Brad and Bailey’s Story

Site created on March 8, 2020

Bailey and I were enjoying a relatively easy pregnancy that began in October 15th when Bailey told me the wonderful news. After a fantastic babymoon in Maui, we were anxious to see our baby at the 20 week ultrasound on February 4th. That ultrasound led to several more ultrasounds and eventually we confirmed that our baby has a condition called spina bifida- specifically the most severe type known as myelomeningocele (MMC). 


The initial shock of hearing this and the week following were extremely difficult. Everyone wants their child to have every advantage, and to find out that ours would face lifelong challenges was devastating. Fortunately, medicine has made recent advancements in the treatment of spina bifida and a leading team in the field practices right in our state- the University of Michigan. Mott Children's Hospital offers in utero surgery for the correction of spina bifida and we are very fortunate to be candidates. The procedure does have its risks but in exchange we are hopeful to reduce our baby's disability. 


So here we are. This week Bailey and baby will go into surgery together and both be anesthetized and operated on. I (Brad) will do my best to add updates to this page as they become available to keep our amazing support system updated on our journey. After surgery Bailey will be on bed rest so she may take over once shes feeling up to it! Thank you all for your support, prayers and kind words. Regardless of the difficult path we are on and hurdles in our future, we are beyond excited to become parents to this amazing little boy!

Newest Update

Journal entry by BRAD NETTLE








Had another great day with our guy, every day he’s a little more awake and he latched really well a couple times. We still have his monitor cables and an IV to deal with but we’re getting close to him eating enough to get rid of the IV! 




Everything still looks really good regarding his surgery, no signs of hydrocephalus of any complications. 




Basically our day consisted of loving on our boy, feeding him and getting dad some practice changing diapers while the NICU at Mott kept a close eye on him! Falling more in love by the minute and of course so proud of Miles and my lovely bride- turns out motherhood suits that gal well!!

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