As a PRS parent cleft palate surgery is in the horizon for you. The following serves to give you an example of what to expect. It is solely based on our personal experience at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and is based specifically on Noah's own journey. Please remember that all hospitals handle Cleft Palate Surgery differently and in a personalized way to meet the needs of your child.
Cleft Palate Surgery was scheduled for Noah 6 months before. Noah had a cleft both of the hard and soft palate. Typically Cleft Palate surgery can take place between 11-15 months of age. Because I was scheduled to return back to work after Noah's first birthday I really hoped that his cleft palate surgery would be scheduled at 11 months. This would provide me the time to care for him before returning to work. His surgeon scheduled him for November 29. Noah was not allowed to eat anything past midnight the night before surgery except breast milk (3 hours prior to arrival time) or formula (6 hours prior to arrival time). Noah was scheduled to be at the hospital at 7am. I fed him exactly 3 hours before and arrived on time. Unfortunately our wait was super long and Noah was not taken until 4pm. No water or food during the wait time.
Once taken Noah was changed into his hospital gown. They inserted an IV and began an antibiotic. Noah fell asleep in by arms. When he was all set, the nurse carried him off to the OR. We watched they walk away. We waited for just about 2 hours. At that time his Surgeon came and told us that the surgery was success. He had been able to close it completely. No holes or openings were left.
We met Noah in the OR recovery room. He face was swollen. They had done their best to clean him up but there was dry blood on his face. He cried and moaned of pain. He was getting small doses of morpheme every 5 minutes. He was not intubated by this time nor had a nasal canula. After a period of time we got transferred upstairs to recovery. Noah continued with pain management. We tried to feed around midnight but he was not too interested. He slept well on and off my arms. By mid morning he ate and started to take a few ounces at a time every few hours. By later morning he was standing up and crawling in his crib. Now feeding depends on what your doctor recommends. Some doctors don't want the child to use a nipple and prefer a sippy cup. Noah's doctor said a nipple was no problem. He had been using a pigeon nipple since birth and he continued to during his recovery. he was not allowed to eat solids for about 3 days. When he started on solids again we did stage 1 for the next two weeks. Total healing time was about 3 weeks. During the tree weeks we had to be very careful to not let him put things in his mouth. He only used his bottle. Noah didn't use a pacifier so that wasn't a problem. He wore the no-nos for the full 3 weeks. That did not prevent him from running, walking, standing up, or playing (well some playing was difficult). He recovered nicely from the cleft palate surgery. While his Doctor couldn't guarantee he wouldn't need another surgery he said it was unlikely at the moment. We would have to wait and see how his speech developed.
If you want to asked a more specific question, I would be happy to try and answer it.
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