3 Weeks Old

I had always been a girl who loves my sleep. Prior to being a mom, I would sleep in on weekends until just before noon at times! Well, being a mom certainly changes that! I found the new hours difficult to adjust to, and would try to sleep anytime Gav was sleeping. Although, most people considered me lucky since Gavin was only waking up once in the middle of the night to eat, usually around 3 a.m. However, I was still feeling sleep deprived and exhausted. I called my mom almost daily in tears and would ask for her advice. Being Gavin's mom is wonderful, but at the time I was feeling like I had lost myself. I was sleeping so much that I would stay in my pajama's all day and take my shower when Matt would get home from work. So I was feeling gross and tired most of the time. Finally, my mom gave me the best advice I could have gotten, which was to get my lazy butt up when Gav woke up for the day, take my shower, put on make-up and feel like a human being! LOL. That truly was the advice I needed. After that point, my whole attitude changed. I felt so much better after I started doing that! That's what moms are for! Here is a picture of Grandma C with Gav:

Gavin also got his first real bath. I prepared the water in the little basin they gave us from the hospital, but he didn't seem to enjoy it at all!

We also tried to have his infant photo shoot with my sis-in-law (the one who did our amazing maternity pics). Gavin was just waking up from a nap when she got there, so all he wanted to do was eat. Unfortunately, it was also one of those days when he was having trouble latching on, so we only got a few shots done, but they are so adorable:


At 3 1/2 weeks old, we had our first visit to Loma Linda Children's Hospital, where Gavin will have his surgery. During this visit, we also met a few members of Gavin's craniofacial team, which consists of about 8 different doctors and medical professionals who will meet with us regularly over the next few years. We met the pediatrician, speech pathologist, and geneticist. The pediatrician explained that generally, cleft lip repair requires 2-3 surgeries, which was not exactly what we wanted to hear. We didn't like the idea of putting our baby through even one surgery, but we knew it had to be done. But we were both happy with the pediatrician; he seems to be a kind and knowledgeable person.

The speech pathologist was also very wonderful, she gave us 2 different bottles to try at home, since Gavin will need to bottle feed when I return to work. I still plan on breastfeeding when I am home, but he will have to drink pumped breast milk while I am away. The bottles were the Pigeon, which has a very soft and thick nipple, and the Mead-Johnson, which has a long, thin nipple and a squeezable bottle. I was nervous about trying the bottles, considering all the difficulty we had getting Gav to latch on and wasn't quite sure I would try either one. But I knew eventually it would have to be done.

The geneticist asked us a series of questions to try to determine a possible reason for Gavin's cleft. When I told her that both my mom and aunt had cleft palates, she was surprised. Then she explained that cleft lips and cleft palates are two completely different abnormalities, so having a baby with a cleft lip, when cleft palates without the lip are in my family, is quite unusual. Therefore, she was unable to estimate our chances of having another baby with a cleft lip. This was interesting news, however, Matt and I agreed that it wouldn't make a difference to us whether or not our next baby would have a cleft as well. Gavin has brought us so much love and joy and his cleft is just a small hurdle for us to overcome. He has truly made our lives so much greater!