A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for. author unknown

Lots and Lots of Love!

There is nothing better than a new baby in the home. We feel so blessed in so many ways!

Big Brother "Rudy" (aka -Hayden) poses with his baby sister. He just loves her so much- you can see it in his eyes. Avery always has a huge wide smile for Him. Hayden has nicknamed her Schmugg Schumgg until we come up with a better one. We'll get a better photo of the two of them on another day! Avery was all done with photo's when it was Hayden's turn.

In between snoozes we got a little smile from Avery!

Here she is with big sissy G.K.

In the Arms of Biggest Sis!

These are the supplies we need to remove the tape, clean her mouth and the glue to put the tape back on! Below is the actual appliance.

Here you can see Avery's nose has taken shape thanks to the Nasal Stint, taping, and the retainter. Her gum line has also begun to align and move closer together. It has moved 1 millimeter a week. The NAM process is not easy, but overall we are so happy we used it. Looking good Avery Cakes!!!!!! WOW, 11 weeks old already!!!!!

Avery at 6 weeks. We tape her lip and place the appliance in her mouth with polygrip - just like a denture. This device helps her eat and she loves her binki because of it. Here her nose is still flat on the cleft side, but later you'll see changes.

Avery at Two Weeks just before we started the NAM process.

Just 4 days old! Avery and Mom stayed in the hospital for 5 days. We took this picture in place of those silly old regular hospital photos!

Avery and Mommy meet for the first time! "Mama loves the baby!" The saying I repeat to all my babies after they are born. She got a million of those over and over. She had the sweetest little angel face. I didn't care about the clefting...all I could think of was how precious she was and how perfect! Finally we meet!

January 9, 2008 Avery Arrived!!!!!

Avery Elizabeth, the much anticipated baby arrived at 1:45 am on Jan 9th, 2008 after an emergency delivery. Thanks to her dad's quick wit and autobahn driving skills a bouncing baby girl arrived healthy weighing in at 6lbs 7oz- our smallest baby yet. She was 4 1/2 weeks early.
Little Avery is the youngest of 4 siblings and is loved to pieces by her two sissy's, Madeline age 7 and Gracie Kate- age 5 and one big brother Hayden- age 6. Avery's Mommy longed for her arrival and just knew she was meant to be. She is the center of her Daddy's heart!

Avery was born with a cleft lip and palate, a condition we knew about before her birth. It was discovered at her 18 week ultrasound.

This site will serve as a virtual scrapbook for Avery and a means to keep all of our wonderful friends and family up to date on Avery's weekly happenings in her medical journey through the first year. We also hope it might someday help another family faced with the same challenge.

We are using an oral prosthesis (the appliance) to help mold Avery's cleft. When Avery was 3 weeks old we began using a process called NAM. Nasal Avelor Molding. It is a device created by an orthodontic surgeon that fits into the baby's mouth that gently guides the gums and palate to essentially move closer together closing the gap of the cleft.
The appliance is a lot like a retainer and fits into her mouth like a denture. Avery sees an orthodontic surgeon once a week at Gillette Children's Hospital for weekly adjustments to her "appliance". This hunk of plastic serves several purposes. It helps her eat better, it guides her gum line to grow together, it assists in shaping her nose and stretching her skin before her surgeries. Avery gets a lot of satisfaction out of this device loves her binki because of it. This process is not flawless and it's time consuming and troublesome at times. The changes in Avery's face has been pretty dramatic and we are happy with the results.

Avery's first surgery will be in two weeks - April 10th 2008 she will have tubes placed in her ears and will have a lip adhesion. The first of 3 surgeries her first year to being correcting her cleft. Avery will be 13 weeks old. The remaining two surgeries will follow in July, and in December.

Children born with clefts face many challenges over the years. We hope and pray Avery will have the best results possible. We feel so blessed to live in an area where there are so many highly talented people who work together to provide excellent outcomes. We cannot thank all of our family, friends, and community members, and our new online friends enough! You all have have reached out in such great support. It has been heart warming to know we have so many people who care so much.

We thank you for visiting our site and keeping Little Avery Cakes in your thoughts and prayers.