Mourning on Mother's Day

Mother's Day was really tough this year. My youngest sister (We'll call her Booty) who is now 19 was expecting her first child. On Thursday morning before Mother's day she called me at 4am and asked me to take her to the hospital because she was having contractions and felt it was time. It was me, my mom, Booty, and Tomb Raider driving to Alta View Hospital and getting really excited for the new baby boy on his way. Everything seemed to be going alright until the nurse went to hook up the monitors and was unable to hear a heart beat. She didn't want to say anything in front of Booty so she said she was going to have the doctor come find the heart beat. The nurse pulled mom and me into another room and hit us with the truth. The baby was dead. My heart sank. I couldn't hold back the tears. Just two days before Booty went into her doctor and heard the baby's heart beat, and now he was gone. I can't even begin to describe how terrible I felt for my sister.

With all the poking and prodding the nurses and doctor did to try and find the heart beat the baby drifted into a breached position so they decided to do a C-section.

They didn't want to give her anything to dry up her milk so when she began to lactate she became extremely depressed that she didn't have a baby to feed.

She was released from the hospital on Mother's Day. On her way home she called me to wish me a Happy Mother's Day. It took all I had not to break down so I said, "Happy Mother's Day to you, too...You are a Mother." She told me I was the first person to say it to her and thanked me. That did it and I started to cry again.

I love my sister so much. It's been a nightmare watching her go through this. It has also brought back some painful memories for me. I lost my first child at 17 weeks. I think it's much worse to take a child to full term and lose it though.

As Booty heals, physically and emotionally, I have been trying to spend lots of time with her and make sure she is not alone for long periods of time. She's asked me tons of questions about my miscarriage and it's helped me to be honest with myself. I realize now that I never really dealt with the loss of my son properly but talking about it has helped me to cope.

We had a funeral for Baby Elroy on May 12th. It was a very emotional day. After the funeral we went to the hospital to meet our new niece. Lovebug's youngest sister gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.

Thank you to all of those that have kept my sister and my family in their thoughts and prayers.