A quick update...

I will be seeing "The Team" for the first time next Friday, but so far things are really looking good for me. Mommy says I am much stronger than she expected. I already lift my whole head up and look around, I can keep a paci in my mouth all by myself with good suction... and most cleft babies can't at all. Mommy also found me the bestest bottles and I feed very well with them and don't get gas as bad. Mommy really thinks that after my surgery things are going to go very well for me and that maybe I won't need anything else at all. I am beating the odds already so why not keep it up? I am really putting on weight too... well, I haven't been back to the doctor yet but mommy says she can tell that I am just a little chubbier everywhere. Sometimes it is annoying how she is always chompin on my chubby cheekies. But I love mommy anyway. I think I will keep her. Anyhow, keep lookin for updates and I will keep my mommy typing my blogs as often as there is something to type about.

Love, Bella

My Story

My name is Isabella (my family calls me Bella). I was born on March 1, 2010 with a rare birth defect called Pierre Robin's Sequence. Nobody even knew I had it at first, but then my mommy started to notice all this weird stuff I was doing. First, I just couldn't nurse... I always made this popping sound when I tried to eat, my mouth wouldn't latch and I was getting so tired, and so hungry, and so frustrated. Then I had to get my tummy and lungs pumped because they were all full of yucky fluid. When I was two days old I had my hearing screening and I didn't pass. My ears were full of fluid too. And then it happened... I had just had it... I was starving and tired and angry. So, I did what every tired, angry baby does... I started to scream. And mommy just laid me back and stared at me. And she saw my throat. It was only the size of a straw hole and I didn't have a uvula. Weird huh ? So my mommy told the nurse and they discovered I had an isolated cleft palate. They showed my pediatrician and mommy started doing research online. Mommy and the pediatrician thought I had Pierre Robin's Sequence so my pediatrician referred me to Dr. Chen. He is my craniofacial specialist. I met him today for the first time and I really like him a lot. He is going to make sure that my mouth gets fixed but he can't do surgery until I am six months old. He told us today that I will be seeing a team of eight specialists for different things from now until I turn eighteen. They are all gonna take good care of me and that makes my mommy and daddy very happy. Talk to you again soon!