Bug's Story

On July 4, 2011 an amazing thing happened, while everyone was celebrating the nation's birthday with fireworks and fun, we had our own special birthday to celebrate, Payton Matthew Burke. His grand entrance matched his birthday, just like a firework, he arrived with a BANG and took our breath away. As the bug grew, so did his eyes! Our sweet baby got the name "bug" because he had these huge round eyes that just looked like they were about to pop put of his head and snatch your heart! He was truly a gift from God.

On September 13, 2011 the unthinkable happened. After only 10 short weeks, the precious Bug who had captured the hearts of so many left this world suddenly and tragically. Early that morning, around 3:30 Payton woke up crying, ready for a feeding. I sat up on the edge of the bed, grabbed him from his bassinet, and began nursing him, which is where the nightmare begins. While feeding Payton I fell asleep, leaning back in the bed, with him cradled in my arms. A few hours later the Bug's Daddy awoke and discovered that the unthinkable had happened. While we slept Payton turned his face into my body, and with his mouth and nose covered he was unable to breathe. In the blink of an eye, our baby was in the arms of Jesus. So many people came to show their love to our sweet baby, and it touched us to see that in 10 short weeks our baby had known more love than most people know in an entire lifetime.

I started reaching out and looking for more resources to educate myself and others about the dangers of unsafe sleep environments for infants and ways to reduce the risk of SIDS. I wanted to do whatever I could to help spare other parents the heartbreak that I experienced. It became very therapeutic to share Bug's story because I learned that each heart touched by his story would carry a piece of him forever. The more hearts touched by his story, the more children saved by his story, the more hearts he would live on in and through that my baby would never truly die and would live on forever. I didn't know where to start with educating people on Payton's story. I was telling friends, family, and anyone I knew who had children in their lives about Payton, and I had found a few resources online that had helped me, however there was nothing in my area that i knew of that could really help me. Then one day I received a letter from a very special group that would change my mission to educate forever, it was a letter from Sudden Infant Death Services of IL. It told me that I was not alone in my loss, that other families in IL had lost their children suddenly too and that SIDS worked with supporting us. It also said that SIDS worked with educating parents and caregivers on the risks and dangers of unsafe sleep for infants and preventing SIDS and other accidental deaths. It said that they wanted to just reach out to me and offer their support and love for me, my family, and my Bug. I called them immediately, I felt like Payton was shining a light down on me, like he had sent me the best gift possible uniting me with this amazing group that did everything that I wanted to do but didn't know where to begin. I knew then that was Payton's way of telling me to keep sharing his story.

Now that I have worked with SIDS for over a year, I feel like they are a part of my family. They have fallen in love with my son without ever meeting him, and the same for me with the other children whose families I have met through my Journey. We all share the same mission, to spare other parents from this heartache, we do this "In the belief that every child should live". SIDS has been such an amazing support for me and my family, and has helped me accomplish so much, I am so glad to have the oppertunity to give back to them, to help ensure that they can keep moving forward, saving children and supporting families.