Colleen Lindstrom of FM107.1 Get Real Girls recently requested to share the story of her daughter Brady with our Cribsheet community. It is a subject that is difficult to share but close to her heart - SIDS.  This is hard to read, but her goal is to raise awareness of safe sleep habits and what you can do to reduce the risk.
In her own words: Our daughter is so deeply missed. She was our ultimate teacher in living life joyfully, and I honor her by sharing our story.

At 11:56 pm on March 19, 2005, my firstborn drew her first breath.  With that first breath of life in the midst of a bustling birthing room, came her glorious newborn cry.  As long as I live, I will never forget the wailing sounds she produced as we welcomed Brady Judith Lindstrom into this world.  In that instant, our love story began and we made plans, just as all first time parents do.  Her Daddy would teach her about baseball and how to appreciate a really good rock song, and I would take her to dance classes and instruct her on the importance of an appropriately timed punch line.  We would live happily ever after, aside from the occasional bump in the road during the Junior High years.   I thought my heart would actually explode right then and there.  I had never tested its capacity with love like this.  So, I sang to my little girl:

You are my sunshine
my only sunshine
you make me happy
when skies are grey
you’ll never know dear
how much I love you
please don’t take my sunshine away…

Each day I was amazed that I could love her more and more.  We marveled at each new skill she developed, each new sound she made, each new expression that she revealed.  She was perfect.

And then… 

In the early afternoon hours of July 5th Brady Judith Lindstrom drew her final breath.  She had lived 109 days.  I was not there as I had been for her first breath – I had trusted others to care for her while I was at work.  Please don’t take my sunshine away…  Just as I thought my heart would explode with the love I felt for her, I believed at that moment that it would implode from the intense, crippling, sharp pain of grief.  As I held my beautiful girl’s lifeless body for the last time, I sang to her the little known second verse of our song;  

The other night dear
as I lay sleeping
I dreamed I held you in my arms
when I awakened
I was mistaken
and I hung my head down and cried.

This is my sad story, I am a bereaved parent.  In the days following Brady’s death, the details about exactly how she died became clear.  Against our instruction, against their own policy, and against the standard of care expected of licensed child care providers in the state of Minnesota, Brady was placed to sleep on her stomach by a licensed day care worker.  When she was found, her head was turned face down in the crib.  Whether being on her tummy put Brady at risk for SIDS or suffocation, Brady’s death was preventable.  In 2005, Brady was one of 22 infants whose deaths could have been prevented.  (Data provided by the Minnesota Coroners’ and Medical Examiners’ Association, the Minnesota Child Mortality Review Panel, and the MN Sudden Infant Death Center at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota).

These days most parents are familiar with the admonition, “Back to sleep. Tummy to play.”  In other words, place babies under one year of age on their backs to sleep both at night and during naps.  During waking hours, allow them to strengthen their head and neck muscles by playing on their tummies (supervised, of course).  Since the beginning of the “Back to Sleep” campaign in 1994, the SIDS rate in the state of Minnesota has dropped by more than 50%.  Had this standard of care been followed, I would likely be chasing my (almost) 3 year old red-headed girl around in the snow today. 

As far as the other 21 babies that died the same year that Brady died, some died the same way, others died as a result of sleeping with soft items in the crib, sleeping on a couch, being trapped between an adult mattress and a wall, or sleeping with an adult.  In most of these cases, the parents believed that these sleep practices were in their baby’s best interest and they were simply not aware of the hazards of their baby’s sleep environments. 

Please give your babies the best chance of waking up by making sure that they sleep on their back in a crib, bassinet, or play yard of their own.  Please remove all soft items (like stuffed animals, blankies, and crib bumpers) from baby’s sleep area so they have lots of air to breathe.  And please remember, research shows that infants who sleep in adult beds are more likely to suffocate than infants who sleep alone in cribs.

Today, we are proud parents of a mobile and curious 16 month old boy, Oliver “Ollie” Matthew Lindstrom.  During his first months of life, we were painfully challenged whenever he slept – in our experience, sleep could be dangerous.  But we knew we were doing all we could do by following the safe sleep policies put forth by American Academy of Pediatrics.   Please think of Brady, and the other 21 babies who died in 2005 when you think about sleeping arrangements for you and your baby. 

Find out more about safe sleep by visiting the Children’s of Minnesota web page that details the work of its  Minnesota Sudden Infant Death Center at http://www.childrensmn.org/Communities/SIDs.asp.  �

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 at 9:36 am and is filed under Guest Bloggers, Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.