The Pure Life

Baby’s First Visit to UNC

Our verdict is in, and Chapel Hill is AMAZING…and not just because they gave us good news!

On Tuesday we met with a genetics counselor and a maternal fetal medicine specialist at the UNC Women’s Hospital, and also had another ultrasound done. Each person we spoke to was extremely thorough, taking time and care with us like we aren’t used to, and giving us more information than we have had thus far. The baby’s heart, brain and development are perfect and exactly on target! The chances of there being any other problems with the baby are in the single digits. In addition, the MFM is 80% sure that we are dealing only with an isolated cleft lip, instead of the lip and palate, which we originally thought. Yay! We even got to see the baby’s face in 3D (or is it 4D? I dunno!), which we weren’t expecting at all.

This all means that the chances of the baby having speech problems, breathing problems, feeding problems, etc. because of the cleft palate go way, way down. !!

On Sunday I had gotten quite upset after I made the mistake of googling and had a video tell me     that nursing my baby was impossible. To me, that’s like saying I can’t hold my baby. Ever. Nursing is vitally important to us. If we are going to bring a child into the world we plan to give it the best. The best nutrients for the healthiest growth and immune system, optimum brain development, and secure attachment to mom…me! And although my husband fully supports nursing for all of those reasons, he will never fully understand the bond that is formed between a mom and her child during that time. Being told that’s impossible is just…crazy! Heartbreaking!

But being told that, most likely, we won’t have to worry about that and I can still share that with our new one is…bliss!

Thank you all so much for the kind words, thoughts and prayers. Each one means the world to our family and hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Amanda