<div>Hello, my name is Angel and I am fundraising with my husband, Garrett, for a memorial gift in honor of our babies, Nolan, Brooklynn, and Grant. Our goal is to raise enough money to donate a CuddleCot to a local hospital for families who are going through the same heartbreaking situation we have been through three times.
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<div>For those who are not familiar with a CuddleCot, it is a cooling pad/mat that has a continuously cooling system within a portable, versatile crib/bed that helps keep baby's body cool after their passing away. This system allows parents additional time to create memories with their baby while they work through, mourn, and grieve the loss of their little one.
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<div>Below is a bit more about our story and how much having a CuddleCot system available to us has meant and helped with our healing process.
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<div><strong>Nolan</strong>
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<div>We decided to try to expand our family at the beginning of 2019. We were quickly met with fertility issues and by 2020 we were recommended IVF (In-Vitro Fertilization) as our best chance at growing our family. In 2021 we were blessed with our first pregnancy; we were so happy and grateful. At our 20-week anatomy scan we found out that I was in labor and that we would likely not being going home with our baby we had dreamed about. Within a few days Nolan Gene Carter was born. He was so strong and lived for an hour before passing away in Garrett's arms.
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<div>After Nolan was delivered, I had coded due to hemorrhaging and when I was stable again, he had already passed away. We were not ready to say goodbye to him as we were just starting to picture the life we could have with him and it came to an end.
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<div>This is when we learned about the CuddleCot. This allowed us to be able to hold, kiss, dress, and spend time with Nolan for longer than a few hours. We were able to spend the full night with him. He was also able to meet my mom who came to visit and be here for us &amp; Nolan. We are forever thankful for the time we had with him.
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<div><strong>Brooklynn</strong>
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<div>After just over a year of physical and emotional healing we were able to get pregnant with our second baby through IVF again. All things were healthy with our pregnancy and we were watching everything closely with medical staff. Around 18 weeks into this pregnancy my cervix started shortening indicating labor could happen soon. We did an emergency surgery to help prevent this from happening. Everything seemed as if it was going well when I started having contractions again around that same 20-week time period we had with Nolan. This was too hard on our baby's body, and she passed away in utero. Brooklynn Christine Carter passed away while still in my belly and was delivered in April of 2023.
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<div>After Brooklynn was delivered, I again lost more blood than they liked to see and was unable to pass the placenta, leading me into surgery within a few hours of her birth. I was returned to the room hours later.
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<div>This time the CuddleCot at the hospital was not working and we had to use ice packs in a makeshift wooden crib. While these worked, they did not work the same as the CuddleCot system and caused her body to go through the post death process faster than had we been able to use a CuddleCot. Despite this, we were still able to spend the night with her and give her as much love as we could. She was able to meet my parents and brother during this time.
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<div><strong>Grant</strong>
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<div>In Fall of 2023 we were blessed to get pregnant once more via IVF. This pregnancy was hard for us emotionally, having been through two previous losses at close to five months. However, we had a great medical team around us and had a strong plan on how to prevent yet again another loss.
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<div>The time ticked away during this pregnancy. We made it to 20 weeks, and then 21 weeks (now further along than we had been with Nolan &amp; Brooklynn), and then made it to 24 weeks (Viability). We made it to 25 weeks, knowing that at this point in the pregnancy if something happened, medical staff could take lifesaving efforts for our Baby.
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<div>At 25 weeks and 2 days, this past Sunday, April 21st, I again started having contractions. The medical staff did everything they could to prevent delivery and keep our Baby growing in my belly, however, due to Baby's heartrate dropping I was brought back for an emergency c-section and Baby was delivered in less than 15 minutes. They did all the life saving measures they could with the NICU involved, but it was too much trauma for our Baby, and he passed away after living for 22 minutes. His birthday was Monday, April 22, 2024 where he spent those 22 minutes with us on Earth.
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<div>As I was under general anesthesia due to the emergency delivery I was not awake when he was alive. Garrett was there to give him all of our love and was able to touch his chest while he was alive to let him know we were both there with him, while the doctors were working on him.
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<div>I woke up from surgery and was told our baby, Grant Nolan Carter, did not make it. He was born as the perfect son &amp; boy that he is/was, fully formed, weighed just shy of 2 pounds (1 lbs 14 ozs) and 13 1/4 inches long. He had all 10 fingers and 10 toes, a head full of hair, Angel's mom's nose, Angel's chin, Garrett's feet &amp; toes and a perfect blend of Angel &amp; Garrett's attributes. He was born with the gift of innocence and maintained it throughout. He had long legs and some strong looking arms, this explained where the kicks and punches I was feeling were coming from.
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<div>This time around we were able to spend two full nights with our little Grant. He got to meet both sets of grandparents and allowed us all time to grieve him together. We got to wash him, dress him, make memorabilia with him and get to show him as much love and adoring admiration as we could in our short time with him.
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<div>After all three of our losses, I was not able to fully be with our babies due to medical situations, however having the CuddleCot cooling system in the room with us allowed us to have additional time to spend with our precious children. Although no amount of time will ever be enough, we can't begin to explain how precious and special it is to us that we were able to stay with our babies and begin our grieving process with them.
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<div>No parent should ever have to say goodbye to their child and I wish we could make that so, however, we know that it does happen. Our goal with this fundraiser is to provide an opportunity to other future parents in this situation to have the same opportunity we had; to spend time with their Baby and start to say their goodbyes.
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<div>Thank you everyone for your support. Any little bit helps towards our goal. Even just reading and sharing our story, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
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<div>Love,
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<div>Angel, Garrett, Nolan, Brooklynn &amp; Grant
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