M y Week....

I arrived in Seattle safely to help my niece Heather with her newborn daughter Danielle. This little baby girl was born 5 weeks early, and she will be a month old on the 27th.

She is the typical newborn. She stretches with hands held high, arching her back, and scrunching up her little face. I love it when babies do that since they do it for so short a time.
She squeaks and squirms. She is still very tiny. She weighed in at 6lbs. 7 ounces at birth and probably weighs around 8 now.

She has a tiny round head covered with downy soft black hair and dark eyes.

Sweet Danielle was born with a Cleft Pallette, and it is not simple. Her cleft involves her palate, lips, and her gums, she faces many surgeries.
To find the details check out her mothers blog http://dhlandis.blogspot.com/

Her biggest issue right now is her eating. She has special nipples that are harder on one side allowing her to milk the nipple since she can't suck due to her palate. She is not able to latch on for breast feeding.
It really is a huge blessing. I'm not sure that a baby in Vanuatu would be able to survive because they wouldn't be able to eat. That has layed heavy on my heart this week and I don't know why.
I guess I'm thankful for the expert care she has here.

Getting the nipple in the right spot is a bit of a challenge, and became more complicated when she got a NAM, a retainer of sorts, two days after I arrived. The NAM fits in the roof of her mouth and is attached with tape and rubber bands.
Within 24 hours she acquired mouth sores due to rubbing, and quit eating.
They ended up grinding down the rough spots, and she is eating again with it. Still a few sore spots though.

This appliance is designed to change her mouth over the next few months preparing her lip for her first surgery in 4- 6 months.

Two days ago we had another complication. Samantha her big sister,got the flu, the full fledged throw up every 15 mins. for 12 hours kind.
We have isolated the baby to the back bedroom, and so far only Dale has caught it. That could be due to fact that Sam threw up on him a few times.
Heather and I are wearing masks and washing our hands non stop. Praying lots.

That has been our week.
Crazy and busy .
I am thankful for this time with Danielle. It has been good for me.
I am ashamed to admit it but I've always been a bit squeamish about cleft palates. I have never known anyone , but I've always avoided the pictures, you know the one in the magazines.

God has stretched me quite a bit over these last few years.
He has put me in direct contact with some things that I've always been uncomfortable with like mental illness, Tourettes, and now this. To bad it has taken me 60 some years, to realized and understand that
what we see on the outside of a person is not what is important, its what is on the inside that matters. Things in life are not always simple.