My Baby Had A Stroke

When Alice Comben noticed her daughter was a bit offcolour, she put it down to a bout of tonsillitis…

As I watched my daughter Bethany, 14 months, shuffle across the living room floor, I grinned to myself. ‘Wow, look at you!’ I gushed. Most parents might have expected their babies to be well on their way to walking by now but here I was, praising my little girl for crawling only a few metres.

But Bethany isn’t a late developer. And it’s not the first time I’ve watched her hit her milestones, like learning to crawl or roll over. She’s overcome things no child her age should have to endure, and can now do things I was once told she might never be able to do again. And while it might be the second time I’ve seen it all, it’s all the more precious when I look at how far my daughter has now come.

My pregnancy with Bethany went as smoothly as my husband Phil, 32, and I could have expected. As soon as she was born, on 7 July 2016, we were besotted, and as a new mum I spent the first year of her life constantly enthralled, even with the sleepless nights and nappy changes.

I’d been lucky enough to take a whole year of maternity leave, and I watched with pride as she started to roll over, then crawl, then pull herself up and shimmy along the sofa. The 12 months flew by and before long, I was preparing to go back to work. I wasn’t looking forward to leaving Bethany behind, but I was looking forward to reconnecting with my colleagues and being back in the office.