I’m not sure how much of this is allowed and I’m sure I need to put a trigger warning somewhere because of how insanely depressing this all is.
I’ve never posted here, but I lost my baby in November of 2025. I got 8 weeks of leave from my job and it felt like during that time we were in a little bubble. Like nothing felt entirely real yet, even though of course we were grieving heavily. I am sure most people start feeling ‘better’ as time moves on but I don’t feel that at all. We are coming up on the one year anniversary of losing our sweet girl and it feels like I walked out of that hospital empty handed yesterday.
I see my baby everywhere. When I am passing by the baby stuff in Target and relive all 5 stages of grief, I see her. When a friend posts their baby announcement on instagram and I am supposed to feel happy for them, I just see her. Since we lost her around the holidays, I see her in every christmas song and I hate every holiday I’ll ever have to spend without her. Life is so incredibly nuanced though, so of course, I see her even when I am feeling joy and laughter and hope. She is there for everything which I love and hate all at the same time.
I feel misunderstood by everyone around me, and while I love my partner dearly, he will never understand my relationship with our baby. He is incredibly supportive and loving but when I panic at 11pm because I hate being alive while my baby isn’t here, how could he ever truly understand that? My mom even spelled her name wrong today and played it off as a joke. I had to explain that my child is a real person, with a real name, and she doesn’t deserve to be made fun of even if she isn’t here. It doesn’t feel like anyone gets that.
If you’re anything like me and going through this subreddit days after coming home from the hospital, then I am so incredibly sorry that this may be your reality too. I guess I am just looking for some positive insight from people who still don’t have children and when this all becomes manageable again? I have tried crafts, coloring, exercising, creating a shopping addiction, being medicated and probably everything else under the sun but the absolute horror of missing your child is something that doesn’t go away, i think. What gets you out of bed in the morning? When do your emotions become regulated, if ever? How do you continue going on when your child is no longer here?