Happy Halloween

First food - BANANAS!

I think he likes them.

Cleft team appointment - 2 months post op

I took Simon to RUSH for his 2 month post-op checkup on Tuesday. He saw Dr. Figueroa (orthodontist, top) and Dr. Polley (surgeon, bottom) and they say everything looks great! His lip and nose are healing well, and the redness of the scar will continue to fade over time.

The best news is that his palate cleft is already closing quite a bit. Dr. Polley says that after he does the lip surgery and soft palate repair at the same time, the tension in the front and back of the mouth allow the hard palate to gradually grow closer together. This doesn't always happen, but it is working for Simon. He is very optimistic that we will be able to do the palate repair on the early side - he mentioned March dates, but I'm expecting more like April or May as we originally discussed.

We want to strike a balance between making sure the cleft is as small as we can get it before doing the repair, and doing it early so his speech development is not delayed. The other good news is that we don't have to go back until early February, when we will check the progress of the palate. It will be great to have a long break from doctors' offices!

More Visitors

We had a great time this weekend, taking in the fall colors and visiting with Aunt M and Uncle J. Simon is enjoying his new super awesome Rubik's Duckie. As usual, I was having too much fun and didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked, but here is a fun video.

The Sultan of Apartment 2A