Carrie,
        You are far more experienced than I and congratulations on breastfeeding
your baby through what must have been a very difficult time.

         My comment doesn't come from experience with cleft palate surgery but
with stuffy noses.  Some of our babies have very stuffy noses for many days
after birth.  They eventually learned to come off the breast often to breathe
then went back to the breast to suckle.  I imagine this rhythm is easier for a
new baby to establish as they usually go through a period of sucking and not
breathing then a period of breathing during their first few days at the breast.
I teach moms to hold the babies in a vertical (modified clutch) position and
supporting the nape of the neck not the back of the head so the baby can easily
move away from the breast when he needs to breathe.  In a few feeds, the babies
are experts at this - but then the stuffy noses usually resolve the first week.
They do swallow more air this way and need to be burped often.

        I don't know how hard it would be to establish a new breastfeeding
pattern with a babe who has already learned how easy it is to
suck-swallow-breathe while staying latched on, but perhaps if you begin by
controlling it - removing him on a rhythmic basis - this could work.

Jeanette Panchula, BSW, LLLL, IBCLC, RN
Puerto Rico