Evan Thomas Whittaker

Evan Thomas Whittaker

Born and passed away on 24th march 2008 aged 18 1/2 hours.

Beautiful son of Paula & Steven Whittaker.

Baby Evan died as a result of complications during pregnancy. The membranes surrounding him ruptured
at only 18 weeks into the pregnancy. The doctors said he would be born within 72 hours, and even if
he wasn't born in that time he would almost certainly catch an infection which could kill mum and
baby.If this didn't happen and he lived they said he would not continue to grow properly,his lungs
wouldn't grow and he would have deformities of his limbs due to not having enough fluid to move
around in. We were sent home to wait for him to die.

However what the Dr's didn't know was that Evan was a little fighter who didn't do as he was told!
Evan wasn't born at 18 weeks, he did continue to grow, he never caught an infection, and he moved
about all the time!

Evan continued to thrive inside his mum until he was born prematurely at 29weeks on Easter Monday
weighing 2lb 9oz. He was a beautiful,perfect baby,including his limbs, and continued to fight all
day. Unfortunately though his little lungs were underdeveloped due to the loss of fluid so early
on,and after 18 1/2 hours he could fight no more. Evan went peacefully to sleep in his mummy and
daddy's arms.

Although we are heartbroken and miss our little man like mad, we are so proud of the way he
continued to fight and always will be. We are glad we had the chance to cuddle and kiss Evan, and
tell him how much we loved him-something we couldn't have done if he hadn't fought so hard in trying
to prove the Dr's wrong.

God bless sweet pea,love & miss you forever, love mummy and daddy x x x x x


Also love to our little angel baby, who grew wings on 8th March 2007 at 8weeks gestation,&our
tiniest angel, lost september 2008 at 4 1/2 weeks gestation. Love you both angels,play nicely with
your brother Evan, we will all meet again one day x x x x



Our letter to Evan from mummy & daddy.

Darling Evan, it is difficult to know where to begin talking about you, so I guess a good place to
start is at the very beginning of your life.

You were the baby your mummy and daddy desperately wanted, and after months of fertility treatment,
we finally found out we were expecting you on a beautiful Saturday morning in September. We really
couldn’t believe we were lucky enough to be having you, infact mummy sent daddy out to buy five
more tests just to make sure it was true!

But true it was, and we were so happy, although those first few weeks of your life weren’t easy
and you gave us quite a few scares. We prayed every day that you would carry on growing, and sure
enough every week when we would see you on scan you kept on getting bigger. It made us so happy to
see you waving at us, and we loved you so much from the minute we knew you were growing inside
mummy.

As you got bigger, it was obvious you had your own little personality already-lets just say you were
very determined! You liked to stay up late, and get up late too- and so help anyone who disturbed
your sleep!! You made it quite clear you didn’t like to be woken up early by the neighbours dogs,
or the crying babies in the hospital. This was obvious by the force of your kicks- you were clearly
unhappy with the noise! You also let the midwives and the doctors know that you didn’t like to be
poked and prodded by kicking them hard, and constantly hiding from them when they tried to listen to
your heartbeat on the monitors. You even earned yourself the nickname ‘posh spice’ in the
hospital because of this! You seemed to like chocolate, cheesy wotsits and carrot cake, but you
weren’t so keen on rhubarb or red meat- mummy learned about this very quickly! You also liked to
kick your little feet to Kylie Minogue! Despite your short stay on earth with us, we feel we knew
you so well already.

The name Evan means ‘young warrior’ in Celtic, and Evan that is so true of you. You battled on
inside your mummy for months and you continued to defy the odds of the doctors who first treated
you. They said you wouldn’t make it past 18 weeks- you hung on until 29 weeks. They said you
wouldn’t grow properly- you were the perfect size for your age.
They said you wouldn’t be able to move around much inside your mummy, especially after the steroid
injections- you were never still, particularly after the steroids! Infact you moved around so much
you earned yourself another nickname amongst your family- Dora the explorer!
It should be pointed out here that the doctors also said you were a girl-again you proved them
wrong!

You continued to battle on, and your determination meant that you got to live outside of mummy for
18 ½ hours when you decided it was time to come out on Easter Monday. The doctors were surprised by
you again- you put up such a fight and were so strong considering the size of your tiny lungs and
your age. Even then you still managed to fight with the doctors and nurses, pulling at your
breathing tubes.
You continued to fight all the odds for 18 ½ hours Evan, but sadly your little body was just too
small and too tired from all the fighting you had had to do for the past 29 weeks. You managed to
hang on until mummy was well enough from her operation to come and be with you and daddy, and then
you went peacefully to sleep in our arms.

Although our hearts are broken Evan, and we cannot understand why you weren’t allowed to stay with
us, we want you to know that we are so, so proud of you beautiful boy. We wish you could have stayed
with us for a lot longer, but we will always be grateful for the precious time we had with you,
before and after your birth. Having you for that short time was worth all of the heartache and
stress- you made us a mummy and daddy, and we will always be proud of the way that you fought so
hard.

The name Evan also means ‘God’s precious gift’, and you were the most beautiful, precious gift
we have ever known. We will love you and miss you forever, you will always be in our hearts and we
will never forget you.

In the words of the song that mummy and daddy would always sing to you from the moment we knew you
existed Evan, you are our sunshine, our only sunshine, you make us happy when skies are grey, and
you’ll never know just how much we love you. Sleep tight our precious angel with your big brother
or sister, until we all meet again you will be our bright sunshine in the sky.
Love you always, mummy and daddy x x x x