she takes one rarely but we are wondering if we should stop now or wait until before the surgery. She is not really that attached to it.
*where exactly is the packing put.....
*Does he have stitches in his mouth? Are they dissolveable(?sp)
I appreciate the info.
Glad all is going well. Isn't amazing what we can handle that we never thought we could. Drew is a doll.
Adalynn did fine with the arm restraints at 3 mos and didn't mind them at 6 mos...but at 11 mos HAH they were just a joke and our PS has about the same philosophy as yours. Babies are smart. They won't mess with their mouth if it hurts and if they do and realize that it hurts more, they WON'T touch it again.
Adalynn didn't sleep well after either of her palate surgeries (she had two). We ended up holding her most of the night. I think it throbbed so much when she was flat in her bed...now she is doing so much better. She is back in her bed, but still wakes up once a night, but only to fall right back to sleep (nestled between mommy and daddy). Both of the boys slept with us and now they are in their own bed, so we figured eventually she will be too! It took "big boy" beds to get them in their own bed all night long and will probably be the same way for her...a big girl bed with lots of frilly girly things.
Keep up the great work! It will be over before you know it and things will be right back to normal!
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