Braxton

A Cleft Lip and Palate Warrior

When I was about 24 weeks pregnant, we went in for our anatomy scan—so excited to see our little guy! During the scan, the tech noticed something unusual but couldn’t explain what it was. We were told the doctor wanted to speak with us in his office. In that moment, we were nervous and scared. Something wasn’t okay.

The doctor explained that the images of Braxton’s face showed a cleft lip, and likely a cleft palate as well, since they often go hand in hand. We were rushed into genetic testing to rule out any additional concerns. It was the longest two weeks of our lives waiting on those results, and it fell over Christmas, which definitely put a damper on the holiday.

Thankfully, all the testing came back normal.

My husband and I joined social media groups to learn as much as we could and prepare for our baby. Braxton came into the world on April 2, 2020—right at the start of the COVID pandemic. I got to hold him for about 10 seconds before he was rushed to the NICU because his left lung wasn’t working at full capacity. He recovered quickly and only needed oxygen for the first night, but he had trouble learning to eat.

It was confirmed that Braxton had a cleft in his soft palate, which made it hard for him to create suction and drink from a bottle. After 10 days in the NICU and finding the bottle that worked best for him, we finally got to bring our little guy home.

Braxton thrived.

His cleft team scheduled his first surgery to repair his lip when he was 5 months old. In August 2020, Braxton got his forever smile! For the next 10 days, we fed him with a syringe until he was cleared to use a bottle again.

Just a few weeks after his first birthday, Braxton had surgery to repair his palate. He did so well that we were able to go home the same day. He recovered quickly and even learned how to drink from a straw, something he had never been able to do before.

Today, Braxton is 4 years old and loving preschool! He’s obsessed with cars, trucks, tractors—pretty much anything with wheels.

He will need more surgeries in the future, including a bone graft for his gum notch and possibly another palate repair. But when we tell people Braxton was born with a cleft lip, they’re always shocked—his surgeon did such an incredible job.

We’ll forever be grateful for his amazing cleft team.

My husband and I always say we’re the lucky ones. We got to fall in love with two different smiles from the same little boy.

June 2026 Update:

Braxton is now 6 years old! In June of 2025 he underwent another surgery for a palate revision at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Braxton had a small pinhole in his palate and the surgery was to repair that and it make his palate a little longer. Everything went perfect and he healed up wonderfully! Braxton completed Kindergarten and is now going to be going into 1st grade. He LOVES playing soccer and baseball! He is the best big brother to his little sister and we are so proud of everything he has overcome in his journey so far! We feel so blessed to be his parents.