Whole New World: Oh Boy, we are still busy!! Cleft check up and Family Portraits

So, Steve was on vacation last week and was left with a honey do list! One thing on the list was to take Ruthie for a follow up visit with her surgeon, Dr. Ray. Dr. Ray was more than pleased with
Ruthie's lip. Steve said that he could not believe how fabulous she looked! He was more than excited and spent a good amount of time having a stare down with her. He did say that the muscle in her lip is like a tight rope right now. He said that her lip would draw up for a few weeks, then go back
to where it is now and stay that way. He said at that point, you will never know that she had surgery! He said that it looks so well that he wants to see her back in a month to review and then set up her 2nd surgery. He thinks that we could move it up to possibly February. This surgery will be more dramatic for Ruthie. We could spend up to 4 days in the hospital. He said that she handles her pain and adjustment so well, that it could possibly only be 2 days for us.

Now, about the surgery...In our mouths, we have a muscle that grows in 3 spots, nasal cavity, palate and the back of our throat. He will have to cut all three places and pull them all together. When it is complete, he will place cotton around the outside of the "pull together" until it heals/stops
bleeding. Apparently, this process is going to be hard on Ruthie because of the bleeding and her learning how to breath out of her nose and not the hole in her palate any longer. That is the main reason why they want to keep her in for more than just one day, to monitor her eating and breathing. Her recovery will be a little longer than her lip. She will have to learn how to eat and breath at the same time.

Her hearing and ears were fabulous!

She will not have her gum fixed until her 3rd surgery, when she turns 5. When they correct her gum, they will have to take some bone from her hip. We are not going to think about that until the time comes. One step at a time.

I will not know the date of her surgery until January 3rd. Until then, we will embrace the holidays and enjoy my almond eyed firecracker princess!

We decided that it was time to have our family portraits made with the 5 of us. Ruthie didn't get her nap and she sure showed it! By the time we were getting ready to wrap up an hour photo shoot, she came around and was the spunky little girl that she can be!! We had a great time and got some great shots! How thankful we are to be a family of 5!!