Helping The Lester Family

Hudson Cole Lester

1.16.2023

6lbs 8oz and 19 inches long

It has been quite the journey just to meet this little perfect guy. For a pregnancy that physically was the smoothest pregnancy I could possibly imagine, it has been a mental and emotional rollercoaster for not only myself but Cody as well. At 20 weeks right after we found out the gender, we were referred to see a maternal fetal medicine doctor from UVA due to some things that our regular doctor had seen on the 20 week ultrasounds. Two days after my 20 week appointment we were able to see the maternal fetal medicine doctor… where we were told that our baby had no cerebellum present. As you can imagine, Cody and I were devastated by this news as this was something very rare with not a lot of research or medical cases that we could find to even prepare for what we could be looking at. The doctor told us to just continue with pregnancy as normal and we would follow up in 6 weeks. We go for a follow up and see a different doctor, who also advised that our baby had no cerebellum looking at the ultrasound but they had never seen this before and believed we should get an MRI. 2 weeks later we go to UVA Hospital for the MRI and it was found that our baby HAS A CEREBELLUM. Cody and I were so filled with joy and just praising God for this answered prayer and miracle we were witnessing. However, they did find our baby has a rare form of spina bifida that will require surgery almost immediately after birth. Now that our bundle of joy is finally here, we just want to ask for prayers as he will be undergoing surgery today to repair the spina bifida and then will be recovering in the NICU for the coming weeks.

Surgery was completed on 1/16/23 to close the opening on his back with direction of nuero-surgery and plastic surgery. Hudson is still in the NICU, overall very healthy and is surprising his doctors daily with his progression! It is unknown how long we are looking to be in the NICU potentially around 2 weeks we are hoping to hear more this weekend.

Once discharge will take place the journey begins of often traveling back to UVA at this time it sounds weekly for monitoring and follow up with multiple specialists.

Lastly, Taylor and I would like to say thank you to each one of you guys. The love, support, and prayers that each of you are given daily for our family and our sweet Hudson is amazing. #HudsonStrong