So there we were in the hospital with a new baby that had a cleft lip, cleft palate and a tiny little cleft in his gum. I had so many questions those first few days and to this day, almost 4 months later we still get asked those very same questions we were asking ourselves. What causes a cleft? This is apparently the million dollar question. There are several things that have been proven to cause a cleft. The first being heredity, does anyone in our families have a cleft? The answer is NO, no one on either side has ever had a cleft lip or cleft palate. Secondly, medication, specifically Dilantin which is an anti seizure medication. I have never taken Dilantin in my life, I don't have seizures or any health problems for that matter. Third, a low folic acid level in the first trimester of pregnancy? Mmmmmm, possibly. This one isn't proven, there are a few articles on it randomly on the internet, one from the march of dimes you can read about here but for the most part it is just one of those things that happens. Fourth, diabetes, diagnosed before pregnancy. Fifth, consuming alcohol during pregnancy which I did not do. My bet is on the folic acid for me, I had lost about 60 lbs around the time we conceived and had been dieting and working out regularly. I'm convinced my levels were low and that is what happened in our case. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently estimated that each year 2,651 babies in the United States are born with a cleft palate and 4,437 babies are born with a cleft lip with or without a cleft palate. Cleft lip is more common than cleft palate. Isolated orofacial clefts, or clefts that occur with no other birth defects, are one of the most common birth defects in the United States. About 70% of all orofacial clefts are isolated clefts. Thats A LOT !! Well, to me it is anyway. That comes out to about 1 in 650 caucasion births. It is more common in asian and less common in african american babies. Go figure. I poured myself into learning everything I could possible learn about clefts in that first few weeks and couple of months. There are a few celebrities that were born with clefts which was encouraging to me at that time because I was so worried about Alex and what people would think when they saw him. Now, it doesn't really matter that much to me, hes beautiful and I can't wait to see where this road takes him in his life!! I know he will be a blessing to someone who needs to hear his story. Peyton Manning was born with a cleft palate, he gives annually to operation smile and gives money toward cleft lip and palate research. Joaquin Phoenix, yes, the guy in the gladiator, he has that pretty little scar on his lip, and it has helped to cast him in lots of tough guy roles. Cool huh? We have whats called a bilateral cleft lip and unilateral palate. Here's what his palate looks like. EVERY single cleft is different, each having their own involvement.
Second most asked question : Is he eating well?
Is he eating? If we've been asked that question once we've been asked one million times. The answer is YES !!! PRAISE THE LORD, he eats like a champ. When we were in the hospital we were given cleft nipples, you know the ones that are individually wrapped like the similac ones? Except these said CLEFT NIPPLE on them, I hated them, I hated looking over under his bassinet and seeing the word cleft. I struggled, for about 2 weeks with just the word. I cried every single day, all anyone could tell me was OH, Sheena, it could be so much worse. I didn't care, this was my worst. I wanted him to be normal, so this momma got him to eat from a dr. browns bottle and he did great except it took him FOREVER to eat.I should also mention, he wanted NO part of the cleft nipple, its long and skinny and it was just awkward to him apparently because if you tried to put it in his mouth he immediately started trying to push it out with his tongue. See the problem with a cleft palate is thats where we get our suction, when a baby sucks on a bottle or a paci or breast feeds, a suction is created inside your mouth and the palate plays a HUGE part in that. When its open, it makes things more difficult. So the day after we were discharged from the hospital we went to see the plastic surgeon at the cleft clinic at children's. While we were there we were given SO much wonderful information and they answered a ton of our questions. We wanted knowledge, a plan on repairing our little sweet lip and we needed something to look forward to. When you go to the cleft clinic you go into a room after you sign in and you are seen by an array of folks. The day we went, when he was 4 days old, mind you, we saw an audiologist, a speech pathologist, a geneticist, and a plastic surgeon. WHOA !! I felt like a new lady when we left. Elizabeth, one of our awesome speech lady's at the cleft clinic asked me how he was eating, I told her he was eating good which wasn't a lie but I knew it was taking him WAY too long. He would eat 2 ounces and it would take him 30 minutes. It was rough. She asked me all the right questions and explained to us that if he was taking that long to eat he was burning off the food he was eating because he was sucking too long. She introduced us to the pigeon bottle, it saved our sanity. IT was made for cleft babies and boy was I glad at that point, feedings were taking up most of our day. Basically it has a funny looking nipple and a little valve that fits inside the nipple that allows the baby to pinch the nipple with his mouth rather than having to suck so hard, the valve regulates the flow and the nipple helps keep baby from working so hard for his food. The bottle is also squeezable, so that if the baby is having trouble getting the milk to come out you can give it a squeeze and help them out a little. The only problem with this fine invention is that they are very proud of them and there is ONE, yes i said ONE company that makes them. Thank you mead johnson for having the entire monopoly on pigeon bottles and charging 35 bucks a piece for them !! GEEZ!!! Needless to say we worked with 3 bottles for quite some time. I did figure out that the bottle ring would fit on our dr. browns bottles so that helped some. We still, 4 months in only have 3 bottle rings, 6 nipples and 6 valves, its worked this long though so why buy anymore right ? HA!! Its become habit that if the middle of the sink is full you wash them, often this is what you see in the center of our sink. I have failed to mention how wonderful of a husband I have. He never hesitates to wash or change or feed a child when something needs to be done. I don't give him enough credit. 
Here's a nipple and valve picture, the nipple has a notch that you line up with his nose that allows the flat part to be right side up. Neat huh?
Here's the pliable bottle
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