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Today, we welcome Sarah Hackett as our guest blogger. Sarah and I met at the Memories Support Group at Lexington Medical Center, and I believe her story will touch you. Thank you for sharing your story, Sarah!
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My name is Sarah Hackett, and I'm a 31 year old high school teacher in Lexington, SC. I have been married 2 and 1/2 years to the love of the my life who I didn't even meet until I was 27. We got married in a garden in Lexington, SC in October 2008. We decided to start a family about a year after we got married, but it took us about 9 months to conceive. We found out we were expecting in April 2010 the same week that my sister found out she and her husband were expecting! It was crazy!
We found out we were having a girl and decided immediately to name her Brie after seeing her move around on the ultrasound pictures. She was such a dancer! She was moving and grooving in my belly the whole pregnancy. She was definitely my little dancing girl! My pregnancy was textbook. The day my sister gave birth to her son, we had both hit 38 weeks. I remember waking up the next day and saying to Brie, "Well, sweetgirl. It's just you and me now!" I expected to be pregnant for two more weeks and go through natural childbirth...nervous about it but at the same time looking forward to the challenge.
However, that was the day I stopped feeling my dancing girl. I started having contractions, and my husband and I decided to go in to the hospital to see if it was our time...it was our time...to say goodby to our little Brie. We realized she had passed away the day my nephew entered the world. In my heart of hearts I believe my nephew remembers her in heaven.
Since that day my life has been turned upside down. I miss my little girl every second of every day. I live every day for her. I look forward to the day I will see her again in heaven. Heaven is a very real place to me and a place I look forward to going to. There are only a handful of things that have helped me accept what has happened to us. We found out that Brie had a defect in her umbilical cord that the doctors didn't know about. She was perfect size with a perfect heartbeat...until she simply couldn't handle it anymore. My research has found that babies in her situation will simply adjust to the umblicial blockage and compensate throughout the pregnancy...until they can't anymore. That was my girl...strong and a survivor like her mommy.
In the past six months since I lost my little girl, there are honestly only a few things that have helped me deal. I am a part of the "Memories" Support Group from Lexington Medical Center. The group meets every 2nd Thursday of the month and has been absolutely incredible to me and so supportive. I actually look forward to our meetings because I feel so welcome and so free to talk about Brie with other women in my shoes...whether they are farther ahead in their grieving or behind me...they are so supportive and encouraging to me.
If you or someone you know have gone through a pregnancy loss whether early in pregnancy or farther along, visit a support group and I'm sure you will find the same support and love and encouragement that I have found. If you don't know which one to attend, try out "Memories" every 2nd Thursday at Lexington Medical Center and I can't wait to see you.
