Anyone Anatomy Scan w/ Possible Cleft?

marcinator19

Hi Everyone -

 I just had my anatomy scan today - 18 1/2 weeks along and Kaiser just called and said that the baby "might" have cleft lip/palate. Anyone experience this?

They are setting me up with a more formal scan hopefully in a day or so to confirm.

I guess they also saw CPC's (bubbles on the baby's brain).

They are telling me it could be anywhere from nothing to cosmetic only to something really serious.

I"m trying to google it, but not coming up with much.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

ZTAsunshine

My daughter was born with a bilateral cleft lip- we found out in the delivery room.  She could not breastfeed although the LC swore up and down she could.  So I kept trying until we met with her cleft team.  I did pump and gave her breastmilk in a bottle as well.  The problem was that she could not create a seal around the nipple (breast or bottle) so she was literally wasting more calories eating than she was gaining.  We met with her cleft team in Atlanta who was amazing- she has an occupational therapist, a nutritionist, a specialized dentist (some cleft babies teeth come in wrong- hers are) and a plastic surgeon.  Her first surgery was when she was six months old.  We meet with her surgeon again in Jan.  They truly are amazing. 

My doctor this time around paid special attention to the lips at the 20 week u/s but they were unable to tell anything with the 2-D so they switched to 3-D where again they couldn't tell.  So we are having another u/s at 30 weeks to check again.

The best advice I can give you about having cleft baby is to not show embrassment.  Being embrassed at first is a natural reaction- yor family and friends will take their directions from you though, so you have to show a united front and be extremely positive.  You will grieve having a normal baby, which is also normal.   You will love your cleft baby with all of your heart but a small part of you will wish that they did not have their cleft.  It will take a couple of days of getting use to as your baby will not look normal.  You will blame yourself and play a thousand what ifs.  With a lot of cleft babies the momma's do this. 

 But I promise when you see their first smile it will melt your heart in a way that is different from a  normal baby.  And you get to see their first smile all over again after they have their surgery.  So in a way you are double blessed with a cleft baby.  No other mommy can say they got to see their baby's first smiles twice.

The way I see it my daughter was born a diva, already demanding plastic surgery.  But I would not have it any other way.  It is what it is and she is beautiful.  She will grow up knowing this regardless of what others say.  She has met and surpassed a lot of her milestones.  And I am more proud of her as each day passes.