Baby Connor

rainbow-spring-fullIn October 2008 we were delighted to discover that we were expecting our first baby. My pregnancy was what you would consider “text book”, only feeling slightly nauseous at the beginning.

Five days after my due date I went into labour. We called Bournemouth Hospital, as I saw signs of bleeding to which a midwife visited our home. She did a thorough examination, but said she was finding it difficult to find our babies heartbeat and advised us to make our way to hospital. We arrived at Bournemouth Hospital with my contractions becoming more intense. Another midwife by the name of Lorna greeted us and ushered us into a delivery suite. Again I was examined and told I was eight centimetres dilated, to our delight. However, this was short lived as she too couldn’t find a heartbeat. I vividly remember her saying to Dale that she wasn’t going to lie but that she was very concerned. I was blue lighted to Poole in an ambulance on my own, Dale following in his car. Those minutes proved to be the longest minutes of my life. I remember looking up into the roof window at the sky praying to my late Granddad, tears rolling down my face, asking him to make sure our baby is ok.

To my relief Dale was there waiting as the doors of the ambulance opened and I was immediately taken into one of the delivery suites. A gentleman by the name of Mr Sawdy was waiting with an ultrasound machine. From that moment our lives changed forever when he confirmed that our precious baby had no heartbeat and had died. Reece David Sturgess, our sleeping angel was born 25 July 2009.

The support that we received from Gena Evans in the initial stages was nothing but fantastic. Those hours after giving birth was a complete blur and for someone to take control of the situation by building memories is something that is definitely needed from a parent’s perspective. We spent our last hours with Reece in the SPRING suite which allowed us and our families’ precious time with our son.

The following months I was fortunate to receive individual counselling from our SPRING counsellor Cindy Weller, who helped me through the darkest of days. Having someone who is experienced in baby loss is massively important as they can truly understand what you are going through. I also attended the monthly SPRING Open Support Meetings, which helped in the grieving process as you could talk freely with others in similar situations. Without this support I can honestly say I don’t think I would be the person I am today.

We have since been blessed with a beautiful “Rainbow Baby” Connor Thomas Richard Sturgess who was born 05 December 2011. He brings us so much joy every day and keeps us very busy too. He is at the stage of crawling and pulling himself up on furniture and we are sure his first word is ‘car’.

We believe Reece is looking down on us and hope he is very proud of his mummy, daddy and little brother.