DANIEL and Katie Whymark felt mixed emotions when discovering they were expecting a baby.
There was excitement, naturally, and palpable shock, given they had been told their only chance of conceiving was through IVF.
However, there was also plenty of anxiety, given their heart-wrenching experiences of the previous year.
Daniel and Katie suffered heartache and every parents’ worst nightmare when losing their baby son the day he was born.
Little Lucas died unexpectedly after being delivered at 41 weeks at Colchester Hospital in October 2019.
It was a horrific time and the grieving continues.
For now, though, the family have found unexpected happiness following the safe arrival of baby Harrison.
Daniel, 39, says his family will never be truly complete, but admits recent weeks have brought timely joy into their lives.
He said: “The day we found out my wife was pregnant again was so emotional.
“We were thrilled, of course, but also shocked, having been through so much to get to that point.
“We’d also been told we had no hope of conceiving naturally.
“We were still grieving for Lucas.
“We were in the middle of a grief bubble.
“It had only been seven months since we lost him and we had no intention of getting pregnant again so soon.
“It wasn’t in our thoughts at that point and, to stand any chance of having a baby, we thought we’d have to go through IVF again (the couple had been diagnosed with unexplained infertility and Lucas was conceived after self-funded IVF).
“There was a feeling of anxiety because of what happened before.
“Losing a baby is the most painful thing imaginable and, naturally, we worried we could go through the same again.
“There were a lot of different emotions and we knew we wouldn’t be truly excited until we were holding a happy, healthy baby in our arms.”
Miracle baby - Harrison Whymark was born at Colchester General Hospital on January 5
Understandably, Daniel, who lives in the St John’s area of Colchester, describes his newborn as a “miracle baby”.
Conceived and then born in lockdown, Harrison, whose middle name is Lucas, arrived on January 5.
He was born early, at 38 weeks, by elective caesarean, at Colchester Hospital, weighing 7lb 1oz.
His safe arrival was an indescribable relief and, even now, Daniel admits he is still coming to terms with having a new baby at home with Katie, 36.
“I still can’t believe we fell pregnant naturally,” he said.
“Likewise, I can’t believe what we experienced losing our first-born.
“The only positive was that having felt such pain, I now know I can get through anything in life.
“I’ve already been through the absolute worst so, in some respects, it’s given me a new lease of life, knowing I’m living for my son who didn’t get a chance to live his own life.
“That’s something I’ll also impress on Harrison.
“I want him to live his life to the full, and embrace it, because his brother didn’t get to.
“Life goes on but, in some respects, we’ll never recover and we’ll certainly never forget Lucas.
“He’s in our thoughts every single day.”
Great support - Harry Pell
Daniel is a staunch Colchester United fan who also follows Tottenham Hotspur (both being his family’s teams) and there is a strong football link to both Lucas and Harrison’s names.
Lucas comes from Brazilian Lucas Moura, who famously scored a hat-trick to get Spurs into the previous season’s Champions League final.
He then missed an all-important penalty in Tottenham’s Carabao Cup tie at the JobServe Community Stadium in September 2019.
There were also three Lukes in the U’s team that night - Luke Prosser (captain), Luke Gambin and Luke Norris.
Harrison, meanwhile, partly takes his name from the U’s current skipper Harry Pell.
And the weekend before Harrison was born, Spurs’ Harry Kane and Son Heung-min matched a Premier League record of more than 25 years.
It was the 13th time the pair had combined for a goal this season, equal to the number achieved in an entire season by Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton for Blackburn Rovers in their title-winning season of 1994/95.
Daniel, who works for Colchester Council, said: “The strange thing is that we did our pregnancy test on the exact same day I was contacted by Harry Pell.
“On what would have been Lucas’ six-month birthday, I opened up a fundraising page raising money for local and national baby bereavement charities.
“He kindly auctioned the shirt he wore for the U’s game at Manchester United (in the Carabao Cup tie at Old Trafford in December 2019) and it raised £3,500.
“We kept the fundraising going until Lucas’ first birthday and ended up reaching £10,830.
“That will go towards 50 counselling sessions, for people who have lost a baby or child, and 100 memory boxes for bereaved parents.
“Hopefully we’ve helped other parents who have been through something similar to us.”
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