Oh, baby!: Welcome Georgia!

Georgia was born on her due date, August 13, at 5:46pm! She was so much bigger than I ever expected- considering I really thought she'd be tiny. She was a whopping 8 pounds and 11 ounces! 19.68 inches long. And even more surprising, she was born with a head full of dark brown hair! Chase was practically bald with some strawberry blonde peach fuzz. And Madison and Aaron were also fairly bald with light colored hair. We're just amazed how different she looks than her brothers and sister.

We got quite the shock when she was about 10 hours old: after hours of her not nursing and not wanting to take a bottle, the nurse discovered our sweet baby girl has a cleft palate. We were shocked and I was devastated. I knew in my heart immediately that it was due to my seizure medication and blamed myself. Within the first 24 hours of her life, we met with the pediatric plastic surgeon, occupational therapists, pediatricians, lactation consultants, and the coordinator for the Craniofacial Clinic at Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters (CHKD).

Breastfeeding became a far away dream... attainable at some point but not right now because she doesn't suck properly. We went to formula for the time being (with a special bottle for children with cleft palates), and I began pumping. My ultimate goal is to pump exclusively and switch her totally to breastmilk as soon as I can. So far pumping is going well, I see an increase every day and am excited at the thought of having enough for full time.

We had Georgia's first appointment at the CFC this past Tuesday and we met with the surgeon, lactation consultant, social worker, and speech pathologist. We got a lot of new and helpful information and are so happy we've got a team of great people to help us get our little girl to where she needs to be.

We had issues feeding for awhile but seem to have found the trick. One of the stipulations of her being able to have surgery is appropriate weight gain and we were positive this past week she wasn't gaining at all. Her discharge weight from the hospital was 8lb 6oz (down 5oz), then at her weight check the following day she was 8lb 2oz. At her weight check yesterday, she was still 8lb 2oz and the pediatrician said most likely she had a loss but is gaining it back. I hope so!

She currently has no hearing either but we are optimistic it is due to fluid in her ears (very common for children with cleft palates) and it will be fixed with ear tubes. Hopefully her surgery for those will be soon- I hate that we can't soothe her.

Here are some pictures of my sweetie: