About Caleb

Early December 2015, after a very easy 36 weeks of pregnancy, I felt a sudden decrease in movement of our baby. We rushed to the emergency room where they initially found his heartbeat. Because we weren’t at the hospital where my doctor was, she directed us to head to Akron General. Before we went to leave, the nurse asked if we’d like to hear baby’s heartbeat again. She tried for quite some time before giving up and advising us to head out. 

At Akron General, we were met by the OB Triage nurses who tried without success to find a heartbeat. The doctor came in to confirm with an ultrasound what we were dreading: our baby had passed away; his heart had stopped beating. 

Less than 24 hours later, our second son, Caleb Andrew, was born sleeping. He weighed 5 pounds, 11 ounces, and was 19 inches long. He looked shockingly like his big brother, despite all his dark brown hair.

We spent about 18 hours with Caleb before leaving to go home to our oldest son Colin.

We walked out of that hospital to a vastly changed world.

After Caleb was born, we were told there was nothing visibly wrong – no knot or rip in the cord, no deformities or potential genetic issues, nothing abnormal about the placenta. Our doctor advised us that we could get an autopsy, but that the chances of a “cause” would be relatively small. That Caleb’s death was likely caused by what many stillborn babies die from – a “cord accident” – where the cord was compressed at some point and he peacefully went to sleep without any pain or suffering.

She recommended sending samples of my blood, along with the cord and placenta, out for analysis, which we did. It all came back inconclusive – there was nothing out of the ordinary, confirming that Caleb’s death was from an unspecified cause. 

 Caleb's big brother Colin and little brother Carter