February Preemie Prints Sewing Meeting

Last night we hosted our February Preemie Prints Sew & Craft Meeting. We had brand new attendees which is always a delight. At this meeting we mainly focused on NICU positioners and giraffes. We stuffed, closed them up, and then bundled them for family donations. Our Sew & Craft division meets one time per month (every first Thursday) at St. Joseph's Hospital in Bryan, Texas. Our mission is to donate gift items to families who have a baby in any neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) across the Brazos Valley. We serve families at The College Station Medical Center NICU and St. Joseph's NICU. Very soon we will be adding on Scott & White's NICU. In addition to donating handmade gift items on a regular basis we also like to add a little color to the NICU environment by donating brightly colored NICU postioners for the nurses to use. These help the NICU nurses in positioning tiny premature infants and make the babies feel more secure in a womb like environment. It is beautiful to see so many hands at work each month by our amazing volunteers! Please join us if you like to craft or sew! You do not need to know how to sew to be a part of our organization. Our next meeting will be held the first Thursday in March from 6:15-8 pm. Meetings are held in the basement of St. Joseph's (the Grant Education Center). Here are a few pictures from last night's meeting:

Welcome New Photographers in MO!!

Preemie Prints Volunteer Rachel Demand

Rachel Demand Photography

www.RachelDemandPhotography.com

Service Areas: St. Louis and Jefferson County

About Rachel:
"As a mother of 3 I know how important newborn photos are. Parents of NICU babies should be able to enjoy these photos as well. I started my business two years ago after having photography being my hobby for several years. I shoot maternity, newborns, children, families, seniors and I have done a couple of weddings. My goal for the future is to specialize in birth and newborn photography; that is where my real passion is."

Preemie Prints Volunteer Sara Lewis

Sara Lewis Photography

www.SaraLewisPhotography.net

Service Areas: Lees Summit, Overland Park

About Sara:

"As a volunteer, I want to capture raw emotion, tiny details, and life's every day perfect moments. I am a part-time newborn, senior, and family photographer. I have been photographing professionally for the past three and a half years."

NICU Graduate Photos for Trenton!

Please enjoy our inspirational photos and consider supporting our mission to share hope with families who have a baby born prematurely or critically ill. Our programs include an online support group, the gift of photography, group events and meetings, information, and email support. Our mission is to connect parents and let them know they are not alone. We thank our supporters, volunteers, and donors for allowing us to touch the lives of NICU, preemie, and angel families. 

We pray these special memories will help the parents to remember how strong they were in overcoming a crisis situation.

A note from Mom:

"Trenton is our surviving twin that was born at 24.0. He weighed just 1lb 3 ounces and spent 137 days in the NICU. He proved to be a fighter from the start and beat a terrible case of pneumonia at just 3 weeks old that put him back on the ventilator for close to a month. He has had four surgeries, including his PDA ligated at just two weeks old! Last week he just turned one and amazes us every day. His best birthday present was getting the go ahead to ween him off his oxygen completely! He is determined and army crawling wherever he wants to go, he never ceases to amaze out family."

Volunteer Photographer:

Karina Johnson - Houston, Tx 

A note from Karina:

"This grad shoot was awesome! Trenton is a miracle baby full of confidence and strength. We decided to do photographs inside as the flu was going around. We got creative and used his daddy's tie. I love it... His mom helped him stand tall and proud. He looks like a little president! What a cutie! :)"

These images are property of Preemie Prints, our volunteer photographers, and our families who have allowed us to share them with you. Please do not use for any purpose.

Sweet Lil' Emilee's Preemie Prints NICU Grad Photo Session!

Please enjoy our inspirational photos and consider supporting our mission to share hope with families who have a baby born prematurely or critically ill. We are nearing our 200th session!! That means we've been able to touch a lot of families. In addition to the gift of photography, our programs include an online support group, group events and meetings, information, and email support. In the future we have hopes for a NICU support house in the Bryan College Station, TX area. This support house will give out of town parents a free place to stay while their little one is in the NICU. It will also have a NICU library, lactation room, developmental preemie play area, and will house our administrative offices. Our mission is to connect parents and let them know they are not alone. We thank our supporters, volunteers, and donors for allowing us to touch the lives of NICU, preemie, and angel families. 

We pray these special memories will help the parents to remember how strong they were in overcoming a crisis situation.

A journey note from mom:

"Emilee had a 79 day NICU stay. She was only on a ventilator/oxygen for the first 12 hours of her life. After that Emilee remained on room air for the rest of her NICU stay. She had an oxygen hood on for only 3 days and within the first 2 weeks. She required 2 blood transfusions and was able to increase her red blood cell counts after the 2nd transfusion. At the beginning of her NICU stay the doctors were worried Emilee had Necrotising Enterocolitis. They stopped her feedings for awhile ans she was on IV for sometime. We have been told by several doctors that considering Emilee's gestational age and size, she had a pretty uneventful NICU stay. Finally of her 79th day, Emilee was given the okay to come home, weighing 4lbs 5oz. Her current weight as of 10/21/2012 is 5lbs 7ox. Every day we are grateful for our miracle baby and thank God he sent us his most precious gift, even though we know it's going to tough at times and she still has a long road ahead of her. She will make it through, because even though she is small, she is a fighter and never quits fighting."

Volunteer Photographer:

Carolyn Finger - Preemie Prints Volunteer, San Antonio, TX

A note from volunteer photographer Carolyn:
"This past Saturday I took pictures of sweet Emilee. We did the session indoors and it was good thing, because it was a gloomy day. But in the studio Emilee was all smiles, until I started taking pictures of her, lol. I got a few smiles, but other than that she was good - no crying, just looking around and at the camera."

These images are property of Preemie Prints, our volunteer photographers, and our families who have allowed us to share them with you. Please do not use for any purpose.

Precious Tyler's Preemie Prints NICU Grad Shoot!

Please enjoy our inspirational photos and consider supporting our mission to share hope with families who have a baby born prematurely or critically ill. We are nearing our 200th session!! That means we've been able to touch a lot of families. In addition to the gift of photography, our programs include an online support group, group events and meetings, information, and email support. In the future we have hopes for a NICU support house in the Bryan College Station, TX area. This support house will give out of town parents a free place to stay while their little one is in the NICU. It will also have a NICU library, lactation room, developmental preemie play area, and will house our administrative offices. Our mission is to connect parents and let them know they are not alone. We thank our supporters, volunteers, and donors for allowing us to touch the lives of NICU, preemie, and angel families. 

We pray these special memories will help the parents to remember how strong they were in overcoming a crisis situation.

A journey note from mom:

"Tyler was born 7 weeks early due to mommy's preeclampsia and went directly to the All Children's Hospital NICU right after birth via cesarean. We spent 3 weeks and 1 day in the NICU. It was such a scary time for us being new parents. The NICU at All Children's is such a special place with Special care. We had a caring nursing and neonatology staff that helped us understand what was going on and also taught us how to care for a baby and prepared us for when it was time to bring Tyler home. Tyler was a fighter from the beginning continuously increasing his feeds, gaining the weight and graduating from all the machines to eventually just sleeping in the big boy crib."

Volunteer Photographer:

Jamie Roye Preemie Prints volunteer Tampa Bay, FL

A note from volunteer photographer Jamie:
"Tyler was one of the happiest baby I have ever had the pleasure of photographing! He was laughing the whole time and chasing me! (usually its vise versa!) His eyes lite up with joy seeing his balloons and he was just so happy to sit and hold them, then the cake came out! and he dove right in! and when daddy showed him it was tasty and squishy he went to town! and he was a messy boy! You couldn't have asked for a more perfect day with the most perfect baby! He is truly a miracle and a joy!"

These images are property of Preemie Prints, our volunteer photographers, and our families who have allowed us to share them with you. Please do not use for any purpose.

Precious Twin Boys Home From the NICU

Please enjoy our inspirational photos and consider supporting our mission to share hope with families who have a baby born prematurely or critically ill. Our programs include an online support group, the gift of photography, group events and meetings, information, and email support. Our mission is to connect parents and let them know they are not alone. We thank our supporters, volunteers, and donors for allowing us to touch the lives of NICU, preemie, and angel families. 

We pray these special memories will help the parents to remember how strong they were in overcoming a crisis situation.

A note from mom:

"I went into preterm labor at 28 weeks with twins. Both were admitted into the nicu where they stayed until September 2 and September 5. The whole experience was definitely life changing and something I never thought we would have to experience."

Volunteer Photographer:

Ashley Siegert Preemie Prints volunteer College Station, Tx

A note from volunteer photographer Ashley:

"Meet Wesley and Westyn! These amazing little boys were born 3 months early to Mom Loreen and Dad Ronnie and spent 57 days in the NICU. Despite their early delivery, the boys are strong and their health is good. They are now 6 months old and full of spunk!

I had the pleasure of photographing this beautiful family in their home and we had a blast. Enjoy the images of these amazing twin boys!"

These images are property of Preemie Prints, our volunteer photographers, and our families who have allowed us to share them with you. Please do not use for any purpose.

Preemie Prints in Big Run, PA

Jonna Burkett
Jonna's Photography
www.jonnasphotography.com

Service Area: Big Run, PA

About Jonna:
"I want to be a volunteer for Preemie Prints because, although my daughter was born a full term healthy baby, we had a scare and the NICU doctor's had to be present during labor. Everything turned out fine, but I was so scared and I couldn't imagine going through the heartaches some of these parents have to face with premature babies. I found my love of photography with my first DSLR and I continue to strive to learn as much as I can. I started my business in May 2011 and photographed friends and family a year prior to that."