WWW.CLEFTSTORIES.COM

Emily's blog is now located at www.cleftstories.com. I just registered this domain so I can add some more functionality to the blog. From now on, all new posts will be from that domain. Don't forget, www.cleftstories.com. I'll see you there!

Audiology Update

Emily had a follow-up visit with a local audiologist this past week and the news was good. He said her hearing was perfect, and that her ear canals were three times wider than when we first took her in (about six weeks before she got the tubes put in). At that time he told us that she could not hear well enough to learn to talk. This is a scary thing to hear from an audiologist, but we knew it was only due to fluid and the problem would correct itself when she got the tubes (which it did). Plus the folks at NYU did not want Emily to start with speech until her palate was fixed so she would not develop bad habits. Now she's making many normal sounds and saying a few words ("hi" and "bye" and "mama"). She's doing so well that her speech therapist thinks that she doesn't need therapy anymore! She's going to come in once a month to follow her progress and reevaluate her again as she begins talking more.

She's still a very quiet baby and only babbles when she's around us (Me, Jim and Ana). She seems quite happy to watch the world quietly and, while she's friendly, she does not open up to people that she doesn't know. I guess it's not second nature for her to use language because her hearing was so poor for her entire first year of life. I never realized how important that window of time was for language. I'm just relieved that she's babbling now and starting to form words. She's a silent talker - tends to gesture and use some signs to tell us what she wants. I'm looking forward to hearing more words, but I won't push her.



Well, I had a little fun with all that baby hair. What else am I supposed to do with it??

NYU Reunion

I got together with a few other families this past weekend. These are people who brought their babies to NYU around the same time as I brought Emily and now the babies are all one and doing great! Pictures say more than words can..

From left to right Sean (18 months), Jackie (13 months), Zachary (13 months), and Emily (15 months). Jackie was not born with a cleft - she's Zachary's twin sister. Michael is missing from this picture which is a total bummer...


Here's Michael helping Emily with her cup. They played very well together.


Zachary's giving the puzzle piece a taste, and Emily is delighted with his ingenuity.


Emily and I in Colleen's pool. It was the perfect day for a swim.


Thanks to Colleen for hosting this party. It was so great to see the babies together and have a chance to talk about the experience with other parents who understand. I hope we make this an annual ritual.

Milestones

A true multitasker, here's Emily eating a pretzel and waving.

After a cautious start about six weeks ago, Emily has gone from taking 6-7 tentative steps at a time to walking EVERYWHERE. She loves to walk from room to room waving and saying "bye." She's also starting to say new words such as "da da" and "cat." She can make "g" "d" "b" and hard "c" sounds. She still only has four teeth (at nearly 15 months old). I can't wait until more come in. She's making progress at night - sleeping sometimes all the way through, but still wakes up about once a night for a cuddle. She goes to sleep without a fuss now - I just lay her in her crib wide awake, tuck the blankets around her, give her a kiss and her cup with water and leave. It's amazing. She's sucking normally now (I think) - she can empty a cup with a valve in mere minutes, though the valve is slightly augmented. She's really a toddler and has begun throwing tantrums when displeased. It's so hard keeping her royal highness satisfied!

Holiday Blues

Emily has suffered through another ear infection for this Fourth of July holiday. I'd thought we were done with those since she got tubes put in during her palate surgery in April, but apparently tubes are not a cure-all for infections. We all caught a horrendous cold last week so things have been miserable in general, but Emily seemed really hard hit. She had a fever of over 102 for three days in a row so I took her to the doctor and was shocked when he said her ears were infected. So we've been giving her ear drops for the last couple of days and she's finally doing better - no more fever - and a happier kid.


Here's Emily on the mend after four days of poor sleep and crankiness.


No comment necessary.


Ana may be too big for this toy, don't you think?

Learning new things

Emily loves to draw, which seems pretty cool considering she's only 14 months old, but she really surprised us when she climbed up on this little chair (belonging to Ana) and started coloring today.


This kid's got more concentration than me.

Emily is doing so many new things. Her speech therapist was so impressed with her progress that she thinks Emily may not need therapy much longer. She has started saying "bye" and waving and she babbles a lot now using both vowels and consonant sounds (a very good sign this soon after palate surgery). I have heard her say "night night" and "catch" and she seems to be trying to say other words such as "again" which was just sort of a "g" noise.


She is climbing and walking a lot more now. Here is my little chubster in a swim diaper (we played outside with Ana and the garden hose). She can climb up and down on that toy without falling (mostly).

Her progress is amazing. Seems she wants to make up for lost time.

Queen of Cups

Here's the queen holding her cup. This is such a a huge accomplishment for Emily since we basically held her bottle for the entire first year of her life (a bottle we had to squeeze so she'd get the milk). This is the first time she's really had to work on feeding herself, and she's doing a great job. She'll still refuse to hold her own cup, but she's getting more independent with it. She's started having tantrums which are so sad, but she really is learning. She was throwing the cup down if I didn't hold it, so what I started doing is leaving it in front of her when she signs "more" and walking out of the room. She'll inevitably pick it up on her own and start drinking from it if there was no one to hold it for her.


A nice shot of actual lip closure around the spout (trust me on that). Can you see the dimple near her mouth in this picture? That means she's actually getting suction. She can empty a full cup - with the valve slightly augmented - in about a half hour (she puts the cup down and picks it up a lot during this time).


Ana insisted on demonstrating that she, too, can hold her own cup.