Unconditional Parental Love: Embracing Imperfection in Every Baby
Since her heartwarming photos went viral, a girl who was born with a cleft ear and cleft palate has won the hearts of countless people. Sutton, a five-week-old daughter of Courtney and Gavin Gardiner of Texas, was welcomed into the world in mid-December. Photographer Shannon Morton was hired to capture the first official images of Sutton.
“We are so sorry we didn’t take maternity or newborn photos with our bébé,” Courtney, 35.
“I knew early on that I didn’t want to have a similar experience with this pregnancy when we found out we were expecting Sutton.” After the photo shoot, Morton posted a beautiful image of Sutton dozing on her business’s Facebook page, clad in a flaky bandana and matching flowered hat. The portraits of the five-week-old Sutton Gardiner went “viral” after photographer Shannon Morton shared the heartwarming photos on her business’s Facebook page last month. The Gardiners, who also have a three-year-old son named Asher, were told their daughter had a right unilateral cleft palate and cleft lip at her 20-week ultrasound. “So many smiling bébés in the studio recently! This is sweet Sutton, the cutest redhead!” Morton wrote in the image caption.
The next day, she shared another sweet portrait of bébé Sutton wearing a flower crown on her head as she slept with her chin in her hands. Courtney was initially worried about how people would react to photos of her daughter, knowing how cruel strangers online can be, but they received nothing but love and support from commenters. “Everyone was so kind and considerate, sweet messages that just said how beautiful she was,” the mother shared. “Some people started posting about how they had relatives or friends who had children with cleft lip and cleft palate.”
Since Morton’s first post was shared on January 26, it has received more than 728,000 likes and nearly 7,000 comments. The Gardiners, who also have a three-year-old son named Asher, admitted they didn’t expect their daughter’s portrait to “smell” viral, but they were “absolutely thrilled” by the positive reaction. Courtney and Gavin didn’t know what to expect when Sutton was diagnosed with a right unilateral cleft palate and cleft lip on her 20-week ultrasound. A cleft lip and cleft palate are tears or splits in the upper lip and roof of the mouth that occur during pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Baby Sutton’s cleft palate initially made it difficult to feed her, and she spent 18 days at the NICU in Texas Children’s Hospital, where her parents played her music. “She’s strong-willed and a little stubborn,” Courtney said. But you can tell that she’s going to be a real social bébé. She just loves to be held. She loves any kind of attention.
Sutton’s inspiring photo has inspired her parents to share her story on their Facebook page, My Cleft Cutie, in hopes of offering comfort to other parents facing similar diagnoses. Worried that her daughter might have other health problems, Courtney spent the night before her appointment praying for her heart to be healthy. She recalled sighing in relief when they were told her heart appeared normal on the ultrasound. “The last part they did was the ultrasound of her face, and that’s when the sonographer basically said, ‘Oh, she has a cleft labial,'” he explained. “I remember being completely caught off guard and shocked by that because it wasn’t even on my radar as a possibility that it could happen.” Courtney had assumed that a cleft lip and palate were genetic, but the causes of these defects in most babies are unknown. Approximately 1 in 1,600 babies are born with a cleft lip and palate in the United States each year.
She was so shocked that she burst into tears as questions and concerns ran through her mind. The doctor couldn’t give them many answers, and their fears about their daughter’s condition only increased.
“We didn’t feel like it was managed properly,” Gavin, 30, said of her daughter’s initial diagnosis. “It was like, ‘Okay, this is what it is.'” The Gardiners were referred to specialists at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women in Houston, which is about an hour and a half from their home. They were able to let us know how treatable it really is and how these kids can have amazing lives and get through this through your support,” Courtney said. Courtney began seeing an obstetrician in the hospital around 36 weeks into her pregnancy and joined the support group for mothers of children with cleft palates and cleft lips at Facebook, where she was able to interact with other parents who understood what she was going through.
“Being able to ask those mothers those questions and follow their son’s journey was something that gave me a lot of comfort and encouragement,” she recalled. After Sutton was born, she had to stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for 18 days because her cleft palate made it difficult to feed with a bottle. Gavin said the comments they received on Facebook after their daughter’s photos went viral were a “huge encouragement” to them after her time in the NICU. Sutton is scheduled for her first surgery to repair her lip in March and will have a second surgery to close her palate closer to her first birthday.
“She’s stubborn and a little stubborn,” Courtney said. “But you can tell that she’s going to be a very sociable girl. She loves to be held. She loves any kind of attention. When her brother is around, she loves it when he comes and brings her things, and she starts smiling every time he gets close to her.” Gavin added that her daughter also loves to listen to music, which they started playing for her in the NICU.
The Gardiners are grateful for the care Sutton has received at Texas Children’s Hospital and for the online community that has supported them since their diagnosis. Their daughter’s viral photo has inspired them to share her story on their Facebook page, My Cleft Cutie, in hopes of offering comfort to others in similar situations. The couple agreed that they want parents whose children are diagnosed with cleft palates to know that “everything is going to be alright.”
“Although things are scary and may seem dark in that initial cool period of diagnosis, it’s actually a beautiful thing that is 100 percent treatable and manageable,” Courtney said. “These kids are just phenomenal and strong that they outgrow so much at a young age.”
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