Biggest Smile in the world! :D: Happy New Year!!!

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

Wednesday, 8 January 2014

Happy New Year!!!

Hello everyone! Firstly I would like to say....

'HAPPY NEW YEAR!'

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are ready for the new year! We had a lovely quiet Christmas just the four of us this year, the kids were spoilt by Santa and I was spoilt by my wonderful husband who made Christmas Dinner!! My parents couldn't make it this year So it was quiet with out my Dad (Grandpapeee) snoring/growling in his sleep on the couch after Christmas dinner... ! No hangovers for me or Chris either, we learnt our lesson from last year thank the lord! It was a wonderful day and the kids loved it, which is what christmas is all about, Blake seemed to enjoy unwrapping his presents! I will actually miss hearing him say 'Christmas tree' as it was so adorable.

Not long after writing my last post Blake got his Audio test appointment through, Tia is in full time school now so she didn't get to come which made her sad, but we explained it was just another Audio test and Blake would be OK! We didn't have to wait long when we got to Salisbury hospital which is always a bonus. I went into the sound proof room with Blake and it was the same routine as before, he has to interact with the toys on the table and when he was playing the noises start.

It is hard to describe the noise I guess I would say it was like the sounds they would use for an old space movie ray gun lol!! low at first and then it gets high and well I must say I was impressed! Blake actually turned towards the noise when it was really low and he was rewarded by a box lighting up and a mechanical soft toy starting to move and Blake shouts ''Look mummy it's a moo'cow'' He actually did well through out the test! Much better than last time.

Before the test I had noticed he has started to pronounce his 'T's' again, Blake started to tell me a lot that his ears have been hurting and I started to wonder if an ear infection had been the reason why he sometimes wasn't pronouncing his words as he usually did. So we had a visit to the GP, She confirmed that they were congested, but they usually are so I was told to give him calpol as and when he needed it.

All is well now and he has begun using the letter 'D' again, In fact he is saying a lot of words clearly, and he loves counting!! he does babble away a lot I call this his minion speak (despicable me) as we not sure what he is saying then he will do this rather funny laugh just like the minions do its so funny!! (you should hear him singing!) he has a wonderful personality and he is very sweet but at the moment he is going through those terrible dreaded twos!!! so he's no Angel at the moment, but I wouldn't change him for the world love him to the moon and back :)

Well Just before Christmas we received a letter from the Hospital it was about the recent Audio test Blake had as we were concerned his glue ear was getting worse. The letter has stated that Blake does still have Glue ear, but they don't feel he needs to have Grommets fitted at this time, which I believe is a good thing so now we just have to wait for a letter regarding Blake's second lip surgery, which will probably be after hes turned three.

It seems as though there has been a lot of upset in the CLAPA Community over the past few months before Christmas regarding terminology and debates, and I am very glad it is all well now. It seems a shame this happened, But I think we all need to accept that everyone has there own views and opinions about certain things. We can only educate those who do not understand how we feel individually on what terms we want to use in regrades to our children. We can only love and support each other in the CLAPA community, people should not fall out its a support network and its a very good one.

We all have the same thing in common and that is our Children and we want to protect them, but we cant angry about using terms there will always be there and there are ever changing like everything the world turns. When it boils down to it, the support from you all has been amazing and through it I think I have made some great friends. Love you guys!!!

2013 went so fast and it had lots of highs and major lows, We are all still grieving for the loss of two family members, and this will take a long time, something we may never get over. Christmas was very hard.

It is now 2014 I would like to take this opportunity to say Congratulations to my cousin Tom and his wife Kerry because this year they are expecting there third child! :)

Very happy for them.

CONGRATULATIONS! :)

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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.