Surgery is Scheduled

Nothing says "Happy 9 month Birthday Milestone" like a trip to the hospital. Hannah met with her surgeon today and her surgery is officially scheduled for October 5th at 5:30 am. It is so weird to see it written on my calendar because when this whole thing started it seemed like 9 months was a long way away. Hannah's team will consist of her surgeon, ENT, pediatric anesthesiologist and multiple nurses. THe hospital has 9 pediatric anesthesiologists. My Dr. said 5 are outstanding. I asked him to schedule Hannah with the one he would choose for his own child. He has already put in the written request and the entire team is coordinated. THe surgery will last 4 hours. It starts so early because she can't eat anything after her previous night's bottle. Hannah will spend one night in the hospital if all goes well. The first day she is fed through an IV. Day 2-day 7 she can eat formula. Week 2-Week 4 she can have baby food (fed by parents only, she can't use the spoon herself). I am happy because he said she would not have to use the arm restraints if we take away all of her hard toys. A lot of the time they make babies wear arm restraints for one month to prevent them from putting things in their mouth. He said she will be fine if we give her soft toys, but no sophie giraffe, xylophone mallet, hard rattles or rinky links. He said one month after surgery she will be cleared to eat anything her heart desires:) THe palate actually takes around 6 months to completely heal so she may still have food come out her nose during the recovery period because it takes time for the new palate to become malleable enough to push the food down and function properly. He also thinks her language will take off after the repair (I hope he is right.) With the cleft Hannah can't really babble with consonants because too much air escapes out her nose to make those sounds. THat is the same reason why her laugh is so deep (which I think is cute). So while I don't know where I will find the strength to hand over my baby girl, I am very excited for the day to come so we can put this little hiccup behind us.

Plastic surgeons spend their days making their patients more beautiful, but I think Hannah is already his most gorgeous patient.