He imagined the first cry… the warmth of tiny skin against hers… the soft rhythm of a newborn’s breath filling the quiet of night.
But when Teddy arrived, there was only silence.

No breath.
No heartbeat.
Just stillness — and a love too deep for words.

Four days later, she poured that love into the only thing she could hold onto: memory. With trembling hands, she made casts of his hands, his feet, his face… and one tiny finger intertwined with hers — a final embrace frozen in time.

Her husband cradled him, tears falling onto Teddy’s blanket. Beside them, little Oakley kissed his brother’s cheek and whispered, “He’s the cutest baby ever.”

“This is our reality,” she wrote. “So bittersweet to create something so beautiful — and wish I never had to.”