When Rachel was born, I couldn't help but wonder what I did to cause Rachel's cleft lip and cleft palate. Was it the starting of prenatal vitamins late?? Was it that a home pregnancy test was false negative therefore I took Provera to induce my period?? Was it because I was doing Weight Watchers and trying to eat healthy?? What did I do to cause this??
As if all those reasons weren't enough to wonder about, now I have yet another reason to wonder...
Once again, in an online search for cleft lip websites or blogs, I came across another news article that hit close to home,
Cleft Lip More Likely in Babies of Overweight Moms.
Okay, so I was overweight when I got pregnant with Rachel (I still am). However, I had lost 70lbs prior to my getting pregnant. In fact, it was due to my weight loss that I even got pregnant. I had to take minor fertility drugs to get pregnant with Hannah. I figured I would need them again if I was to get pregnant, afterall, I had been off the Pill for over 18 months and still wasn't pregnant. But my weight loss jump started my ovaries to working, and much to my surprise I became pregnant.
Was my being overweight really a cause in Rachel's cleft?? I weighed less when I got pregnant with Rachel than I did when I got pregnant with Hannah. And Hannah was born non cleft affected. It's defiantely a question I will ask our craniofacial team in September at our yearly appointment.
I first came across this topic a couple of days ago. At first I didn't think much about it. I tried to find the actual article in
The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal. But had no luck and didn't want to subscribe to the online journal. But then found this second article, and thought I'd share my thoughts about this subject.
Oh, and by the way, one of the accomplishments I am most proud of...is that I maintained that 70lb weigh loss throughout my pregnancy. Since Rachel's birth I have continued to do Weight Watchers in my continued attempt to get to goal...although it has been really hard to stay on the bandwagon the last year. But I keep getting up, despite falling off. And that's the important thing!
Rachel walked the push toy across the family room today. She'll also walk holding on to two fingers, and sometimes with just one, with some wobblyness. 
If you click on this picture (or any picture for that matter) to make it bigger, you can see how well her scar is looking. Dr Lehocky did such a great job!
I've learned it's much easier to have her eat her cookie in just her diaper than to try and clean her up with clothes on. Notice the cookie drool all down the front of her. Following this cookie, I just stuck her in the sink!
As far as eating food goes...the few times I have given her baby food from a jar, she really doesn't care for it. So in the last couple of days I've started giving her table food. Her favorite food, that we tried a few weeks ago, is mashed potatoes...that's my girl!! Another thing we tried a week or so ago when we were out to dinner was refried beans. She liked those too...gets that from her daddy! This last weekend I tried pasta, cheese, and itty bitty pieces of chicken. She does really well with eating the food. We haven't had any come back out her nose yet, LOL.
Rachel has recently discovered another way to enjoy her exersaucer...crawling under it, rather than being in it! LOL
Anyways, for the 4th of July we stayed close to home, our Cul de Sac had a block party. We had a huge BBQ with all the fixings and then watched the local fireworks from the middle of the street. The surrounding streets around our Cul de Sac do fireworks really big, like professional shows, shooting them up high in to the sky. So we always have an array of shows surrounding us.
