Biggest Smile in the world! :D: The waiting Game

Blake's Journey

Blake Tyler James Fenton born on the 17th June 2011

''This blog is about a journey through pregnancy, finding out that our child would be born with a Cleft lip & Palate, and also coping with a rare pregnancy condition. Dealing with the everything that comes our way, as a family. Caring and supporting our beautiful son Blake... and his amazing big sister Tia, this blog has been written by me, Jemma Kathleen Fenton (was Paley) in the hope that it touches many peoples hearts as Blake has touched ours. My goal is to help raise awareness and money, I hope to helps other parents going through the same situation.''

I am happy to support any parents out there you can contact me through email: brassbuttons@hotmail.co.uk

Saturday 2 June 2012

The waiting Game

It has been a while since our last post, but I am pleased to say Blake has come along wonderfully, he will be one in two weeks! time has certainly flown by thinking about it this time last year I was packing my maternity bag! and thinking about all the things that we would be about to face as a family. I am so proud of my son I have come to the conclusion that there is actually no point worrying and the best thing to do is go with the flow.

Blake is cursing along the furniture now and walks along with his walker and he loves it he beams with delight at what he has achieved for himself, it wont be long now and its so exciting....
We are waiting to here from the Hospital so every time the post comes I hope there's a letter with a date! cant help the frustration when there no letter. I must say I was hoping that it would have been done before his birthday but that's just the way it goes it's a waiting game! We rang the hospital for advice and they think they will be doing his hard palate either the beginning or end of July so we shall see.

We are going to have a small Tea Party for Blakes birthday something to look forward too! you never know he might take his first steps on this day! another waiting game! :) Blake has been pretty happy over the past few months apart from teething and a few ear infections, which is to be expected, he is eating really well actually he pretty much eats anything ! Blake will scream the house down if you have something you have to share everything with him the little monkey is rather partial to custard creams!

Well it has been a very busy few months, its been all go and lets not forget Cleft Lip and Palate Awareness Week!! We did really well at work big Thank You to The Co-operative, Gillingham, Dorset for helping support this wonderful charity and my son. I had a special poster Made of Blake and it showed the different stages that he went through, I thought it would be a good way to help people see what our beautiful children have to go through even though it was only a snippet.

Some people reacted to it, and didn't know what it was, and I just explained what was in the picture and then they saw his latest picture and were amazed by how happy and smiley he was some people didn't even realize it was the same child. There were a few negative reactions but that's to be expected. We went shopping last week and a group of school girls got excited as the recognized Blake from the poster and one girl asked if he was OK! and that he was so cute, at that point Blake held out his special blanket to her it made everyone laugh! its like he was famous lol they were very sweet!

the CLAPA tubs were full to the brim and I counted the money and found that in that one week we had raised £127.02 and I am happy to say that my store is having CLAPA as there charity of the year so we will raise plenty more!

My two monkey's are demanding my attention so I shall better go play then it will hopefully be nap time!

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What is a Cleft?

A cleft is a separation or split in either the upper lip or the roof of the mouth (palate) or sometimes both. It occurs when separate areas of the face do not join together properly when a baby is developing in the womb.
The development of the face and the upper lip takes place during the fifth to ninth week of pregnancy.
Cleft lips and palates can occur on their own (non-syndromic) or are sometimes part of a wider series of birth defects (syndromic).
A cleft lip and palate is the most common facial birth defect in the UK. One in every 700 babies is born with a cleft. The type of cleft and how severe it is varies between children.

About Smile Train

Unlike many charities that do many different things, Smile Train's mission is focused on solving a single problem: cleft lip and cleft palate.

Clefts are a major problem in developing countries where there are millions of children who are suffering with unrepaired clefts. Most cannot eat or speak properly. Aren't allowed to attend school or hold a job. And face very difficult lives filled with shame and isolation, pain and heartache. Their clefts usually go untreated because they are poor – too poor to pay for a simple surgery that has been around for decades.

About Operation Smile

Founded in 1982 by Dr William Magee a leading plastic and craniofacial surgeon and his wife Kathleen Magee, a former nurse and clinical social worker, Operation .Smile’s team is driven by our universal compassion to care for children and give the gift of a smile. As an international children’s medical charity, the global partnerships we create in our work to provide free cleft palate and cleft lip surgery is long-lasting. The knowledge we share, the medical and professional infrastructure we build, all leaves a legacy that lives well beyond our medical projects and makes a lasting difference around the world

About my OC condition

Obstetric cholestasis (OC) is a liver disorder that occurs in around one in 200 pregnancies in the UK¹. Also referred to as intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP), it is a condition in which the normal flow of bile out of the liver is reduced. Chemicals in the bile called bile salts (also often referred to as bile acids) can then build up and ‘leak’ into the bloodstream. This causes affected women to have increased levels of bile salts in their blood.

OC is also characterised by itching, known as pruritus. The itching generally appears in the last three months of pregnancy but can appear sooner². It is of variable severity and can be extremely distressing for the mother. Both the raised bile salts and pruritus completely disappear soon after the birth and do not appear to cause
long-term health problems for mothers.

Several fetal complications have been reported in OC pregnancies. There is an increased risk of preterm delivery (both spontaneous and induced) and fetal distress. Some case studies have also reported stillbirth occurring near the end of pregnancy in women with OC². Therefore it is essential that the condition is recognised and treated in time.

At present, most obstetricians in the UK managing OC pregnancies deliver babies early, at around 37 or 38 weeks. This is done because it is thought that it may help prevent the possibility of stillbirth.

I have to say a massive thank you to everyone on the OC Support group on Facebook and i give out lots of LOVE to Jenny Chambers! Thank you all.