Meet Christian Grace! #littlestwarriorwednesday
After a month of trying to get pregnant, on Halloween this past year we finally saw the two pink lines! The first 17 weeks of my pregnancy were filled with the usual — nursery themes, picking a boy and girl name, exciting ultrasounds, wondering what our baby would look like and who he/she would grow up to be! After an elective ultrasound to determine the gender (💓) we received a call from our OB that the ultrasound showed a cleft lip and “other possible birth defects”.
I felt like a ton of bricks had been put on my chest. I couldn’t breath. For the next 22 weeks, my pregnancy was filled with high risk doctor appointments, interviews with different surgical teams, researching and reading everything I could about how to best care for our daughter. But mostly it was filled with fear of the unknown. On July 6th, she made her grand entrance and was officially diagnosed with a unilateral complete cleft lip and palate. And she is perfect.
She will most likely have about 10 surgeries before her 18th birthday, two of which will be in her first year of life. Since she was 6 days old, we’ve had to tape her face as a pre-surgical measure to help with her lip repair in 3-4 months. Some complications we may face are feeding issues, breathing issues, speech issues, hearing issues, etc. Our Christian Grace is strong, resilient, beautiful, and a fighter — a warrior in every way. She is fearfully and wonderfully made!