Coming home to a house full of baby stuff...

You have left the hospital with empty arms after loosing your child, only to come home to their nursery filled with their belongings. Your devastated, heartbroken, sore from child birth, and crying to have to leave without your baby. Then, to walk inside and see the baby swing, stroller, car seat, and toys... the pain starts all over again. Some people feel the need to remove the items permanently to move on with their loss, where as others find that eventually it is comforting to keep them. I have found some ways to help with this decision and would like to share.

Before I walked into the house, after a 2 hour long drive from the hospital, my boyfriends mother went inside to move all the obvious triggers. After a couple weeks, I worked up the courage to pack some of his things for storage; I cried the entire time. I would calm down for a second, and then break out into sobs when I saw an outfit that I couldn't wait to see on him. We basically straightened up the room so nothing got damaged or ruined and covered the bigger things with plastic. I go in there every now and then and try to picture what life would of been like.. but it's impossible. How can you imagine a life that never began?

There are many things that you can do with your baby's things:

• Pack the items for storage if you are planning to have another child. Even if your next baby isn't the same gender, there are ways you can change some items. 
• If there are some pieces of clothing or furniture that you know you will not want to keep, then one option is to donate them in your child's name. This is a great idea for their angelversary and to keep their memory alive. 
• If you eventually do have another child and would like to keep some of their brother or sisters things, you can incorporate them in their room. Leave one wall the same as the nursery and dedicate it to them. It will be like they are sharing a room. 
• For things like diapers and baby wipes, definitely save the diapers if you plan on having another child. If not, then you can donate them. For the baby wipes, I am not sure how long they would take to dry up, but what I did was I started using them. They worked great for little messes or just some quick cleaning in the bathroom.
• If you find that it is too much to keep these items, a great idea would be to sell them at a yard sale or on Ebay, BUT use the money earned to create memory boxes for hospitals. I was lucky enough to have received one and it really really helps. 

These are a few ways that you can take something so tragic and turn it into something positive. I hope this helps at least a little. =]

Thank you all.