Cleft lip and cleft palate.

So along with the good news of having a little boy, we got some sad news from our most recent round of ultrasounds.  Little Camilo has a cleft lip and cleft palate. The lip, as far as the doctors can tell, looks like it is a complete, unilateral cleft on the right side that extends up into his right nostril and gum line.

Please forgive how skeletal he looks, Chaka won't put on any fat until the 3rd trimester! So looking at his face, which he tried to keep buried into my back the whole exam, is like a mirror image, but you can see the cleft lip on his left side.  One of our fantastic doctors was also able to confirm a cleft of the palate as well. Although this was a shock and heartbreak for us at first, we've learned SO MUCH in the past few weeks that this really doesn't seem like such a big deal anymore. First of all, cleft lip and palate is the most come birth defect of babies all over the world. It occurs in approximately 1 in every 500 babies. The good news is that these defects are usually almost completely cosmetic, with zero or only minor medical side effects or complications. What this means practically for us and for chaka is 1) no breastfeeding. I'll have to pump milk and using special bottles and nipples to compensate for his inability to "suck."  I'm pretty bummed about this, but we'll be fine. 2) there will be 3 surgeries for sure; the first when he's 3 months old to sew up the lip, the second at 10-12 months to close the palate, and the third when he's about 7 years old to put a bone graft in the gum line. In rare cases, additional but minor surgeries can be performed to remove scar tissue or to improve speech.  What I think is great is that most of problem period and surgeries will happen when he's so young, he won't even remember. And after that 1st surgery at 3 months, he'll look just like any other normal baby! And the BEST news of all is that all of the doctors have concluded the same thing: the clefting is isolated and they've found no evidence of any other defects or syndromes! If you google cleft lip or palate, right away you'll find scary pictures and terrible stories of horrible illness that come along with clefting. Although the list of potential "associated syndromes" is long (+500), most them are extremely rare, usually come with a family history, and can't necessarily be diagnosed until birth or some months afterward. In our case, this will be a first for both of our families and the doctors were already able to rule all of the truly frightening illnesses -especially the fatal ones! yay!  They also told us that one of the most important markers for birth defects other than the heart and brain (which are both perfect by the way!) are the fingers and hands. So here, for your viewing pleasure, is a shot of Camilo's perfect hand and perfect 5 fingers!