Leslie's Story

My husband Scott and I had wanted to be parents for as long as we can remember. We have been together for almost 14 years now, and always knew children would be a huge part of our life. In July of 2020, we found out we were pregnant. Those next 8 months were some of the best days of our lives. We found out we were expecting a baby boy, and it all started to feel real.

We were blessed to have a very healthy and uneventful pregnancy, until March 16th, 2021. That morning, I woke up and had my orange juice and mini muffins (Brady’s favorite,) and began to work. After a few minutes, I realized that I had not felt him move much that morning. He was always active, especially after I ate, so I decided to lay down and do kick counts. I could not feel him moving, so I immediately called my Dr.’s office in panic. They told me to come in and get checked, so after calling my husband and mom I sped to the office. The drive was all a blur, I remember bits and pieces, but mostly just screaming into the phone to my mom saying, “This cannot be happening.” I think in that moment I knew, even if I did not want to believe it.

When I got to my Dr.’s office a nurse put the monitors on my belly, and they could not find his heartbeat. My husband was on his way to meet me, but before he arrived, they confirmed with an ultrasound that there was no heartbeat. 36.5 weeks pregnant, less than a month away from my due date, we had lost our baby boy.

My husband finally arrived, and we just held each other, crying, saying we will get through this. We headed to labor and delivery to meet our first-born son in no way that we could have ever imagined. The next 24 hours were the hardest moments of my life. We finally met our son, Brady Rhett Ahern, at 4:52pm on March 17th, 2021. He was 6.5 lbs and 20 inches of perfection, with his curly hair and his daddy’s lips. We spent the next 7 hours with our boy, holding him, talking to him, crying, and trying to take as many photos as possible.

March 16th and 17th will always be impossible days for my husband and I. We will never get to see our son grow up, never get to see if he was a mama or daddy’s boy…Never get to know his personality. But, we continue to feel his presence everyday and know he is with Jesus watching over us all. He sent us his little sister, Kennedy, who no doubt was handpicked by her angel brother.

We miss him every second of every day, and that will never change. We will continue to share his story and advocate for stillbirth prevention as it is too common. No family should EVER have to go through what we did.

Your Mom, Dad and baby sister love you so much Brady Rhett!

Until we meet again 🤍

Brady Rhett

Born March 17, 2021