My 5-Year-Old Son Looked at Our Newborn and Said, ‘That’s Not My Sister’ – I Thought He Was Jealous Until He Told Me What He Saw
“Yes.”
“While I was in labor?”
He closed his eyes. “Nicole gave birth three days before you.”
I made a sound that didn’t feel human.
He kept talking, maybe because if he stopped, he would have had to hear himself.
“Our baby didn’t make it.”
I stared at him.
He said it again, slower this time, as if I were stupid. “Our daughter was stillborn.”
I shook my head immediately. Hard. Violently. “No.”
“Yes.”
“No, because I held her.”
He said nothing.
And then I knew.
Hospital rooms blur. Pain meds blur. Bleeding and monitors and exhaustion blur. I remembered flashes, not sequences. A nurse laying the baby on my chest. Daniel crying. Me too weak to lift my head all the way.
I remembered thinking she felt cold.
I remembered them taking her quickly because they said she needed checks.
I remembered Daniel saying, “She’s okay. Rest.”
“Oh my God,” I whispered.
