Our Stories
Evelyn Jane Herrera
When two big kids fall pregnant. Our household soon filled up with funny books, silly toys and cute dress up outfits for the wonderful little girl I was growing in my tummy.
We picked out her name Evelyn Jane Herrera, now we just waited to meet her. We pondered who she would look like more, as our active little munchkin was always hiding her beautiful face with her arms or legs at every scan. We wondered whose personality she would most mimic, active and smiley like her dad or the moody morning grump - turn food lover like her mum.
Halfway through my pregnancy our princess decided she needed more room for activities and possibly had a part to play in rupturing my appendix. Much to mum n dads worry she was none the wiser of poorly mum by thriving and smashing her weight goals whilst kicking away behind mums big scar on her tummy.
Needless to say the doctors had no concerns, yet they closely monitored us weekly for growth. At 32 week after a routine scan the sonographer noted the umbilical artery bloody pressure reading was slightly off the chart. This continued up until 36 weeks twice weekly, every time just slightly off the chart and I was reassured this was no concern to baby, as she was gaining weight and growing ahead of schedule.
Nevertheless we decided to be induced at 37 weeks just to be sure as we have now reached the “safe zone” for delivery. Words I’ll never trust again, unfortunately two days prior to her scheduled arrival our world changed forever.
I had been busy that dreadful day, food shopping in the morning and attended a baby brunch my close friends held for me. That I think to myself now “was she there?” “Did I feel her?”.
I woke up not long after going to bed, with what only I can describe as a gut feeling something was wrong. I didn’t even need to wake my husband as he was awake too. “ Are you ok? You haven’t been up for the toilet tonight?” I explained how I felt and we decided to call the birth suites. The most caring midwife answered and at 2am said get dressed and come in.
I always remember getting to the rooms and her greeting us saying “let’s see what this one is up to, now before I hook you up to monitoring, have a toilet break you will be here a while”.
So after a quick toilet break, I got comfy on the bed and she got the monitoring band ready. She quickly felt my tummy and tried to get her heartbeat - radio silence and my heart sank as she squeezed my hand and said I’ll just grab another midwife. Again this midwife felt my tummy but not radio silence this time, my heart gave a flutter as I heard a beating only to be told that’s yours not baby. It’s here I knew something was terribly wrong.
We had to wait an agonising 30/40 minutes for the obstetrician on call to arrive only to be told the most difficult words “I’m so sorry, there is no heartbeat”.
After this, it’s a blur that comes in my nightmares of waiting to prepare for a natural labour of a baby that won’t ever take her first breath.
On 26th September 2022 at 11:55pm at 3kg and 50cm long our beautiful most precious baby girl came and left our world, practically too perfect to stay.
We spend 3 hazy days trying to lather up what most parents get in a lifetime, before leaving the hospital with a memory box instead of our cherished baby girl Evelyn.
Nearly a year on she is in our hearts daily and has touched so many lives around the world. Evelyn’s name is loud in our family and we connect with her in ways we wish we didn’t have to, yet hope she can feel our love forever.
Evelyn will always be our first child, she made us parents. She is a very really chapter, not to be forgotten but celebrated and honoured until the day we reunite again.
Evelyn’s broken hearted parents, Laura & Mark
