Ultrasound

So I went in for another ultrasound to make sure that everything was still going smoothly. It is. This time the baby was big enough to get a good picture in 4D. Baby did not want to cooperate that is for sure. It took forever to get a picture of the face, it kept burying its face into the placenta and would not turn. Finally, baby turned just enough to get this one. It turned out so great! You can see the cleft on the one side, the other one is still hidden. I have another ultrasound at the end of February and so hopefully we can get a shot of both sides and the inside of the mouth. There was no luck with that this time.

Primary Children's

So on Friday we went and met with the Cleft Repair director at Primary Childrens. It was very informative and she is fantastic! She is pretty much the parent's advocate when it comes to anything. She went over feeding and gave us the nipples and bottles we will need to use and explained how they work. She went over the basic anatomy of the mouth and palate and of course what to expect. She showed us pictures from the most minor cleft to the most serious, trying to prepare us for what we may see. Since we won't know what we are dealing with until the baby was born, it was good to see every possible scenario. She also gave us a basic timeline which is something like this:

Day one - 6 weeks: fitted for prosthetic palate

6-12 weeks: First surgery on the lip and nose, placement of prosthetic hard palate (The time of surgery depends on how well baby is gaining weight)

8-12 months: Surgery of the soft palate, Prosthetic is still left in

2-4 years: Surgery of hard palate (They wait this long because they want the palate to fuse together on its own as much as possible making it less of a hole to fix.)

There may possibly be another surgery between 6-7 years depending on whether or not there is bone in the gums. If not, they will do a bone graft.

We have another ultrasound tomorrow to make sure everything is still going good in there. Cross your fingers that baby will open it's mouth to get a better look.

Our Holiday in a Nutshell

This is probably going to be a long post. This has been a crazy Christmas holiday. A great one but we have been going and going. We kicked off the holiday season with our annual Burrup Christmas Party with all of Darren's brother's (at least the ones that were in town. We were only missing one brother. We missed you Cam and Lori) As usual we had a fantastic dinner and presents with grandma and grandpa.

All of the kids in their matching pajamas. Notice there are only two girls. We were only missing two girls and two boys.

Brinley enjoying the blanket that grandma made for her. She loves what she calls her pillow blanket.

I could not get Beckham to look at the camera for anything. He was too absorbed in all the presents.

There are too many pictures to post from that party, we were seriously spoiled. Stockings and all. Thanks grandma and grandpa!

Next was the annual Christmas Eve party with Darren's mom and his brothers as well. We had a really nice program with the kids singing Christmas songs and some great stories. We were really grateful to have Darren's grandpa there and he shared some memories of his of a Christmas he spent in Germany during the war and a journal page from Darren's grandma that she wrote before she passed away. A very special Christmas treat.

Darren and Beckham watching football probably. Everytime football comes on Beckham will yell out "touchdown!" So funny!

Brinley opening her Christmas pajamas the kids always get on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning was SO much fun. Brinley woke up excited that Santa had come. Beckham went crazy when he saw all the presents wrapped under the tree. Brinley would say "just what I always wanted" after almost every present she opened.

This is Brinley's big present from Santa. She LOVES to do hair like her mommy. Whenever I am doing Darren's hair she will get a little stool out and make Beckham sit on it, cover him with a blanket like a cape and "cut" his hair too. So we thought this was a great present for her. Turns out we were right. She sits there every morning to do her hair and throughout the day when her hair gets "all crazy" Thankfully my grandpa was there to help put it all together. Who would have thought there would have been a TON of little pieces to put together.

Beckham and his stocking goodies, well most of that is stocking (not all of it though, we aren't THAT crazy with gifts) Again, too absorbed in gifts to look at the camera. He was just excited about everything he opened.

Next we headed to Preston, ID to go to Darren's grandma's 90th birthday celebration. It was a great turnout and we were happy to be a part of it. Happy Birthday Grandma! We hope to spend many more birthdays with you!

Brinley sharing her birthday cake with Beckham. I love it when little kids feed each other. Notice her mouth? She has to make the face too.

Braden, Aaron, Grandma, and Darren. Only three of the boys were able to make it, but it was fun all the same.

Here we are sledding and having snowball fights out in the backyard. The kids loved the sled. Every time they made it to the bottom of the hill, Beckham would say "again".

Darren told Brinley he found a big hill to go sledding on and of course we haven't heard the end of it. So today after a couple of phone calls to daddy asking him to take her on "the big mountain hill" Darren took them when he got home from work this afternoon. Again they loved it, the bigger the hill the better.

We hope your holidays were as great and memorable as ours has been!