Tag Archives: advice

Four Months & Jensen’s Tree

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It’s taken me all day to write this, so I’m going to start off with what will be less of an emotional toll for me…

We bought a tree! Well, more like we donated a tree to the Gnadenhutten Nature Center in Jensen’s name. Jensen’s tree is a Red Jewel Crabapple tree that attracts birds, pollinate the area, and looks beautiful.

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We have been wanting to plant a tree in our backyard in honor of Jensen and do a memorial garden around it, but the locus deterred us from doing that this year. Anyways, since the locus are gone, we were happy to donate a tree in his name for the community. It’s just down the road from us and we can go visit him there. Since we had Jensen cremated, he’s always right there with me. It’s nice to be able to go to a place and feel connected to him. We’re planning on getting a stone with his name on there to place in front of his tree.

 

His tree is placed right in front where everyone can see it. I hope I can come back to his spot in twenty years and the tree is just so big. Maybe he’ll send us cardinals and blue jays. I can see us going down and having a picnic there and just basking in the peace. We donated his tree yesterday and have ridden our bikes to see it four times already. I know Anthony and I are just so happy to be able to do something in Jensen’s name, especially helping out the community and the nature center.

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We have probably fifty more pictures of the tree, us and the tree, and the sunset in the background with the tree. It’s pretty silly, but we just love seeing it there. I hope it’ll bring joy to others when they see it as well. I’d also like to say, the two gentlemen that planted the tree and play a major part in this project were so nice and genuine. From the time I contacted them to dropping his tree off, they were so nice to stay in contact with and help out. If you’re local, I hope you can go check it out!

Now to the hard part. I’ve been trying to find words all day to explain how I’m feeling and coping. Nothing seems to fully capture everything, but I’m going to try my hardest.

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Seventeen Weeks & The Biggest Trigger.

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As you all know, Tuesdays are the roughest days for me. I woke up in disbelief that today marks Jensen’s seventeenth week in heaven. The past few days, I’ve been preparing myself for Friday, the four-month mark. For some reason I just didn’t mentally prepare like I usually do. I’ve felt dizzy all day and am just trying not to break down in tears every second. It’s so much harder to fight grief and emotions off when you’re physically and mentally tired, it just floods your system.

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Last night I dreamt of Jensen as an angel. He was constantly around me, but I could never reach out and grab him. I could just see him smiling at me and guiding me on. In my dreams, Jensen grows to what I would imagine his age now. His cheeks were still big, he had a big Buddha belly, and chunky legs. He looked happy to be watching over me, but I thought he was upset that I couldn’t hold him. All I could tell him was that I loved him and I’m trying my very hardest to be the best mommy I could. Oh how I wish I would have just been able to grab him and wake up with him in my arms. Instead, I woke up crying. My face was wet and everything hit all over again.

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Sixteen Weeks & Some Good News.

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Today is rough. I’ve already had three major breakdowns and it’s only two o’clock. I woke up in disbelief that it’s really been sixteen weeks since Jensen’s birth. Then a huge rush of emotions and the stresses of everyday life beyond grief. I’m hurting and missing him so much today; and everyday.

On top of missing him and going through all my emotions and grief, I still have to work. This may be complaining, but it’s hard. It’s hard to want to actually work and do good for myself when Jensen’s not there motivating me. Through grief I’ve learned that one little stress multiplies to a breakdown. It can be something as little as my phone buzzing too much or the cat running under my feet. After the little stress, grief barges through the hole and drowns me. But here I am, still treading and doing the best I can be doing.

I think about how next week I’ll hit the four-month mark. August is going to be a whirlwind of emotions from that milestone to my birthday at the end of the month. August brings in the school year and just starts to things that I have no control over. Time sucks during grief. You want it to move forward, but you’re just grasping to go back in time when they were still with you. This is the cycle that’s constantly going through my head and today I just can’t push it back.

I’m thankful for certain messages and text I’ve received today. It lets me know that all of these feelings and emotions and desires to have him back are completely normal. More importantly, it lets me know that I’m not going crazy. I also have something else going on right now that I’m excited to announce…

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The Story Behind Jensen’s Name.

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If you hadn’t noticed, I love Jensen’s name. His name sounds so beautifully when said out loud and the loops look so perfect wrote out. When I hear other’s say his name, it’s the sweetest sound. He always was my Jensen, even before we knew he was a boy. It’s been our connection to him from the start.

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After being asked about his name, I realized I’ve never really told you the story behind his name. Fair warning, it’s not as exciting as you would think. It’s actually a little silly, but it all came together so perfectly.

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Just Listen & Six Other Ways to Help a Friend After Loss.

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As I head into the fourth month of love and loss, I’ve learned a lot about how other’s see and understand grief. In this time, I can honestly say, our society doesn’t prepare us to help others after any type loss. Before Jensen was born, I had no idea how to help someone going through any type of loss. Sometimes, even now, I still don’t know what do say or how to help someone.

Grief is messy, unpredictable, and causes colossal pain. No two people experience grief the same exact way, which makes it even harder for friends and family. I recently read an article that said grief, especially after losing a child, lasts a lifetime. Yes, there’s good days and people learn how to live and manage the sadness, but it is always there. A child is gone. It isn’t something you can just get over, ever.

This list consists of things I would have or liked having in the past fifteen weeks. I’m sure the further I journey through the grief the less I’ll need some of these, but I know loss happens everyday. I hope this list can potentially help other mommas navigating this journey.

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Fifteen Weeks & The Painted Name Project.

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It feels unreal that another week has came and passed. It’s the fifteenth week since Jensen has been born. One-hundred and five days have passed. On day one-hundred, I felt the biggest pain, triple digits was hard to wrap my mind around. How could it seem like it was yesterday when he was dancing and moving all around? Seriously, I don’t understand how all of this can be possible. But each day I wake up and rediscover my reality.

I feel like I could go on and on and on about all I wanted to do with Jensen or how I feel like my whole entire future was stolen away from me. Today I’m choosing to have a positive day, even though I want to hide in bed. I know he continues to guide me each day and protect me. He dances in the clouds each and every Tuesday, while he celebrates getting bigger in heaven. In my heaven, he grows until I get up there with him. Then we both go back to being twenty-two and him just born. When I reunite with him there, I want him to be screaming as loud as he can be. My heaven does not include silence.

In this world, I don’t want to keep silent either. I will always say Jensen’s name and keep talking about baby and child loss. It’s really unheard of until it happens to you or someone you know. Believe me, there’s a whole community of parents, grandparents, and other families that are effected by losing a child. Stillbirth results in 1 in 160 pregnancies and baby loss ranging from miscarriage to SIDS happens to 1 in 4. I hope to be able to help every single family out there in just a small way and maybe one day I will.

Today, in honor of Jensen’s fifteenth week in heaven, I want to share a beautiful project that my little Jensen helped to inspire.

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Fourteen Weeks.

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Tuesday, we meet yet again. Instead of the happiness of each passing week I wanted with Jensen, I get further away from my last connection to him. I wish I could say each lessens the pain, but it doesn’t. Moving forward and processing grief is more complicated than that. His absence is so loud and the only thing I can focus on, especially on Tuesdays. I can imagine him everywhere I go, so I’ve been trying to fill the blank spaces with what reminds me of him. Continuously incorporating him so beautifully into our home and always in our hearts.

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Today I can’t keep my eyes off of his new block; his ‘J’ block. It stays in our living room, where his swing would be. I look over there and imagine him so happy and content going back and forth. Then when I’m spiraling into the darkest parts, I look
at his block. His initial means so much to me. Anthony call him Baby J as soon as we found out he was our little boy. I feel like once I got pregnant, J’s popped up everywhere. It seems fitting to keep them in our house and all around me. Even after we have his pictures hanging up, his J will always hold so much hope and happiness for me.

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“Good Thing You Didn’t Get Attached” and Six Other Things I’ve Heard.

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 Grief weighs so heavily on me. Most days I do not feel like getting out of bed to participate in ‘real’ life. When I actually do have the courage to go out in the world, it never fails that I head something that makes me want to run and hide in bed. This list has been weighing on me for weeks, with the last on it just recently being said to me.

This list isn’t meant to stir up trouble or make anyone weary of saying anything about Jensen to me. Believe me, I love talking about Jensen and sharing his story with others. There’s 38 weeks of his life that I proudly talk about. I have so many ultrasound pictures I’ll show you. I will talk about grief and baby loss. These are just the topics that are going on in my head every second about Jensen and the past fourteen weeks.

Good thing you didn’t get attached.

He wasn’t a puppy. Jensen was my child. He was a sweet baby who has a family that loves him more than anything. I see the picture of his first shoes and just want to cry thinking that people didn’t think I was attached to him. Or I feel as if that he wore these shoes or I brought Jensen home with me, I would be worse off than I already am. I don’t know, I just can’t wrap my head around it. How could I not love him just because he was stillborn. He died and I’m still attached to him. I was ‘attached’ the second I saw the positive sign when I took the pregnancy test. I had 38 full weeks with Jensen and had a lifetime of, well, life planned for the both of us. Just because he died doesn’t mean he didn’t exist and my love for him just ended. He is and always will be my first-born son; I’ll always be attached to him. 

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Three Months.

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Today my son turns three months old.

I’ve been dreading this day. This whole holiday weekend has been so exhausting and has led up to this Tuesday. It seems unreal that I’m here right now. Somehow my body is still walking, breathing, and functioning. Most times it feels like my soul is going to lift right up from my body and just go. I’m not sure where my soul would go, I’d just want to be right there with Jensen’s.

This Tuesday is unlike all the other milestone Tuesdays and changing of the months. Today is just like the day Jensen was born: Tuesday, April 5. The combination of the days together hurts so much more. Not to mention we changed the calendar page, again. It all has flooded me this weekend. I was with family on Saturday, just like I was three months ago. Sunday was a lazy day with Anthony. Then Monday was full of pain and loathing for the next day to come. July is mirroring April. Heck, the weather is just like April.

Then I’m here, barely. My body is a zombie and my mind is just everywhere all at once; replaying three months ago and since then all at once. It hits me how much time has passed.

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