Kayleigh’s Story
Hi, my name is Kayleigh, and I’ve recently been asked if I would like to share my story, so here it is…
Our story began on October 6th 2017.
When those two little lines showed up on the pregnancy test, we were absolutely overjoyed.
We had an early gender scan and found out that we were finally getting a girl, a perfect way to complete our family after 2 little boys! At the end of January I was booked in for my 20 week anatomy scan, for some reason in the day’s leading up to that I started to feel rather anxious, call it intuition, but as I suffer with anxiety anyway I pushed it to one side thinking that I was overthinking as usual. That morning I went for my scan and was told my baby wasn’t playing ball, that I needed to go for a walk and a cold drink to try and get her moving. I did that, and then returned, the sonographer was struggling and I was told I may need to come back at a later date as she couldn’t get a clear view of her face.
I knew they checked for cleft lip at this stage, as I had worked alongside a little girl who had a cleft lip and palate at a day nursery I worked at; still I pushed that thought aside.
I went for another walk and then returned, after a few minutes I was casually told; ‘I’m sorry but your baby’s lip has not full developed, we will arrange for a midwife to come and speak to you’.
When those two little lines showed up on the pregnancy test, we were absolutely overjoyed.
At that point so many things entered head. ‘What does this mean?’, ‘what have I done wrong?’, ‘why me?’, ‘how bad is it?’, as well as many other questions. The truth is, nothing that you do causes a cleft, it’s just one of those things, in fact it’s is the best thing that could be ‘wrong’ as it’s so easily fixed.
We were sent for 3D & 4D scans in Sheffield, and saw clear views of our little girl’s lip. Once the initial shock had sunk in, I began researching and reading up on all the types of cleft, as well as joining support groups.
The truth is you never really know what your baby will look like until they are placed in your arms. I’m not going to sit here and lie, I was nervous about seeing her for the first time, but I had nothing to worry about. She was and still is absolutely perfect, cleft lip, cleft palate and gum notch included, this little girl was amazing, and I fell in love with her and her perfect imperfection instantly.
Sydney was born with a small left sided cleft lip, a midline cleft palate and a small gum notch. I worried she would struggle to feed but she took the first proper feed from a Dr Browns bottle perfectly!
The first time I took her out I felt a man staring at her over my shoulder but I said nothing, and neither did he… that first outing was scary, but now when people look I make comments like ‘she’s beautiful isn’t she’ and they agree! I am so unbelievably proud of her, she amazes me every single day, I will bring her up full of confidence, she will always know how amazing she is!
I had nothing to worry about. She was and still is absolutely perfect, cleft lip, cleft palate and gum notch included, this little girl was amazing, and I fell in love with her…
Me and my husband manage a pub/resteraunt and have recently done a big family fun day, arranged solely by me! I wanted to not only raise awareness of cleft lip and palate but also make lots of money for the charity, and to help other families get the support that we have! We managed to raise an amazing £684.34 during the day, plus another £280 which we made in April of this year, I will continue to raise money for CLAPA as it is close to my heart. I have recently met two amazing ladies through a clapa Facebook page who also have cleft babies, I now see them as my closest friends… our babies are perfect and unique! My family, friends and other children absolutely adore Sydney, she draws people in with her big brown eyes; many people say they don’t even notice her cleft now. We are currently awaiting the date for her lip repair, I will miss her first smile, but soon she will have her forever smile!! I wouldn’t change our cleft journey even if I could because it’s a part of her, and even though it was scary when we first found out about her cleft, we wouldn’t change any of it! Lots of love, Kayleigh & Ashley Phillips. #1in700 #ourcleftcutie
