As told to Lauren Levy by Abigail Friend.
I’m never going to stop sharing the gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, soul-shattering story of our sweet Aliza Rose. She was just 8 days old when she unexpectedly passed away. She was my first baby, and even though it wasn’t a planned pregnancy, I was so happy when I first learned that I was expecting her. I decided to name her Aliza from The Wild Thornberrys after finding out that she was a girl from a Christmas-inspired gender reveal. I was simply overjoyed.
My pregnancy was rough and I went into premature labor in February 2018. Thankfully, doctors were able to stop it. The early contractions were terrifying because she would’ve been born 10 weeks early, meaning she’d likely have to spend a good while in the NICU. Luckily, the medicine that doctors gave me stopped the contractions without harming her.
She was due May 16, 2018, but decided to make her appearance on May 12, 2018, at 11:52 p.m. I had an emergency C-section after more than 19 hours of labor because her head got stuck in the birth canal and I was mortified. I didn’t want to be cut open and was so scared.
But when the time came, although I was terrified, I was also just so excited to meet her.
I bawled when I first saw her and heard her cry. I instantly fell head over heels in love with my perfect baby. Aliza weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz. and was absolutely beautiful. She was completely healthy and the stayed that way for the first day and a half of her life.
Abigail Friend
Aliza was born happy and healthy, but then the HSV-1 virus attached to her spine, eating her lungs and brain.
Before she got sick, I didn’t mind people holding her but I didn’t want anyone kissing on her. Honestly, as a new mom, I worried about everything but I didn’t know it was even possible for babies to get the HSV-1 virus so that wasn’t even on my radar. About 36 hours after her birth, she first started showing symptoms, which included lack of energy, lack of eating, and low blood sugar.
It was around the end of day two when she started to get really sick and had to...
