Baby Craig Joseph

Greetings Family and Friends,

I am the proud auntie of sweet baby Craig Joseph (CJ) who was born on 7/27/20. Unfortunately, baby Craig is staying in the NICU in Missoula due to significant medical needs.

When Julia (my sister) had her 20 week ultrasound, they found that baby potentially had club feet.  She was referred to confirm this at a larger hospital about 2 hours away.   It was confirmed that not only did baby have club feet but he also had other structural anomalies.  He was also found to be missing a part of his brain and have growth delays.   My sister moved to Missoula to stay with family while she started OB appointments twice weekly with a specialist.  During that time my brother-in-law, Tyler, had been in training for the Marines out-of-state so he was not able to be there when she was told these results.   Thankfully, due to the situation he was able to come back to Montana so he could be there with her for appointments and birth.  However, there were multiple times he was almost called back to complete his training.   Needless to say,  it has been a very stressful time for both Julia and Tyler  prior to baby Craig’s birth as it was unknown if he would survive outside of the womb.  There have been many false alarms where he may have needed to be born early.

Julia went into labor naturally and baby Craig survived delivery but there are more medical concerns that were not observed on the ultrasound.  He is missing part of his palate in his mouth, his lower jaw is underdeveloped, and there is a major blood vessel on his heart that they have to monitor as he grows.  They confirmed that he is missing a piece of his brain called the cavum septum pellucidum (CSP). This usually means baby has a condition called agenesis of the corpus callosum, which can cause developmental delay, seizure disorder, and other problems. Another possibility is a condition called septo-optic dysplasia, which can cause both of those same things as well as some visual impairments or blindness.  It is uncertain the extent of these potential effects on baby Craig.  We can say thankfully at this time he does not have seizures or other brain abnormalities.  In the future baby Craig will at least need surgery for his palate and feet.  He will also need physical therapy for his joints as he was so crowded in the womb that these did not set in the proper spots.

Baby Craig is currently unable to breathe or eat on his own so he is residing in the NICU for an unknown time.  Julia and Tyler have had to wait a couple days to be able to hold him (so he could have a central line placed in his neck).   As you can imagine, this has not only stressful but scary.  They are young first time parents having to make major decisions on behalf of baby Craig. They also have to deal  with all this during the Covid-19 pandemic.  Tyler will most likely have to return to his training out-of-state within in the next couple weeks.  This means Julia will be attending to baby Craig on her own until he is stable enough to hopefully be able to live on or near base.  

I am asking, on their behalf, for family and friends to not only please be praying for all 3 of them, but to also consider donating funds to help with medical costs and help with the care of baby Craig.  Julia was not able to plan ahead much as far as baby items as it was uncertain if baby would make it outside of the womb.   Julia and Tyler are very modest and it took some convincing for them to give permission to start a GoFund Me campaign, but they see how big of a blessing this would be for them.  They would like to say thank you in advance for your prayers and generosity.

We are thankful baby Craig is here and showing us what a fighter he is.   We continue to pray for him to be able to breathe and eat on his own.  We also pray that he will show us how strong he is and that he will exceed the medical professionals’ expectations.

Thank you again and with love,

Jessica on behalf of Julia, Tyler, and baby Craig.