It took the hospital four days to discover my baby had a cleft palate

In January 2008 I had still been on my pill and my partner and I weren't trying, but when we found out I was four weeks pregnant we were so excited!

Unlike many of my friends as soon as I found out I stopped smoking and drinking, and took my folic acid and omega3 every morning so I could give our little baby the best start in life. 

39 long weeks plus six days passed of me on my best behaviour, when I went into labour on the 18th of September at 18:00. I remember wanting to sit on the toilet a lot during the first hour, then at 22:53 baby Faith was born weighing 6lb12oz, a quick first time labour. After the placenta Faith was placed onto the breast, but something didn’t feel right, and Faith sounded just like Maggie off the Simpsons, and within five minutes was fast asleep. 

The next day I was aching to get home but faith was finding it hard to take my breast and I sleepily decided to change to bottle as Faith was starving and we had to stay overnight to monitor Faith's feeding. During the night Faith was being violently sick through the nose and still wasn't eating much more than half oz of milk. I called for the midwife but she hurriedly told me not to worry and rushed off leaving me in floods of tears as I didn't know what to do. 

I'm a nursery nurse so I felt confident with Faith, but being sick through her nose was something I was not prepared for. The next day the paediatrician checked Faith and we went home. Faith began her 4th day of life being weighed by the community midwife and her trainee. The community midwife was checking me over whilst my partner described to the trainee about Faith's lack of eating and constantly being sick through her nose. The trainee midwife checked Faith over when she found Faith's cleft palate. I went cold, I had heard of cleft lip and palate but I had never heard of just the palate being missing, however this explained a lot. 

We went sent straight back to the hospital in bath and were referred into the newborn intensive care unit. Faith now weighed 5lb 11oz, a lot smaller than her birth weight. The cleft palate team met with us and we found Faith needed a nasal prong to help her feed as she kept going blue as we tried to feed her. We were then admitted to Saint Michaels newborn intensive care unit, until the 17th October. During our stay in NICU, me and my partner had to learn to pass feeding tubes and Faith's nasal prong, as well as doing our paediatric first aid. The one thing that kept me strong was knowing that Faith was a full term baby, and was not ill or under any threat.

The mum's of babies who were premature were so strong and seeing what they had to go through kept me strong. Faith is now 10 weeks old and is soon undergoing a sleep study without her prong to see how her breathing goes and if her stats stay above 94% faith can keep her prong out! 

It's hard sometimes leaving the house as a lot of people stare at faith's prong, but I look at faith and she is the most beautiful baby girl in the world with her mummy's lips and eyes and her daddy's hairline. 

Faith is due to have an operation to sew up her palate in April 2009. It should be a quick operation as Faith’s palate is a unilateral cleft palate, and is only her soft palate. I'm so proud of my beautiful baby girl and we are currently undergoing a complaint with the NHS about the care I received at the first hospital as far as I’m concerned, if the baby's not feeding after you check the mother, you check the feeding equipment and after that you should check the baby!