Alveolar Bone Graft

Many of you asked about Ashley's upcoming surgery (which thankfully isn't until the Summer of 2013). It is called a Alveolar Bone Graft.

But before I go into to that let me back up a little. Ashley was born June 18th 2003 with a complete unilateral cleft lip and affected gumline (or Alveolar Ridge)on her left side. On her right side she has a microcleft. This was a cleft that healed itself but there is a slight scar left. When Ashley was 2 weeks old she was fitted for a NAM (Nasal Alveolar Mold) this was to help form and hopefully bring everything together and shape her nose. In the beginning I hated her having to wear that but after a short time she was able to eat better because of it and she started gaining weight. (she was still under her birth weight at one month)

At 5 months (and the day before Thanksgiving) she had her lip repair. Recovery for her was not the easist; she didn't want to eat OR sleep. But we figured things out and she healed beauitfully.

First picture - right after surgery
Last picture - 3 weeks post surgery
Ashley didn't have another surgery until she was 3 years old. This surgery was a fairly easy one for her and recovery was quick. They removed extra tissue from her lip and gums. Here is a picture about 8 hours post surgery. She couldn't blow the bubbles so Daddy did it for her.

Fast forward to today........

The bone graft. The thing Mom's of cleft affected kids DREAD most of all other surgeries. There was a chance we would get to skip this graft because the NAM did a great job of bringing her cleft area together but not good enough. Here is some info on the surgery. Alveolar Bone Graft
The surgeon did say there is a chance that the gap is small enough he will not have to use her hip bone (which can be one of the most painful parts of the surgery) so that is great news! During this surgery she may have a revision done on her lip as well.
A couple of other facts -
- I didn't have this surgery because I don't think they did this back in the dark ages.
- Wyatt will not have to have this surgery as his cleft did not go into the gumline (his was actually more like a microcleft on the outside but the underlying muscle was cleft)
-Ashley will not be able twirl for a little while but it might not be as long as first thought.
-the diet following the surgery will be a HUGE obsitacle for Ashley
-if you read this far you might have caught 25 puncuation,spelling or grammer errors ;)
couldn't find spell check
Happy Sunday!!

Busy....

Aren't we all? When you hear someone complaining they are busy do you secretly think "Yeah trying doing what I'm doing". We all do to an extent and the truth is we all feel like we are busy all the time. At least I do. When it was just Ashley and me at home everyday I use to think how much I would get done around the house when she got older.... yeah right! Not only because we added Wyatt to the mix but when she got in school there was homeroom mom stuff, PTO, she started Occupation Therapy, twirling, gymnastics.... and I'm sure there is something I have forgotten. So what I'm saying is we will always feel busy it is up to us to FIND or MAKE time to do something you want to be doing. Find insperation in something. I am hoping to do some of that myself with this...

Source: florabellacollection.com via Cici on Pinterest

But for now I need to go gather up all the box tops! ;)

Some-what recent pictures of the kids

Funny Bunnies!

Ok I finally have taken pictures of our newish bunnies. I have sectioned off a portion of the backyard for a flower garden and they can jump around in it (supervised) outside of their hutch. They are so fun to watch running wild!

Any guesses???

I must have been crazy to think I could update my blog 356 days this year. Between the kiddos, being the newly elected PTO President of Ashley's school, trying to remodel my bathroom, paint the living room and spare bath plus all the other little projects I love to do my world is crazy!!! Wade calls me his little ADHD painter..... and if you came over to my house you would understand why. Me and Wyatt started a project today and I won't say what it is yet but I will post pictures as we go. Day One ......

lol soooo maybe not 365 but

I'll give it a try to post more often!
Here are a couple of pictures from Little Miss. Brazoria. Ashley won first runner-up and Miss. Photogentic. And this is out of 17 girls!!
There are also pictures from Ashley's State competition for twirling. She did great as always. Couldn't be more proud!

362 days in pictures

here are two oldies from Ashley. She was about 8 months old and finally chunky.