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Central Texas couple mourns the loss of their stillborn daughter

Posted at 4:26 AM, Feb 15, 2018
and last updated 2018-02-15 11:51:03-05

A couple from a viral Facebook video that revealed the gender of their baby is now asking for support from the Central Texas community.

After months of IVF treatments, Bethany Suiter was finally able to tell her husband Donald Suiter they would be having a baby girl, and she would be here on Feb. 22, which is also Bethany's birthday.

Donald was overseas serving a nine-month deployment in Kuwait at the time of the reveal, so the news was a surprise.

"I showed him the pregnancy test over FaceTime and he just was not convinced the lines were dark enough so it wasn't until I showed him the digital one with the word 'pregnant' and he was like 'wow,'" Bethany said.

And six months after the announcement, Donald got to meet his baby girl.

"It was pretty awesome. I got to put my hand on her belly for the first time," Donald said.

And from month six on, the Suiter's got to enjoy their pregnancy in the same country.

While the couple was happy to be welcoming their first baby girl together, they were hit with devastating news at week their last-month check-up with the doctor.

"He said guys this isn't good. I can't find a heartbeat," Donald said.

Just a month before their due date, the Suiter's had to deliver their stillborn daughter.

"I started panicking because I knew she was going to be given to me dead and they gave her to me and laid her on my chest and he got to cut the cord," Bethany said.

Charlie-Jo Gracelynn Suiter was born January 26 with no explanation of how she died.

"The first thing I did was pinch her cheeks. She was beautiful, but she looked pitiful," Bethany said. "The IVF people told us their goal was to put a baby in your arms and they did, but she wasn't breathing."

Now that beautiful baby girl lays next to her grandmother in a Tennessee cemetery while her parents remain in Central Texas re-watching the day their lives changed forever.

The couple said between the hospital expenses, traveling to and from the hospital and memorial costs they need about $12,000.

Family and friends have set up multiple ways to help the Suiter's, including donation pagesand a fundraising event at Buffalo Wild Wings in Killeen.

The restaurant has a deal on Thursday beginning at 11 a.m. with the family that they will donate 10 percent of every meal sold to the Suiter family. All you have to do is take a printed or digital copy of the flier into the restaurant and show your server.

The Suiter's added they sent their daughter for an autopsy and are still waiting on results. Currently, they have no answers as to why they lost their child.

Charlie-Jo was buried Feb. 6.

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