Purchase of a Cuddle Cot for DCH and OSF

A little back story to this fundraiser….

On October 26, 2021, we headed to the hospital anxious and excited to meet our baby after a long 9 months of waiting. The excitement was heightened by our decision to wait until birth to find out gender. However, all our excitement, dreams and plans of a family of 5 were quickly shattered with two words from the doctor, “I’m sorry”.

Our beautiful little boy, Adrian Wells entered this world sleeping at 3:54 A.M. weighing exactly 6 pounds. We should have had a lifetime together but instead we had to cram all our memories into a few short hours where we said our first hellos and our final goodbyes.

I could have held him forever, but his body was quickly changing, and we felt we couldn’t hold on to him any longer. This was about 3 hours after he was born. I said one last goodbye to my sweet boy forever, rocking him one last time in my arms, giving one last kiss to last a lifetime and whispering I love you. Bryan placed him in the bassinet and that was it. Thinking back, our time with him felt like 10 minutes. My body and brain were still in shock. I would give anything just to be able to hold him one more time. I know we will meet again someday in Heaven, but until then, in his absence, our lives are forever changed.

In the weeks following I threw myself into research on stillbirth, child loss, memorial keepsakes, bereavement groups, anything I thought would help ease my pain. Note to self, nothing takes away the pain of losing your child. But I did come across something that could help others going through the initial shock of this pain. Something called a “Cuddle Cot”.

What is a Cuddle Cot?

A Cuddle Cot is an in-room cooling unit that is the size of a small humidifier that is disguised inside a bassinet for families who have a baby born sleeping, like Adrian or other tragedies such as neonatal death and SIDS. The Cuddle Cot slows down the natural changes in the body after death allowing bereaved parents the chance to spend more time with their baby while they come to terms with their loss and be able to spend days rather than a few short hours with their child.

Looking back on the highly emotional time in the hospital, there’s so much I wish I would have done and given the time I may have been able to do those things. We want to give other grieving parents who will unfortunately have to be in our shoes someday, the opportunity, the choice, to keep their little one with them and preserve every single moment they can. To give the gift of time. Time to bond, time to take priceless photos, take molds of their baby’s hands and feet and time for extended family to come meet the baby.

There are approximately 24,000 stillbirths a year (1 in 160 pregnancies) in the United States. A Cuddle Cot is not deemed an essential medical device so hospitals rely on donated Cots to support families. The cost of a Cuddle Cot is $3,000. Dickinson County Hospital does not currently own one and our family would like to change that.

With these funds, we would like to donate a Cuddle Cot to the Dickinson County Hospital in Memory of Adrian Wells and all the babies gone too soon.

We thank you in advance for any amount you can give. We also hope this will raise more awareness for this terrible and many times under acknowledged tragedy of pregnancy and infant loss and to keep the memory of our beautiful Adrian Wells alive.

Any exceed in our goal will be donated to the next family to put towards the cost of a Headstone/Urn and/or donated in Adrian’s name to PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy, an organization aimed at ending preventable stillbirth.

If we do not meet our goal and are unable to purchase the Cuddle Cot, whatever funds we do raise will be donated to PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy in memory of Adrian.

More information on the Cuddle Cot can be found here: https://flexmort.com/cuddle-cot/

Information on Push for Empowered Pregnancy: https://www.pushpregnancy.org/about

“Even the smallest footprints can leave an imprint on this world”