Finding Out About Our Baby’s Cleft Lip: The Start Of A New Journey

The anatomy scan is one of the most exciting and nerve-wracking moments in pregnancy. It’s the detailed ultrasound where they check everything from head to toe, making sure the baby is growing as expected. Since the start of our pregnancy, I had resisted scanning myself, knowing we wanted the gender to remain a surprise. It hasn’t been easy, especially with an ultrasound machine at my fingertips every day! Occasionally, my coworkers would scan me just to sneak a peek at our little one’s profile—but even then, our baby was stubborn about showing their face. We went into this appointment expecting everything to go smoothly.

December 11th was the big day. It was snowing outside, and I decided to film a little vlog to capture this special moment of seeing our baby again. We arrived at the office, filled with excitement and nerves, and were soon called back for the ultrasound. I immediately hit it off with our ultrasound tech, chatting with her about my own experience in the field. I wasn’t really looking at the screen much—partly because I didn’t want to accidentally see the gender. 

As the tech worked her way through the scan, she reassured us that everything was looking great. I felt so relieved. As an ultrasound tech myself, I know how much can go wrong, and I had been carrying that anxiety with me. But then, she saved one thing for last—the nose and lips view. I immediately knew something was off.

She started taking multiple images and video clips, carefully documenting what she was seeing. In that instant, I felt lightheaded. I had to turn onto my side, the weight of uncertainty settling in. Then, she gently told us what I already suspected—our baby had a unilateral cleft lip, meaning one side was affected.

Colin stayed calm, which helped ground me in that moment. We were brought to another room where a second tech confirmed the findings. They tried to reassure us, but I was still in shock leaving that appointment. This wasn’t genetic, it wasn’t something that ran in either of our families—Why our baby? You want everything to be perfect and when you’re told it's not, it is devastating, though it could be worse and our baby was still healthy. 

The sweetest little profile

Our babe during the anatomy scan was showing us it can still suck normally in the womb

Through all my emotions, Colin was my rock. He reminded me of something so important: we prayed for this baby, and God gave us this baby. A cleft lip didn’t change the blessing that our child is. We had asked for a healthy baby, and we still had that. This small difference didn’t take away how grateful we were. The next couple of weeks were filled with research. Our families joined in, sending us everything they could find. We connected with support groups on Facebook, which have been both helpful and overwhelming at times. It’s hard not knowing exactly what to expect until our baby is here. One of the hardest things to accept is that I may not be able to breastfeed, which was something I had dreamed of. But I still plan to pump and do whatever I can to nourish our baby.

Our baby saying hi to us!

We were quickly referred to the University of Iowa for a level 2 ultrasound, which would give us more answers—especially about whether the palate was affected. We prayed so hard that the cleft was isolated, that there would be no other surprises.

In my next blog, I’ll share what we learned at our first Iowa City visit and what our future care plan looks like for our little cleft lip babe!