Angel Babies: And Other Amazing True Stories of Guardian Angels. Theresa Cheung

and cooing as if there was someone there. I was intrigued and sat down beside her. She didn’t seem to notice me at all, as she was enchanted by the cupboard door. I tried to get her attention by bouncing a little on the bed, but she wasn’t interested. Then, as if her eyes were following something leaving the room, she leant forward and looked at the door. Then she giggled and turned back to me.

      After seeing that, I believe my little cousin has an angel watching over her. I don’t live with her, but I look after her every Saturday. So from now on when I go to pick her up I’ll know that as well as her nappies and bottles I’ll be taking an angel home with me.

      I can’t bring myself to move on at this point and would just like to share a few more special baby angel stories with you, like this one from Ally.

      Angel Eyes

      When my eldest daughter was about seven months old I remember something very weird–or should that be wonderful–happening. I was a young single mum then. My boyfriend had walked out as soon as I told him I was pregnant. He didn’t want the responsibility of a child. I was determined to keep the baby, though, even though I was worried sick about how I was going to make things work on my own.

      One day I was hugging my daughter and playing with her when for no reason at all I started crying. I looked down at this precious child and wondered how on Earth her father could have deserted her. I wiped away my tears, concerned that I might upset my daughter, but she had a huge amused smile on her face and was looking behind me. I turned around, but there was nothing there. I looked back at her and started to gently tickle her to get her attention. As I was looking into her eyes I could see my own reflection, but there also seemed to be the reflection of a tall figure standing there.

      I turned around immediately, but couldn’t see anything. Then, when I turned back to my daughter, it was as if my whole mindset had turned around. Instead of feeling that the world was a fearful place I felt that it was a wonderful, loving place and that my daughter would be taken care of.

      Things got better for me after that day. I finally got a job and was offered flexible hours so that I could look after my daughter. Two years later I married my boss and we have been together 30 years now. I had two more children with him. My daughter is all grown up now with children of her own, but I like to think that the figure I saw in her eyes was her guardian angel and that she is still being looked after today.

      Ally’s vivid story has a certain similarity to Wanda’s story below. Wanda’s world also changed for the better after she looked into her baby’s eyes.

      Baby Tim

      My first child was born three years ago, a boy called Tim. When he was a tiny baby he used to sleep in the same room as my husband and me in a basket. I was absolutely terrified that he would stop breathing in the night. I’d heard so many horrible stories about how cot death could strike at any time and my son was so tiny that I didn’t think he was very strong.

      I was having trouble sleeping anyway because he needed to be held when he fell asleep, so I would hold him for a long time. When my husband wasn’t working nights he would help out, but even when both of us were around Tim would still wake up two or three hours later wanting to feed. After a few months we moved on to bottled milk so we could both do the feeding, but even this was difficult. Life was a blur of tiredness.

      To make matters worse, often I would panic, thinking that I couldn’t hear my son breathing. So I would have to get up, go over to the basket, grab a torch and check to see that his little chest was rising and falling. Then I would tiptoe back to bed. If I couldn’t fall asleep I’d be up again checking the breathing. My husband and I were both exhausted and he was getting mad at me because whenever he wanted to fall asleep he would be woken by the baby or by me getting out of bed, fumbling with the torch and checking on him.

      I knew my fear was silly and irrational, but it became a compulsion. At one point when my husband was working I remember getting up every 20 minutes or so and then eventually falling asleep with the light on. That morning I woke up a good hour or two later than normal. My heart beating wildly, my first thought was to check on my son. I found him lying on his back with his eyes wide open staring at the ceiling and cooing. He looked perfectly content and I watched him for a while. Our ceiling is painted white and there are no patterns there or indeed anything interesting that I think could have caught his attention, but it really looked as though he was being entertained by someone or something.

      I picked him up and sat down to feed him, but even though it was a good two hours later than his normal feed time he showed no signs of wanting to feed. Instead he just looked at me with his huge eyes and there was a hint of a smile on his face. We stared at each other like this for a good ten minutes and I know this sounds crazy but in those ten minutes it felt as though my little son was telling me that he was being looked after. Eventually he closed his eyes and I put him back in his cot.

      After that I didn’t stop worrying completely–I don’t think any mum ever does, however old her children are–but I realized I was only making things worse by worrying so much. The compulsive checking stopped completely and I managed to get a bit more sleep, which, as any parent of a baby will know, is a miracle in itself.

      Although neither Ally nor Wanda could actually see angels looking down on their children, complete with bright lights, feathered wings and a halo, both truly believe that guardian angels were watching over them and that the babies knew it.

      Eliot is also convinced that his baby son is seeing something. Here’s his story:

      Definitely Seeing Something

      Every night after I bath my 19-month-old son Tyler I lay him down on the living-room sofa to put on his nappy and pyjamas. For the last five days while he has been lying there he has been staring up at the ceiling and saying, ‘Babies’. When I ask him what he is looking at, he just smiles, points up at the ceiling and says, ‘Babies’ again. Then when I’ve finished changing him and he’s ready for bed he waves his hand and says goodbye to the babies.

      He’s definitely seeing something and I think they are angel babies because he gives them such a huge smile and laughs as if they are doing something funny for him. It’s a beautiful thing to watch and every night I can’t wait to see if the angel babies are going to visit him again.

      Pam thinks her son has seen angels too. Here’s what she wrote in an e-mail she sent to me:

      Spellbound

      My baby boy did this quite often–as many as 10 or 12 times a day. It started when he was about five weeks old and tailed off when he was about seven months old, although some days he was at it again. It was always the same. He would be looking at something, utterly entranced, and have a joyful smile on his face. Whatever he was seeing was invisible to me. He didn’t always look at the same spot and it could happen at any time. I tried to see if there was anything that could be catching his eye, but I never could.

      I’ve heard that babies can see angels because they don’t have the disbelief and hang-ups that cloud the eyes of adults and I do like to think that he was looking at his own personal guardian angel.

      My husband thinks I sound weird when I talk about things like this, but it’s been wonderful to find out that other mums have had the same experience. I don’t know why, but it’s given me an enormous amount of comfort. I miscarried four times before my son was born and until he started seeing things I was terrified something might happen to him, but now I know he’s being looked after and protected.

      Often when I get letters or e-mails from parents about their babies or children, I find that, as with Pam, talk of angels and the world of spirit is new to them but also strangely familiar and comforting. At first many of them question and analyze and try to explain their infant’s behaviour rationally, because, as was the case with Michelle, something happens which seems so strange.

      Sounds Strange?

      This may sound strange to you, because it still sounds strange to me, but it really happened. I’d just put my daughter Ashley, who is nearly two, into her high chair and had left it pulled out from the table because I didn’t want her to start grabbing her meal yet. I turned away