Brittany
Mom to Carter
Ball Ground, Georgia
January 7, 2015
Carter Scott Combs was born an Angel on January 7, 2015 at 36 weeks and 3 days.
…and to think, the first thing he saw when his little eyes opened was the face of Jesus?
I was born to be a Mom and I knew I wanted babies since I was young. If I knew then what I know now, I still wouldn’t change having our son.
Our baby boy has touched more lives in the past few months than some people do in a lifetime. I know God gave us this baby for a reason and I knew that I needed to tell his story.
When a baby is born, it’s a parent’s instinct to protect the baby and when our baby died, it was my instinct to protect his memory.
I had the most perfect pregnancy and Carter could not have been more healthy. People used to say, “I’ve never seen anyone like you that was so happy to be pregnant!” My doctor never had any concerns and we were waiting for our healthy baby to arrive.
I went to my weekly exam on January 6, 2015. I had not felt much movement in the past few hours and Carter was usually always moving. I stopped by the gas station to grab an orange juice and I felt nothing after several minutes. That’s when I knew something wasn’t right?
When I was called back for my exam, I told the nurse that I had not felt much movement. She told me to get my blood checked first and then she would hook me up to the Doppler.
The very second she put the Doppler on my belly; she had a strange look on her face. After several seconds of silence, there was no heartbeat heard at all.
I knew instantly that something was wrong.
My doctor came in and took me to the ultrasound room. As soon as the lights went out, I saw my baby on the screen not moving. Dr. Gandhi said, “Brittany, there’s no heartbeat.”
I felt like the world stopped and these words would haunt me forever.
I was screaming and crying and asking myself, How was Brandon going to deal with this? He wasn’t going to be a daddy after all and I wasn’t bringing his baby home to him!
I was taken to the hospital by family and Brandon met me there. Dr. Gandhi didn’t know how long it had been since Carter had passed and wanted to induce me, soon.
I was brought up to our room; the very last room on the left.
We had two hours to get ourselves together and then I finally said, “Let’s just do this.”
I knew in my heart that I could do it, because God was already there with us and He was not leaving.
They started prepping me to be induced around 2:30. I was scared to death about what was coming and the unknown.
We had visitors who came to pray and visit with us. They brought food, gifts and loving words. We also could not have asked for better nurses. They grieved with us and took such good care of everything. They also took very good care of our baby.
The first night was uneasy. The nurses had to give me medicine to sleep and I was beginning to feel the contractions. I told the nurses to not give me any medicine that would keep me from remembering the experience. I’m so glad I did this because I remembered everything!
My water broke on Wednesday, January 7th. A few hours later, I started feeling a lot of pressure and felt like Carter was moving down. The nurse came in to check me and said she could feel his head. It was time to have our baby!
I held the bed rails and breathed in and out. I started to push and Brandon kept saying, “Come on Babe, you can do it, good job!!”
It took 10 minutes and Carter was out.
Carter was born at 9:05 pm weighing 5 lbs. 14 oz. and 18 1/2 inches long. I remember looking up and seeing Dr. Gandhi holding his lifeless body in her arms. She looked up and said, “He is absolutely beautiful.”
The cord was wrapped 3 times around his neck and once around his right arm. When I delivered the placenta, Dr. Gandhi said, “Look Britt, this looks like a blood clot in the umbilical cord? Do you care if I send it off to be tested?” Of course I didn’t.
The nurses cleaned him up and handed him to us.
When I first laid eyes on him, I thought he was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen. He had dark brown hair, hazel eyes, long fingers and toes and chunky cheeks. I was so afraid I was going to forget something about him so I just kept telling him how much I loved him and that I couldn’t wait to see him again in Heaven.
We spent five to six hours with him and then knew it was time to say our goodbyes.
I watched our nurse make prints of his feet and hands, take pictures of his hair and body, then take a few clippings from his hair.
Watching the nurse take my baby away from me is one thing I will never forget. I wanted to chase her down the hall and take him back. I would never be able to kiss those cheeks again and I wanted nothing more than to take him home with us. Home was where his life was going to begin and ours would be changed forever.
We laid him to rest on January 11, 2015… 1 day after my birthday.
After a few weeks of blood tests, I found out that I have a genetic blood clot disorder (MTHFR C677T) after the test results came back positive from the placenta and umbilical cord.
I was handling things very well but knew I had to talk about the experience we had been through. So, I started writing and created a website called 3angelbabies.com. My cousin has lost two babies as well and we wanted to do this in remembrance of them.
We’ve had professional “Memorial Loss Pictures” taken for the website of our boys.
The website has all three of our stories (in full detail) so you can read it from beginning to end.
I want to inspire people through my testimony and I want someone to look at me one day and say, “Because of you, I didn’t give up.”
These are our babies, and it’s our job to tell their stories. We all have the same, yet different stories to tell. Our babies were born still, but were still born and have made us all Mothers and Fathers. It’s my goal to reach out and let everyone know that we are in this together.
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You can contact Brittany via e-mail at carter.3angelbabies@gmail.com and view her website at 3angelbabies.com