CUDDLING her five-day old daughter Nadine, Elsje Pretorius felt a huge rush of love. "I couldn’t stop looking at her," says Elsje, 51. "With her huge eyes and dark hair, she was just so beautiful.
" 6 Elsje - pictured when she was excitedly waiting for her girl's arrival unaware of the horror that was about to unfold 6 The newborn was still in hospital when she was snatched from the cot beside her mum's bed But within hours that peace would be shattered, plunging Elsje and her husband Conrad into every parent’s worst nightmare. Because Nadine was about to be snatched by a stranger. "Finding out I was pregnant in 2014, when I was already 40, was a big shock," says Elsje.
"I was already mum to Vanja, then 12, and Isabella, six. But along with my husband Conrad, then 43, we were all so excited to become a family of five." The birth in September 2014 was tough, with Elsje needing three epidurals and an emergency caesarean before Nadine was born weighing 8lb 7oz.
Read more in real life LIVING HELL I'm a teen mum with baby stuck sleeping on sofa for a YEAR...
council won't help MIND THE GAP I’m 23 & my man is 49 -my pals think he's a sugar daddy, but our love is real Love at first sight "The second I held her I fell in love," Elsje says. "But three days later, I was suffering with a stiff neck and terrible headaches. Doctors brought me back to hospital for tests.
"Nadine came with me, so the hospital gave us a private room with our own ensuite bathroom." Two days later, and st.