And so it begins...

Simon had a busy day today. Yesterday, the little tooth at the site of the cleft in his gumline was getting really irritated, so we called the cleft team and they moved up his next appointment to this morning. We headed over to Rush first thing in the morning. The orthodontist pulled his little tooth, which was a big relief both for us and for Simon. I don't think it was very painful for him...it's not like pulling an adult tooth. This one was just hanging by a thread and had to go. They were nice enough to give us his tooth after they pulled it, presenting it in a surprisingly cute little treasure box. We'll put it under a pillow tonight and see what happens.

While we were there, they also took an impression of his mouth for the NAM device. The NAM is basically a retainer with a little ball on the end that goes into his right nostril, helping to reshape the nose before his lip is repaired. We're supposed to head back in on Friday to pick up the NAM, learn how to install it, clean it, feed with it, etc., and then he'll wear it until the lip surgery later this year.

The whole process of pulling the tooth and taking the impression lasted only a few minutes, and although the Little Dude cried through the whole thing, he was surprisingly calm afterwards. I like to think he was relieved to have that irritated tooth out of his mouth.

So the process of fixing up his little face really got started today. On the one hand, it's a relief to get the process going, but on the other hand, it's a little sad to see all the poking and prodding underway. For his first couple of weeks, Simon was pretty content to just hang out and be himself, cleft and all, without any tape on his face or any weird dental devices in his mouth. But we trust that one day he'll be glad we put him through all this.