FOCUSED ON NOW

Stephanie Edwards, 33, from Bridgwater, Somerset, is watching her little girl become a human statue in front of her eyes...

-  EMMA DUNN AND HANNAH CROCKER.

Cradling my newborn baby girl in my arms, I stroked her head gently as she snoozed on my chest.

But as I ran my palm over little Alanna's scalp, I paused.

What was that?

Careful not to wake her, I had a closer look.

There was a definite bump on the back of Alanna's head.

I noticed a red, raised lump on her back, too, and her big toes were tiny-like bunions.

It didn't seem right.

I'd never noticed anything like it with my older son Cody, then two.

Worried, I took Alanna back to the doctor when she was just a couple of weeks old.

'We'll monitor it, but it shouldn't be anything to worry about,' he said.

I took her back at forth to the doctors as more lumps appeared, but they seemed baffled by them.

"They look like they could be birthmarks, one said, unsure.

As Alanna grew, more marks kept appearing, but no one could tell me what they were. She seemed stiff in her neck, too.

But other than the mysterious lumps, she seemed well and happy.

All I could do was keep taking her back for more testsshe was constantly being poked with needles for blood tests, and taken for full body scans.

It can't have been nice for her, but she remained so placid through it all.

Being a single mum, thankfully my own mum Paula, 53, was close by to help me out with Cody while I took Alanna back and forth to the hospital, and she was a huge support to me.

Feeling paranoid, whenever Alanna got bad bumps on her head, I'd put a hat on her to hide them.

I didn't want people to think I was harming my own baby.

I just wanted to know what was wrong with my little girl.

'You seem down,' a doctor said to me during yet another trip to the hospital.

'Yes,' I replied, snapping at her. 'Because something's wrong with my baby, and you don't know what it is.'

And as Alanna got older, we noticed more problems.