Spirit animals

[Dinosaurus86]

(Not interested in sceptical/sensible views here)

We lost our daughter relatively late in pregnancy. The afternoon we came back from the hospital, I went into our garden (new to us - we’d only moved a few days before) and in the middle of the day, a hedgehog walked out right in front of me. I assume it was looking for water as it was a very hot day.

DH saw the hedgehog a couple of times in the evenings over the summer, but I didn’t see it again, except for occasional rustling heard in the bushes.

Then the evening after I found out I was pregnant again, we saw the hedgehog in the middle of the garden. Unfortunately we’re pretty sure it was dead, but we moved it carefully to cover just in case it was hibernating (really don’t think so).

I’ve always wondered if there’s some kind of message in this. I’ve felt that my daughter’s soul stayed with me. Has she now gone or could she be in the body of the new embryo?

I’m very sorry for what must have been a crushing loss, OP. If you don’t want ‘sensible’ replies, I’m not sure what has driven you to post. I think it would be deeply irresponsible of the most ‘woo’-inclined poster to encourage you to believe that a dead hedgehog was significant, or that your stillborn daughter has been reincarnated in your new unborn child. This baby is a separate individual with his or her own separate, independent existence not the universe’s attempt to give your lost child another shot at life, and it would be unfair to this child to link them to your loss.

Very best wishes for the rest of your pregnancy.💐

This scenario about the hedgehog is lovely and tragic in equal measures and I can understand how this gave you some comfort at such a sad time. Sometimes I have found nature comforts us at our lowest ebb..
and who knows? Perhaps your lost daughter was trying to show you she gives you her blessing for this next pgcy.

I saw an odd shape in the road last year while getting stuff out of my boot in the dark after work. I went to see and it was a hedgehog. I don’t know if this was the right thing to do but as it was on the road I used my foot to gently capooosh it under the adjacent parked car from underneath which I assume it came. Seconds later a car drove down the road and over the place where the hedgehog would have been. Later I was so worried the car might have pulled away in the AM and squashed the hedgehog. I checked the next day but phew no sign of this having happened!

Sometimes things aren’t meant to be, but that doesn’t mean your daughter didn’t stay close to you after you lost the pgcy, perhaps she wanted to say goodbye in her own way… perhaps she’s still with you in some way or perhaps what you suspect is in fact correct: no one knows better than you her mother.

But this little one to come is her sister/brother, so you will see a part of her; forever a part of her will live on in her sibling.
All best wishes for this pgcy x

I also lost a child late in pregnancy and I understand that desire to feel the lost child is reborn in the new pregnancy, because I felt it too.

I do feel, however, that it’s really important though to see your new baby as their own person. It’s much healthier in the long run for both you and your new child if you can do this, as well as enabling you to still honour your Iost child. I found this much easier once the new baby was born.