First tooth and big appointment!

On August 20th Ryder had his first tooth pulled. He had a tooth growing out of his cleft - as if this poor baby didn't have enough to deal with.  While he was in the NICU we noticed it and we saw a pediatric dentist the day following his discharge and that dentist said it wasn't a tooth. I'm convinced that dentist wasn't familiar with cleft babies and didn't realize it was one, so when we saw another dentist in mid-August he said it was a tooth and pulled it right there and then. Thank the Lord my mom was with us during this appointment because she held him as they pulled it.  The doctor pulled it immediately, no numbing medicine, no prep, he just pushed back the gum line on the cleft and yanked it! Ryder did incredibly well - he screamed at first and cried for about 30 seconds while I, on the other hand, cried for the rest of the day. 

We are asking for specific prayers for Sept 18 as this is the day we meet with a panel of doctors. This panel appointment will happen annually and the same doctors will see Ryder to keep track of his progress and how he's developing  (speech pathologist, prosthodontist, ENT doctor, feeding specialist, plastic surgeon, social worker, dentist, etc.,) Our appointment is at 4pm at CHOC of Orange and we basically sit in a room as doctor after doctor come and inspect Ryder (another day of poking and prodding). Ryder will need ear tubes very soon and I can already tell that his ears bother him. Ear tubes are common in children and even more common in cleft babies aka "clefties" as the world of cleft mommies like to call them. Clefties need ear tubes to help with fluid developing in their ears.  My guess is they'll want to insert ear tubes within the next couple of weeks but we won't know until our panel appointment and....another day of poking and prodding - he'll have to be put to sleep for this but from what I've heard it's a pretty quick procedure and it's completed within 30 minutes.  Pray for mommy as I'm sure she's going to do most of the crying on this day. 

Here are some snapshots of our little guy - I take a million pictures a day. I just can't help it - I'm in love with every inch of this baby boy - cleft and all - I think he's the cutest baby out there!