CELEBRATING AND REMEMBERING SWEET WILLOW JAMES
*Trigger Warning: talk of pregnancy loss and ectopic pregnancy.
While shopping for a memory box for Willow James, Ed grabbed this fake rose to make me smile. We bought it and I keep it on our mantle. 🌹💕
Before I was pregnant with Declan, I was pregnant with another little baby. On July 10, 2019, at just about 7 weeks pregnant, I had a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. I had to have emergency surgery to remove my right tube where the baby was growing, and lost our tiny baby at 7 weeks.
We named this sweet little baby Willow James. We chose one boy name (James, after Ed’s grandfather) and one girl name (Willow, my favorite tree because they last forever). We didn’t know at that point if the baby was a boy or a girl, but I still believe they were a girl…just a feeling.
Today, February 28th, was our original due date exactly one year ago. So right around today, our sweet Willow James would have been turning one year old.
We will always celebrate our baby on both July 10th and February 28th each year. It brings me comfort to do this because I know our baby will never stop being spoken of and remembered.
We shared the news of our pregnancy with Willow James very early on with immediate family and our closest friends, so we were able to celebrate them for the short time they were in my belly. Some may think that must have made losing our baby more difficult, and it did because we had to tell everyone the sad news right away. However, we’re so glad people knew. This way, our baby got to be celebrated before they were mourned and that is so special to me.
I never want there to be sadness in any situation without finding something good to smile about in the mix too. That was our something good in the sadness that made us smile. Our baby was celebrated.
💕 This was the board we filled out a few days before we lost sweet Willow James. Ed was worried because I was having some symptoms that we later found out were from the pregnancy being ectopic.
So, today we continue to celebrate our sweet Willow James and to be grateful that after their loss, we had our rainbow baby boy Declan John.
Somewhere down the line I will be writing a post to talk more about ectopic pregnancies and what they are for those of you who may not know, but for today we just ask that you think about our sweet Willow James or say their name and smile in their memory. Thank you. 👼💕💙
-Julie
Want to get to know us more?
personal instagram:
personal youtube channel:
