Cleft babies united

This week Mum and I have attended a course for cleft affected babies and their families. There were 8 of us babies + two older siblings of one baby and we came from all parts of Finland. They had arranged it so that each of us had our own child minder all through the week. And we had so much fun eating, sleeping and playing while the parents attended classes on various related subjects. The lecturers varied from plastic surgeons to social workers and speech therapists. Mum seemed to enjoy herself although she says the group used up the paper tissue supplies crying their eyes out during some of the group discussions. Some things are just too painful to talk about, says Mum. But mostly there was laughter and intense questioning of the experts. Hopefully we'll be called back for a reunion in a year or two and see how everyone has turned out.

Baby no more

Today my baby cousin Anna was born so I'm no longer the baby of the family. Mum took these last babyish pictures to show that she could compare them with the ones taken when I was little.

Working nine to five...

All the ladies at Mum's office had begged us to come for a visit so that they too could see my new lip and today was their turn. There are simply so many people wanting to do it that we're having to make them queue! But I do love the attention.

Dancing cheek to cheek

Sometimes music just sweeps you away and today it happened at McDonald's of all places! We'd gone for burgers with Mum's godson Dodo and according to Mum they were playing our song. So off we were dancing cheek to cheek, me literally drooling over Dodo. He wasn't too chuffed when he noticed what I'd done to his sweater and the dance was cut short.

Introducing my new baby!

Today Mum took me shopping for the first time since the operation. And a good thing she did as I'm now the proud mother of the baby you can see in this picture! We looked so much alike in our jeans that Grandma simply had to buy her for me.


I wonder why Mum never lets me have a coffee as she seems to enjoy it so much? Well, water tastes just as nice I'm sure, especially if you drink it from someone else's cup.

TGIF

And still more shooting

The day after the stitched were removed

Home, sweet home!

On Wednesday I was taken back to the theater and instead of seeing a show, they removed the stiches from my lip. Mom was allowed to take me home as soon as I'd recovered from the sedation and had eaten a little to prove that I had. When we got home, the first thing mom wanted to do was to reshoot the last photo taken at home on Friday. Can you spot the difference?

Tuesday

Now they only keep me in restraints when I'm sleeping as I do move around a lot in my cot. But I quite like these "handcuffs" as I can make a lot of noise by pulling at them hard. Wish I could take this hospital bed home with me tomorrow. I'm sure I coud fit all my soft toys in it and there'd still be some room left for me.

And Mom was still going on about my new smile...

Just another manic Monday

Mom says my smile keeps changing every day so she has to record each new stage with her camera. I think she still misses my wide smile, though...

Hello, new smile!

Today I felt like a completely new person. The stiches still affected my facial impressions, but I did manage to flash a few smiles and towards the evening I started to do a lot of giggling as well. Back to normal. Mom was trying to get me to smile for the camera all day and being such a good girl I did grant her a few on-camera smiles.

Wake up!

When mom came back to the hospital in the morning, the nurses told her that I had had a good night and had behaved like a little angel. That is, as long as I had had someone by my side to entertain me when I was awake. It's such a bore to be forced to lie down on your own. I want some action!


Soon after this pic was taken, all the tubes got taken out and mom got me out of bed. I was starving and luckily mom fed me my favourite, mashed apple/pear mixed together. Yummy! Later in the afternoon grandma came for a visit and this is how I looked then. about 24 hours after the operation. Pretty zoomed out still, I'm afraid...

Bye, bye old smile!

On September 1 mom took me to hospital for blood tests and what not, but they let us go home for the night. I was glad to be sleeping in my own bed and I think mom caught a few winks as well. This is me just before we left for the hospital. I look quite happy to go although it was very early.






At nine the nurses whisked me to the operation theater and mom was only allowed as far as the lifts. But I certainly was excited to be riding in this fancy bed. Little did I know of what was to come.










At 3 o'clock I was brought back to the ward and mom got to see my new lip at last. The nurses said the operation had gone well but they hadn't really appreciated my demonstrating that I already know how to turn over to my stomach. So they put me in this "straitjacket" for the rest of the day. Not fair! But I was probably fast asleep the rest of the day as I can't remember much else.