This baby’s portraits are angelic.
A nine-week-old Texas tot with a cleft lip has gone viral after her parents posted the child’s cherub-style baby portraits online.
“We didn’t do maternity or newborn photos with our son and really regretted not having that done,” said mother Courtney Gardner, to Good Morning America. “So when we got pregnant with Sutton, I knew from the very beginning that I didn’t want to have that experience with this pregnancy.”
According to the 35-year-old, she was worried that her second child would have health problems and spent the entire night worrying and praying everything would be okay.
Gardner said that initially she felt better after seeing the ultrasound, but then the doctor showed the new mother her daughter’s face.
The family revealed that their newborn daughter was diagnosed with right-sided unilateral cleft lip and palate during the 20-week ultrasound.
“The last part that they did was the ultrasound of her face, and that’s when the ultrasonographer basically said, ‘Oh, she does have a cleft lip,'” explained Gardner. “I remember being completely blindsided and shocked by that because it wasn’t even on my radar of a possibility that could happen.”
According to the CDC, a “cleft lip and cleft palate are birth defects that occur when a baby’s lip or mouth do not form properly during pregnancy.” The CDC also states that 1 in every 1,600 babies is born with a cleft lip and cleft palate in the US.
Gardner admits that upon receiving the news she burst into tears as she assumed having a cleft lip was genetic.
“We didn’t feel like it was handled that well,” said the 30-year-old father. “It was kind of like, ‘Okay, this is what it is.'”
After baby Sutton was born, she spent 18 days in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) because her cleft lip made it hard for the child to latch onto a bottle.
Following the child’s release, the parents went ahead with the shoot.
Texas-based photographer Shannon Morton shared some of the photos on her Facebook page and received an outpouring of love and support.
“Beautiful baby girl,” commented one user.
“Me and my son was born with clef cleft he was so cute like the baby on here,” said another.
“She’s beautiful as a cleft mama seeing her beautiful face just warms my heart,” a third person chimed in.
According to Gardner, the parents were hesitant to have the photos posted.
“They were all just really kind and thoughtful, sweet messages, just saying how beautiful she was,” gushed Gardner. “Some people started posting about [how] they had relatives or friends who had cleft-affected children.”
Garder said that the comments have been “encouraging.”
“She’s just strong-willed and a little bit stubborn,” said Gardner. “But you can tell she’s gonna be a really social baby. She just loves being held. She loves any type of attention. Whenever her brother’s around, she loves it when he comes over and brings her stuff, and she starts to smile every time he comes near her.”
The parents revealed that Sutton is scheduled to undergo the first of a few surgeries to repair her lip in March.
“Even though things are scary, and they may seem dark in that initial fresh period of diagnosis, it’s actually a beautiful thing that is 100 percent able to be treated and managed,” said the mother. “These kids are just phenomenal, strong children that overcome so much at a young age.”