Monday, December 8, 2014

Sweet William's NICU Grad Preemie Prints Photo Shoot

Please enjoy Preemie Prints' families’ inspirational story & photos. 
Consider supporting our mission to share hope with families who have a baby born prematurely or critically ill. We thank our supporters, Preemie Prints volunteers, and donors for allowing us to continue touching the lives of NICU, preemie, and angel families.


We pray these special memories from Preemie Prints 
will help families heal and remember how strong 
they were in overcoming their NICU journey together.

A NICU STORY | THOUGHTS FROM MOM
“William George was born at 38.1 weeks on Dec 29, 2013. We were in induction for over 48hours. That's when the doctors realized they couldn't wait any longer because his heart rate was dropping. When they took him out his eyes were wide open but he wouldn't cry. Then after a few minutes he let out this littlest cry ever and we knew he was going to be okay.
I think the biggest thing that we didn't learn till right before we left (the NICU) was that we are our child’s biggest advocate. They can't help themselves; we need to be able to tell the doctors that something needs to be changed in their care. We also lived two hours away from where our baby was staying and there was no support given to us. We were never told about The Ronald McDonalds house and other places that would help us with our commute. We didn't find out any of this till after we left and did a follow up appointment. We are first time parents and we didn't know what questions to ask but there wasn't the support of a social worker for us.
Our son was born and he actually stopped growing at 34 weeks. We were told he could have Down Syndrome or some type of dwarfism. We took the information and got educated on it, because we didn't want to do any type of testing because of the risk to the baby. Will was born and taken straight to the NICU because he was small and he didn't breath right away. Within a couple of hours a genetics team came and clinically diagnosed Will with Cornelia De Lang Syndrome, it's a very rare genetic mutation. Will had a hard time feeding, and had a feeding tube put in his nose. The NICU was very forceful with how much he had to eat. We knew he would never eat like a "typical" baby and he still doesn't. He needed time to grow and the doctors weren't listening to that. No one there had a patient with this syndrome before and my husband and I felt like he was being treated as a science experiment. Running a lot of test because they wanted to see if they could find anything else going on with him. We finally took his care into our own hands and told the doctors he needs to go home to thrive. We were out of there a couple days later. The nurses in the NICU were amazing! The doctors weren't the greatest, which was really upsetting for us.”




A Note From Phaedra:
“William was an adorably happy baby. He was very talkative and loved playing with the ornaments! My favorite part of the session was when William warmed up to the camera and began playing with his tongue. It was such a blessing being able to capture these moments for this family. Thank you so much for letting me be a part of this!”




Photos belong to our volunteer photographers, families, 
and organization please do not use for any purpose. 
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Preemie Prints is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization sharing hope with NICU families through a variety of support programs. One of those programs is the gift of NICU photography and preemie photography. NICU families from across the US can request a no-charge photography session by a Preemie Prints volunteer. The family request from can be found on the right side of our website. These sessions are free of charge and for any NICU family, regardless of time spent in the NICU. The NICU photo shoot can take place inside the NICU or after baby is discharged and at home until their 1st birthday. Facing time in a NICU with a premature or critically ill baby is an extremely difficult time for families. Preemie Prints has a mission to share hope by letting families know they are not alone. Preemie Prints currently has over 100 volunteers nationwide. We are always looking for more volunteers to share in our mission! If you are interested, please email sherri@preemieprints.org and visit our website at www.preemieprints.org. To date Preemie Prints and our volunteers have gifted over 400 NICU family sessions. 

This was a Preemie Prints NICU graduate photography session that took place near Orlando, FL.

We're thankful to the family for sharing their story & memories in support of other NICU families.

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