Our Big Day! Brandon's Birth
We had spent weeks preparing the doctors and nurses at the hospital for Brandon's arrival and were comfortable that they had some experience with cleft lip and palate. They had ordered special feeding devices and knew that we were expecting a cleft lip and possibly a palate.
December 10th, 2003.... We were scheduled for a 10:00 AM C-Section and up early although Amber was feeling sick. Our doctor told us to go to the hospital early if this occurred. Brandon was born at 11:10 AM at 9 lbs 1 oz which began a long day. After the surgery, Amber had a reaction to morphine, but the doctor and nurses quickly made sure she was Ok. As the father, both nervous and excited at the same time, I ran frantically between Amber and Brandon. Amber had a rough time recovering and the nurses were uncomfortable with my situation and struggled with feeding me. Immediate reactions were that they wanted to place a g-tube in to feed Brandon. Our cleft team informed us that if this occured we should insist transfer to Children's Hospital to see a specialist, which is exactly what we did.
Arrangements were made and Brandon was later transported to Children's Hospital. Meanwhile, One of the nurses who's family had a history of cleft lip and palate had an extreme amount of patience with Brandon and successfully worked to get him to eat. Amber was emotional and having a difficult time recovering. She only was allowed 10 minutes with Brandon before he was transported and spent several days seperated from him.
At Children's Hospital, they had a better idea of how to feed Brandon and we spent a week working with him and learning to put ng tubes in, infant CPR, and obtaining monitoring equipment to care for Brandon at home. A team of Dentists also fitted Brandon with an obturator which sealed his palate so he could suck. While we were in the hospital, they diagnosed Brandon with Pierre Robin Syndrome. December 17th, we were released from Children's Hospital and on December 18th went for a sleep study to assess Brandon's breathing.
Return To The History Page To Learn More!
Please feel free to contact us at brandon@iron-muskie-inc.com if you have questions!