So we had Levi's two week follow up with his plastic surgeon today, and it went really well. She said she was happy with how everything is looking, and gave us the go ahead to stop using the arm restraints! Yay! Levi can bend his elbows again! He is very excited about this, and is enjoying playing with his hands and chewing on his fingers. He missed the freedom of having full use of his arms, and seems thrilled that he doesn't have to wear them anymore. Ryan and I are pretty excited too, as it was getting tiring to always watch out for his arm bands; adjusting them when they slid down, taking them off one at a time to dress him and always making sure that he wasn't putting his hands near his mouth. Everything took a lot longer!
The surgeon noticed that there is still a little notch in his lip, but mentioned that can easily be fixed when they do his palate surgery. We had noticed that his lip isn't quite perfectly lined up, but I think it looks ok, and it's definitely a lot less noticeable than before the surgery. She did mention that things may change as he grows and develops as well, so they'll see what it looks like when it comes time to repair his palate.
The other thing she mentioned is that they will most likely plan to repair his palate when he is around 9 months old. This was a bit of a surprise to me, as I was always told it would be around a year old. It would be nice to have it done this early, for the closer he gets to a year old, the more chance that the cleft palate will affect his speech development. I guess we'll see when it actually gets booked!
Levi has a follow up with his ear specialist next week, to see how his ear tubes are doing. He had them placed at the same time as his lip repair was done and so far he seems to be doing very well with them. It's been neat to see him respond differently to sounds now that he has those in. Before the surgery, he had quite a bit of fluid in his ears (which is common with cleft palate children) and it was obvious that he wasn't hearing as clearly as he could. You know how things sound when you're under water? That's how Levi was hearing prior to his surgery. Now he responds much quicker to voices and sounds.
It's been amazing watching Levi develop and change over the past 4.5 months. His smiles and laughs are wonderful and it's been fun to see him start to roll over. It's also been great to see his personality develop. He is such a content, happy little man and has continued to display these characteristics despite the challenges that he is facing. It's been a joy to watch him grow, and Ryan and I are looking forward to walking through the next years with him; through his next surgeries and each new milestone. It's definitely exciting and I hope Ryan and I are up for the challenge! We, again, thank you for your thoughts and prayers as we continue on this journey called parenthood.
Thanks for reading!
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