St. Joseph's Hospital Bryan Tx NICU Donation Drop Off and Meeting

Preemie Prints had a wonderful meeting last night! Together with our volunteers we were able to make a large donation to the St. Joseph Health System NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) in Byan, Tx. This donation is made for the families and babies in the NICU. Since St. Joseph's is a partner hospital, the families of babies born prematurely or critically ill will receive a NICU gift bundle from Preemie Prints. This NICU family support program in Bryan College Station was created to bring a smile to families, offer support to those traveling a difficult journey with a premature baby, and let families know they are not alone.

The NICU gift bundle contains a handmade giraffe, hat, and burp cloth, along with our support information for families. In addition we are able to donate NICU positioning devices that are used for warmth and containment of preemies. These are used by the NICU staff to care for preemies in Bryan, Tx.

Join us at St. Joseph's for our next NICU sewing & support meeting on Aug. 13th from 6-8pm in Basement Room B/C! All NICU families, volunteers, nurses, and supporters welcome. A meal will be served for all. Please RSVP to jen @ preemieprints.org 

What a blessing these bundles will be to so many families. Thank you for your continued support, your monetary donations, your in-kind fabric and supply donations, and for your volunteerism. We do have bundles available to families outside of our Bryan College Station NICU family support area just contact us on our website. 

St. Joseph's Hospital Donation Drop Off to the NICU

Thank you for the fabric donation. RE class of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church. Amber Collier, President with Kenai Roy student.

We thank the communications class of Texas A&M University, who chose us to receive their fabric & supply donation. 

Sweet babies at out meeting!

More about our NICU positioning device.

Please learn more about Preemie Prints & join us at an upcoming meeting or make a donation in support at www.preemieprints.org

NICU Support & Sewing Meeting Bryan College Station

Earlier this month we had a fantastic meeting that was held at The College Station Medical Center. We had an amazing turn out. Volunteers, past NICU parents, angel parents, and current NICU parents attended. We even had a few of the NICU nurses stop by to visit! Our sponsors at Eatology were also wonderful. Nick was so helpful at our meeting, visited with moms who were there, told us about Eatology, and we found out he was a NICU grad too. Very special. The food was yummy and nutritious!

We're looking forward to our upcoming meeting in February at St. Joseph's Hospital in Bryan, Tx. This meeting will be held in the basement room B/C and again all are invited to attend. Then in March we will be at Scott & White Hospital in College Station!

Below you will find more information about our local NICU sewing and support meetings. We hope you can join us in the future! No sewing skills required, just a desire to support local families who have a baby born prematurely or critically ill. We appreciate your time in helping. If you don't live in our area or don't have time to attend meetings, and you still would like to help, we invite you to become a sew-at-home volunteer! You can contact Jen@preemieprints.org to learn more.

We were so happy to drop off 20 NICU positioning devices & 18 NICU gift bundles to be used and distributed to families in the NICU at The College Station Medical Center (Med Center). Every family who comes through one of our local NICUs should receive a gift bundle. If you don't please contact us or ask a nurse! We will get one to you. We're looking forward to replenishing the supply at St. Joseph's in just a few short weeks.

January 2015 Donation Drop Off
The Med, College Station, Tx

About our local meetings: 

This year we are holding a sewing & support meeting one time per month, on the 2nd Thursday of every month, on a rotating hospital basis. These meetings are held in Bryan/College Station. Thank you for helping us to share hope with so many by attending or volunteering remotely.

We invite sewing volunteers, NICU families (past and present), and angel families to attend this meeting! We will use our time each meeting to make special items for families in the NICU and also offer our support to any current NICU families who attend.

A meal will be provided at each meeting for all volunteers & families who attend.

This year we will also begin making our new angel gift for families who experience an infant loss. We invite all angel families to join us in making these gifts to share hope with other angel families.

At the close of each meeting we will all drop off our donations to the NICU including positioning devices, NICU gift bundles, and angel gifts.

Thank you for being apart of these very important meetings in support of NICU & angel families! We will be working on positioners, giraffes, outfits and other projects needed. Bring a sewing machine if you have one or just bring yourself. No SEWING SKILLS required!!

TO CURRENT NICU FAMILIES:

Why Attend?

- warm welcoming environment for meeting other families
- parent-to-parent support
- share your story & feelings
- ask questions about your NICU journey
- help with the transition from hospital to home
- become part of the BCS NICU family network
- Join us to be apart of our crafting for the NICU, for a meal, or just to visit for a little bit!
- We also can help families with specific needs such as preemie car seats to borrow, preemie clothes, and other needed items.

Link to February's Facebook Event can be found here. 

Working on preparing gift bundles before the meeting!

Two little NICU graduate helpers! 

Hard at work sewing for NICU babies!

www.preemieprints.org

Bryan College Station NICU Support and Sewing Meeting

This Thursday, April 3rd, from 6:15 - 8:00 pm please join us at The College Station Medical Center for our monthly local Preemie Prints Sew & Craft Meeting! We will be working on our NICU positioning devices, stuffing and hand sewing lots of keepsake giraffes, sewing burp cloths, preemie outfits, and cuddlers. Although the main focus of these meetings is sewing & crafting, many of us are past NICU moms, so we're available to visit with current NICU moms and dads of College Station to offer support. Regardless of what NICU your child is in please know that you are invited to attend our NICU sewing support meeting. Many parents work on scrapbooks and baby books during their baby's NICU stay and our local sew & craft meetings are a wonderful place to do things like that and visit about your baby's NICU journey with other moms who have been there.

Each month our sewing meeting rotates to a different hospital. Next month our NICU sewing meeting will be in Bryan, TX at St. Joseph's Regional Health Center. The following month we will be at Scott & White in College Station. It's always the 1st Thursday of the month from 6:15-8pm. We hope to see you at an upcoming Preemie Prints Sew & Craft Meeting.

Our meetings always end with our donation drop off for that month! Everyone in attendance is invited to walk down to the NICU and be a part of the donation drop off. Looking forward to dropping off our Preemie Prints donation to The College Station Medical Center NICU this Thursday.

2013 Preemie Prints Group Photo Shoot

Every year we plan to take this group shot! It was fun, a great memory, and inspirational to get all of these miracles together! We invited NICU graduates in the area and siblings of angels to participate. It was a rainy day, but we ended up with a great turn out and lots of sunshine. A very special thank you to volunteer Larry Field of Larry Field Photography for coming out to photograph our lively bunch.

The angels of siblings wore a special remembrance ribbon, made by volunteer Mellissa Roy, in honor of their sibling and they also held pictures of their brother or sister. This was such a special event, and we look forward to doing it again next year!

Look for the group photo in our coming 2014 Calendar that will be available for pre-order very soon.

Welcome 2 New Photographers!

Please help us give a warm welcome to, not one, but TWO new photographers!

We are thrilled that Larry Field Photography will be joining our Preemie Prints family to help give the gift of photography in Texas.

www.larryfieldphotography.com
larry@larryfieldphotography.com

Service Area: Bryan/College Station, TX

About Larry:

"I am a father of four and grandfather of five, and I've been involved in photography for as long as I can remember. I've been doing photography professionally off and on for a little over 2 years now. Late last year I decided to include newborn photography and have loved doing so. To me, it's an extension of what I do as a father and grandfather, capturing those amazing images of the miracle of a new baby. Being married to a newborn nursery nurse has given me the opportunity to know many NICU nurses, and hear the stories of the babies these nurses care for. I really look forward to the opportunity to work with Preemie Prints and give parents who have babies in the NICU a little ray of sunshine through my photography of their precious baby."

View Larry's past Preemie Prints Sessions

Darling Dawson's NICU Grad Shoot

Lisa M Grace Photography has gladly accepted our invitation to join our amazing group of volunteer photographers. Lisa will be helping us carry out our mission in Missouri!

www.lisah2king.wix.com/lisagracephotography
lisah2king@gmail.com

Service Area: Kansas City, MO

About Lisa:

"Why do I want to volunteer with Preemie Prints?

Because no one tries to have a child in the NICU. No one becomes pregnant and hopes that it ends extremely early with a traumatic NICU stay, wonder from one day to the next if your child will make it to the next day. And even if she or he will ever come home. After delivering my daughter at 29 weeks, I developed a passion for preemies and their parents and I feel that if I had to go through that, then maybe I can help someone else currently going through it. Give them the sense of hope that seemed to lack during my journey. The hope that it can and will be ok. That their child can overcome this too. I just want them to know that there are others out there who have been through this too and understand the pain of watching their child grow in an incubator instead of their belly.

My photography background is short. I developed an interest in photography in July of 2012 with the goal of capturing my children as they grew. I wanted to remember their childhood, the emotions it brought. The good and the bad and I wanted to capture if visually. I am entirely self-taught and still learning the art-form. I love to just capture life, the special moments that make up our day. As my skills grew, so did my desire to combine my passion for preemies with my joy for photography."

Preemie Prints NICU Wall Of Hope At S&W

Yesterday we had our viewing of our 1st NICU Wall Of Hope at the new Scott & White hospital in Bryan College Station.

The NICU wall of hope features art from Preemie Prints. Along with the management staff, it is our hope that these colorful heartwarming images of NICU miracles will offer support to families facing a very difficult and sometimes tragic time. Each picture is a photograph of a baby in the NICU or a NICU graduate, many whom have graduated from S&W NICU in Temple and other locations in Texas.

We thank the volunteer photographers and the families who have shared photos of their baby - to inspire and share hope with current NICU parents. Together we are making a difference in the lives of NICU families. Our 2nd NICU Wall Of Hope is currently in the works and will be located at The University Of Colorado NICU.

Having a baby in the NICU for any amount of time is scary, even if only for a few days, but sadly many families will face very long stays in the NICU. Though there will be many happy endings, some journeys will undoubtably end with tragic loss. Inside the walls of Bryan College Station's S&W neonatal intensive care unit - many tiny babies will fight for their life with their families standing by their side. During this emotional heart wrenching time, these parents will be able to look upon faces of NICU graduates who faced this same start in life. We hope these images will help parents gain strength to make it through another day, fighting alongside their little one and remembering they are not alone.

No matter the outcome of a baby's NICU journey, parents need to be hopeful, empowered, and supported. It is our mission to do just that through our many programs, which now include NICU Walls Of Hope.

Here are a few pictures from the viewing.

Preemie Prints Group Photo

One of our volunteer photographers - Ashley Diamond Siegert with Fig Mint Photography

NICU Grad, Cinco, with his family. He was born at only 25 weeks.

Another local family in a truly inspiring photo taken by another one of our local volunteers, Lindsey Shelburne, with Lindsey Louise Photography 

Baby Resource Directory In Bryan College Station

We have a national audience of readers so this baby resource directory will only be relevant to our organization's home town, but we thought it would be great to compile, since we have a lot happening when it comes to babies in the Bryan College Station area. This post is going to be an up to date directory of everything baby in the BCS area and Brazos Valley. It by no means includes every single resource, so if you know of a link to add please contact us.

Bryan College Station is home to roughly 172,000 people and the entire Brazos Valley about 278,000. That's a lot of people and families are on the grow! There are lots and lots of babies around town. It seems everywhere you look you see a new mom wearing, carrying, or strolling with her new bundle of joy. We hope this directory will help you find what you are looking for when it comes to your baby in BCS.

Shopping

Boutique 

Shopping for our babes is a necessity and when it comes to finding hip gear, trendy clothes, awesome baby products, and unique items we've got a few options.

Cloud 9 Baby
Cloud 9 has been around the longest. With a recent move to South College Station the store is right in the middle of the rapidly grown S/CS. This store is a crunchy mom's paradise. Joanna the owner has everything from cloth diapers, eco friendly toys, and organic baby clothes, to the hottest in baby wearing fashion. She also has a nursing room in store that doubles as a classroom for things like mommy & baby yoga. 

Wee Little Me
Wee Little Me has been open since 2012. It's a really unique concept and lovely store. The shop is owned by Shannon Sanford, certified lactation consultant, and long time owner of Basics For Breastfeeding. Shannon has combined everything surrounding breastfeeding and lactation with pump rentals and boutique shopping making this a very unique shopping experience. Her location has just recently moved to the bright yellow house at the corner of E. Villa Maria and Nash in Bryan Tx.

Hospitals Delivering Our Bundles of Joy!
St. Joseph's Women's Center
Women's Health Services at Scott & White
The College Station Medical Center Women's Pavilion

Childbirth Classes
The Bradley Method Classes

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Premature Baby, and Infant Loss Support
Preemie Prints - Offers NICU, preemie, and angel (those suffering an infant or pregnancy loss) support group meetings once per month at area hospitals. Sew&Craft meetings also meet to make handmade items to donate to local hospitals and NICU families. An infant loss event is held every October for local families to participate in and honor their baby. We offer online preemie, NICU, and angel support groups and give the gift of professional photography to NICU families.

Birth Centers
Jubilee Birth Center
Bryan Tx recently welcomed their 1st birth center! "Jubilee Birth Center offers natural birth options for the modern family: intervention free childbirth using tried and true midwifery practices in a comfortable home-like setting. Have your baby, the way nature intended!"

Midwives
Heritage Maternity

Doula
Birth Arc
Gentle Hands

Breastfeeding Support, Supplies, & Pump Rentals
Basics For Breastfeeding
La Leche League Meeting

Infant & Hospital/Birth Photography 
These amazingly gifted photographers also volunteer with Preemie Prints in support of NICU families!

Fig Mint Photography

3D/4D Ultrasound
Early View Ultrasound College Station
We are so excited to welcome BCS's 1st & only 3D/4D ultrasound imaging location. It is amazing to see the detail that 3D/4D provides. Early View will also provide beneficial pre-natal massage for mom to be.

Fitness For New Moms
Fit4Mom Bryan/College Station
"FIT4MOM is the country's largest fitness program for moms offering pre and post-natal fitness classes for every stage of motherhood. With over 1,300 locations nationwide, it offers moms an opportunity to get in shape, meet other moms and have fun with their baby.
At FIT4MOM of Bryan / College Station we continue the tradition of great classes by offering you fitness that is affordable and convenient to your life! We offer Stroller Strides®, Fit4Baby®, and Body Back®. You can chose from any one of our classes or combine them to meet your fitness goals."

Yoga Baby
Dance Centre - offering prenatal yoga, postnatal yoga, Yoga Baby, Mom & Me classes

Texas Fit Chicks

Baby Activities 
TAMU Infant Cognition Lab

Misc.
The Stork Market

Giving Back
Preemie Prints Sew & Craft
Join us for monthly meetings (no sewing skills required) to craft & sew for local NICU families! We meet at St. Joseph's & Scott & White. You can join the meetup group or facebook group to be notified of upcoming meetings.

Upcoming Events - 2015
Little Monsters 5K - October 10th, Tiffany Park, Bryan, Tx
Angel Butterfly Release - October 10th, Tiffany Park, Bryan, Tx

If you have a link that you would like to see added to this Bryan College Station baby directory email us and let us know! 

Spotlight: Mothers Milk Bank Austin

"We are actively looking for new
donors right now and any outreach efforts are helpful. Once their own
baby's needs are met, moms of premature babies make excellent milk donors,
since the majority of our patients are premature babies as well. Their
milk is so perfectly suited for the tiniest patients."

-Whitney Musitano
Mothers' Milk Bank at Austin
512.494.0800
www.milkbank.org 

Donor milk is a hot topic these days! The Mothers' Milk Bank at Austin is providing donor milk to hospitals all over. So much research has been done on the advantages of breast milk for premature infants that I think it is important for moms to consider this alternative. When and if your Doctor prescribes donor milk consider turning to this organization. Also, if you are a mom blessed with a large milk supply they are always looking for donors!