Our first family picture. Nicholas is about 3 weeks old.

Newborn Nicholas - only 3 days old. We knew about his cleft from an ultrasound when I was 6 months pregnant.

What a beautiful smile, if you look closely you can see his obturator (false palate kept on with denture cream). Our PS swears by them and insists we keep it in until 1 week before palate surgery. Nicholas took to it right away, he won't like it when we take it out for good!!!

2 days after lip surgery, Nicholas is just 9 weeks old. There was hardly any swelling and just a little dried blood, we were expecting a lot worse, but it was still hard to see him like that.  All the stitches are inside and dissolvable.

The stitch in between his eyes is called a bolster, it is one big stitch that keeps the nose straight. It  came out before we left the hospital. The black, white and red thing is an activity center over the crib - we brought a lot of toys to make it more like home.

Our family at Christmas 1999, Cindy, Rich and Nicholas (4 months).

Who is this baby? It took us awhile to get used to his new look, we actually missed the cleft for a few days!!!! We think the PS did a wonderful job. Look at those eyes!!!!