We are a community of crafters who donate handmade blankets to parents who have had a pregnancy loss, miscarriage or stillbirth. Our blankets can also be found cradling the tiniest babies of the NICU as they fight to grow and come home. Our goal is to give parents who are grieving or feeling helpless something homemade to provide support during those difficult times.
Sarah’s Story
The Littlest Blanket was born from tragedy. I found out I was pregnant for the first time in January 2010. Two years and five unexplained miscarriages later, I was pregnant again. I was into the second trimester and was feeling great. At 17 weeks, my cervix dilated to 4 cm without warning. I got to the hospital in time for my water to break. After a couple of hours of labor, I delivered my daughter. She was the 6th baby I had lost, but the first that I felt and got to hold after delivering her. I was devastated, and then our nurse came in. She handed me a box and told me that it had been donated from families just like ours who lost so much.
I opened the box and inside was a tiny handmade hat and blanket. I got to hold my daughter for a moment, but there was nothing that belonged to her that I could keep. This blanket was something tangible that I could hold and squeeze when I needed comfort. It was donated by someone who was just as heartbroken as we were. I vowed that day that I would donate blankets in my daughter's name, Emma, as often as I could.
I had another failed pregnancy after Emma, my first set of twins. Becoming pregnant was easy for my husband and me, but my body just didn't know what to do. I lost every baby I carried. I lost 8 babies, all between 10 and 17 weeks gestation. After my last pregnancy, we knew we had enough. It was too dangerous for me to try to carry a pregnancy anymore. We decided to have a gestational carrier carry our babies that I very clearly could not. We began the process and nineteen months later, our babies were born. We had the family we had waited for all those years.
Our twins were a year and a half old, but I had yet to donate a blanket. Life gets in the way and with so much going on, it's hard to take time to do things for others. I have experienced loss first hand. I have friends who have had losses too. I also have friends whose babies were in the NICU for months and months. When my babies became toddlers and I had a little more predictable time to work on projects, I knew it was time for another birth. The birth of The Littlest Blanket.
As one person, sure I can donate, but together, we can really do something special. There will be more stories on this page about heartache, but from every story, comes a wonderful gift to another family. I hope you will join me and start your own blanket project.