Annabelle Mae Stach

It was getting closer and closer to my due date and Glen and I were so excited! I already had two baby showers and received wonderful gifts from all my family and friends. We had the furniture delivered, the clothes washed and were just waiting on Baby Stach's arrival. Week 35 came and we had a very busy weekend. That Sunday night I felt a little tired and wanted to go to bed early. I took a bath and then laid in bed for awhile. Baby Stach was always very active in the evenings and that particular night I didn't feel any movement that I could remember. So, I laid on my back to see if I could get her to move. Nothing. Glen and I were starting to worry a bit so we called the hospital. They told us to come on in and they will hook up the monitors to make sure everything was okay. The nurse was trying to find the heartbeat but couldn't seem to find it - she kept blaming the machine. She called in another nurse and she didn't have any luck either. They called the doctor on call that night and she came in and did a sonogram to find no heart beat. When she told us this news it was like our life just went blank in front of us. I didn't know what to do, cry-scream-cuss? After that, the rest of the night was a complete nightmare, blurr to me. I remember them taking me down to the basement of the hospital to do one more ultrasound to make sure their findings where accurate. They assigned us to a room and gave me the inducing medicine. The nurse said, this could take hours or a couple of days so just be prepared. We then had the horrible duty of calling our parents to let them know what was going on. Glen, being the amazing husband he is, called my mother and told her the devastating news. My mom immediately came to the hospital to be with us during this difficult time. This was all around midnight. Needless to say, we didn't sleep that night. Morning came and as more people heard about the tragic news we kept getting more family/friends to be with us at the hospital. Our church was notified and Ann, our pastoral assistant and Father Tierney came to be with us and pray. The many visitors and prayers somehow got us thru what could have seemed like an eternity. I was given the epidural which made the pain of the contractions bearable. Sometime around 12:00pm is when I started having major contractions. The doctor came in the room and in about 15 minutes and 5-8 good pushes our precious baby was born. We had a baby girl, Annabelle Mae Stach. She was beautiful! The doctors immediately noitified us the cord was wrapped around her 2 times which could have been the cause of death. As difficult as it seems we held her like she was alive. Our family came in and everyone got to hold her. The hospital staff was so accomidating to whatever we felt comfortable with. One of Glen's managers called and notified us his wife worked for 'Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep' which is a non-profit photography organization that is able to capture pictures of the only chance we had to be with our precious daughter. We had over 300 pictures taken by Kathy Disney of our beautiful Annabelle with several of her family members. It was a moment I will never forget. We spent the rest of the day holding Annabelle. We had many visitors throughout the day which helped in ways more than words can express. Our nurse during this day was Angelee True and she truely was an angel sent to help us get thru this day. She was the most amazing person I have ever met and we hope to be able to meet her again in better circumstances. The following day we said our last goodbyes to our precious baby and left the hospital. Leaving that hospital was the worst moment I could have ever imagined. When we walked out of our room everyone just looked at us with teary eyes and whispered "I am so sorry." It felt so wrong leaving the hospital without our Annabelle. It was suppose to be the best time of our lives but instead it was the worst moment of our lives. The days following were all just a blurr to me. I was going thru the motions but not living life like I had before. Our amazing family & friends were a significant help thru this time with all the support, flowers, cards and prayers we received. Thank you all for everything that you did!

We learned from genetics test that Annabelle had Mosiac Trisomy 14. Most babies with this chromosomal abnormality wouldn't have made it thru the first trimester but somehow Annabelle was strong enough to make it to 35 weeks. We were so thankful to have her for the time that we did. She will always be in our hearts and missed deeply. We had her ashes placed in a mausoleum at a cemetary close to our house. We visit her quite often and always will.