I mourned the fact that I had never seen my son take a breath or cry

Many of you will know Michelle, the babyballet franchisee for Bolton. Tragically, Michelle’s first baby Jakob was stillborn. Here’s their story.

Tommy's guest blog by Michelle 20/09/2018

“After our wedding in 2011 I fell pregnant very quickly and made plans to move from Kent back to Yorkshire, where my family live, so I could be closer to them whilst bringing up my baby.

Everything went well, there were no complications and I left my job on maternity leave and moved half way across the country to await the arrival of Jakob.

41 weeks into my pregnancy I had a sweep and everything seemed fine.  24 hours later, we were given the news that my baby no longer had a heartbeat and he had passed away.

To this day, we do not know what happened and what had caused our baby to die.

The months and years following this tragedy were extremely difficult. I had moved away from my job, my husband worked away during the week and I mourned the fact that I had never seen my son take a breath or cry.

A few weeks following Jakob’s death, I decided that I would try to turn my life around and I took on a babyballet franchise and started trying for another baby.  The babyballet family were incredibly understanding and I made some amazing friends and colleagues during this time, who helped me get through the worst.

One day, myself and Alan decided to visit Jakob at the crematorium and take him a balloon with some little goodbye letters attached. Strangely, the balloon went up into the air and completely disappeared, something which we took to be a sign of what was to come.

The very next day, after Alan had left for a three week trip abroad, I found out I was pregnant again.

Everyone was delighted, especially, when Isaak was born on 18th May 2014, happy and healthy.

He is now almost 4 and a half, has just started school and even though I think about Jakob every day and wonder what he would have been like, I am truly grateful for little Isaak who fills all our lives with happiness and smiles.

Isaak and I are really excited about taking part in Danceathon again and this time raising even more than the £600 he raised in 2016 for a cause that means so much to us.”

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