layouts for NICU babies

Hello All! I'm new to this group and came here looking for help. I'm going to be teaching scrapbooking classes for parents who have a premature baby who is hospitalized in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. I'm looking for anyone who has lived though this and scrapped it to help me with ideas for simple, 6 x 6 layouts. We're doing 6X6 so the parents can have something finished or nearly finished to take home. Please let me know if you need more information. Thanks!

Good luck...

I didn't have the heart to scrap those photos just yet, and my dd's 8! It was such a rough time and I see the picture of her all hooked up and it just brings back all those feelings and so for me, it's not scrapped yet.

Good for you! My daughter Isabel (now 19 months) was in NICU when she was born. I think scrapbooking it is a fantastic idea. Even though it was hard, it was a very positive experience for me. I think it is a wonderful idea!!!

I dont' know if this helps but here is a LO I did of my friends baby. He was born 5 weeks premature and was in NICU for a couple of weeks.

It's one LO but I scanned it regular and also with the hinged picture opened where I have the hidden journaling.

Miracle (closed)
Miracle (open)

I'm sure you'll get tons of great ideas here. Good luck.

There was an article in Creating Keepsakes earlier in the year regarding this. I'll dig through them later to see if I can find the exact month. It was really a very article for me to read, because of the photos.

What kind of help are you looking for?

My twins were premature and I scrapped their pictures like I did my other sons. I did not treat their pictures any different.

I would do the class like you would do any other newborn class.
The parents just want to be treated like all new parents. They want to be able to show people the pictures of their baby.

I think you will do a great job, because you are concered about it to begin with.

GOOD LUCK

I agree with mom of four boys, I did my son's nicu pictures just like any other baby pages, I just didn't want to be reminded of how my experience was so different from that of other new moms. The only exception I made was for the pics of him under the blue lights for jaundice, I did those with the theme "little boy blue."
I think it's really nice what your doing, if my hospital had done that I may have spent less time sitting in our room feeling sorry for myself.

I saw a layout in a recent magazine that had something to do with an NICU baby. They had the troubling photos behind a mat... let me see if I can find it...

Found it! It's on page 96 of the Memory Makers baby scrapbooks and more magazine..... It's called Life in Slow Motion and she has some pictures on a hinged flap, and underneath are more dramatic photos. It's a two page layout, and the right side page shows her daughter getting better, going home, and then there is a picture of them at a later date, happy an healthy. It's a very pretty layout. Oh. It was about her daughter after she got viral meningitis as a newborn... but same idea!

This is a great book full of great ideas for baby layouts, by the way... HTH! Oh, and what a great idea for classes!

I haven't scrapped it yet but my second son had to stay in the n.i.c.u. I was a mess about it, I plan to focus the scrapping on when he got to come home, and just use a few "tube" pics.

If you ever do another class I would suggest a class on a journal (altered). The one thing that helped me a lot was writing down my feeling of what we went through.

That was a life saver.

I have 2 children (adopted) that spent significant time on the NICU. The 1st was a 31 weeker and spent 5 months & the 2nd was a 23 weeker and spent 4 months on the NICU. Because I met both children just after the NICU days I wasn't too much a part of that but I do have pics & other momentos. The bio parents gave us pics of the 1st child that I have scrapped & the hospital gave us sb pages of the 2nd child (& some random pics that hadn't been scrapped yet). Personally, I'm grateful to have those pics & pages. It's a reminder of their strength & how far they've come. I've scrapped all of the 1st child & most of the 2nd's NICU experiences. One thing I do is KEEP everything (which I scrap most of).... like an extra diaper (teeny-tiny)& a NICU t-shirt would most certainly fit on 6x6 with a pic in the middle or maybe some journaling like "small but mighty", copies of footprints (growth over the time spent in NICU), copy of grad certificate from NICU (since you're doing 6x6 you could make a copy and shrink to fit), 1st bath, pics of favorite/most involved nurses &/or doctors, maybe a page for growth "watch me grow BIG & STRONG" which documents weight/length growth periodically. There is so much that can be scrapped that reflects a positive side. I'll have to put up a pic of Kadon in the NICU with Santa. It is absolutely precious! Hope this helps!
Donna

Hi,
I'm a pediatric nurse...and I think that what you are doing is wonderful. Whenever I go to NICU (and I work the nightshift)...I always try to take a picture. The one thing that I would have you tell them is to leave a disposable camera in the bassinet. Encourage them to let the nurses know to take some photos. They will be surprisingly pleasant to them to find photos from different perspectives.

I haven't scrapped mine yet but my friend did and from what I remember she did a typical birth page though explaining in her journaling about the prematurity and she marked certain "NICU" milesstones (and I'll include some too) such as "no more A's/B's/Desat's, change from warmer to isolette, off the vent!, no more CPAP, no more O's (oxygen), seeing the babies eyes after being under the billi lights for jaundice (sunglasses would be a cute embellishment--our NICU nurse had paper ones that were taped on over the eye shields), maintaining body temperature, car seat test, journaled some about the surgeries, bottle feeding!, first time getting to hold the baby, first time getting to feed the baby with bottle and then breast, rooming in (when parents stay overnight), first time parent gets to give the baby a bath, first time a relative gets to visit in the NICU (ours only allowed limited access)...

Hope this gives you some ideas.

I think this is an awesome idea. I wish you all the luck with the classes.

I adopted my dd from foster care and she has spent time in the NICU before coming home w/us. I haven't done her book yet but I too would love to know some ideas for layouts.


Brooke

I have just started my DD's NICU album. I have some of the pages finished and here is the link.

Ella in the NICU

The album is 8X8 and I used an SEI set which had pinks, but alos stronger colors like browns and blues since I felt it conveyes a hospital like setting, but was alos feminine.

I also took pictures of each of the machines she was on and I am working on the LO right now which tells about each machine. I don't feel that it is depressing, I look at those machines and thank God for the knowledge He gives to mankind to create those machines. When I look at the pictures of her in the incubator or with oxygen tanks I feel grateful that I lived now and not 50 years ago since she would have died 50 years ago.

I should finish the machines LO in the next day or two. I will give you a link or check back on this same link above.

I journalled every day she was in the NICU since I was updating a BLOG for our family/friends on her progress. I am just including the journalling on each page...I am so grateful that I had it. You'll notice on one of the pages with really sad journalling I picked a photo that wasn't faces with (weak and kinda fake) smiles. Just our hands.

I would love to help you in any other way. If you have any ?s I'm an expert on NICU life. PM me!

My little punkin seed was born at 26 weeks. He weighed 2 lbs. 11 oz. at birth in 1976. I made a little 8x8 album of the NICU experience and coming home, but I haven't uploaded them yet. Maybe I will do that for you after work today.

You are doing a great thing. I hope you know that!

I should have probably added to my post that scrapping the NICU is not an easy task at all. It really brings back all of the emotions you felt. I disagree that you should scrap the photos like any other baby book. You and your baby have been through something difficult and life changing and monumental and that needs to be celebrated.

This is just my personal opinion, but I would never hide my photos behind mats or anything like that. I would display the diificult photo and journal about how it felt to be a mommy for the first time and see my little baby strapped down with tubes and IV's. To me, scrapping is a way to tell the true and honest story of your life, not just the highlights of family picnins on the beach. I am proud of my DD for making it through and want to portray her experience and my experience, as her parent, as honestly and truthfully as I can.

Oh, another milestone for a page: Kangaroo care! Also do leave areas for journaling if they are not ready to do it yet. I know I journaled all through the NICU and that will help me as I do his album. I just haven't been ready to revisit those times. I stopped journaling on the night I thought I might lose him, and I had to back journal that portion much later.

Hmmmm....regarding the "difficult" photos....thought I'd chime in on these as putting them under a mat is something I wouldn't want to do. I recognize everyone is different in how they respond so I just add my opinion too since you are setting up this wonderful activity. While I have photos of my son on the vent, on CPAP, etc.. I also don't find them to be difficult to be viewed. I know I have family members that do, but to me these photos are just ones of my precious son while he needed help to breathe and I too want to celebrate his journey, plus he was on oxygen for 4 months and on a monitor for 8 months, so we were hardly ever wireless! And when he now sings a song "I am a miracle" he has no idea of the fullness of that truth.

Best wishes as you do this class. Parents need support through the NICU experience.

First, this is a wonderful thing that you are doing. Second, I did my daughter's NICU pages just like any baby pages. I did not hide the photos and mostly let the journaling speak to what was going on & how we felt. I have to say that even though she was only in for 2 weeks, it was the most difficult time in my life. But, I am SO glad to be able to look back at it anyway. Just reminds us of what we all survived through. I would approach it just like any baby pages, just leaving extra room to journal for when the parents are ready to do so.

p.s. My favorite NICU pages are ones I titled "Daddy's Hands" just showing all the times my husband was touching / feeding / holding / changing her... this could be adapted for a variety of caretakers, including the amazing medical personnel that work in that situation daily!!

I also had a son in the NICU. I used the photos just as I would any other photos, but I made hidden journaling slots so I could tell the story of what happened. I even titled the page NICU.

One more thought. Tell them to take a picture of their baby with something to give the idea of the baby's size and do it again on discharge day (another page by the way-NICU mom's can't wait for their wheelchair ride out of there). Like their hand next to their head, a stuffed animal, etc.. Mine was 3#10oz and a friend's was only 1# 6 oz. One would think we would never forget but I often see an 8# baby and think wow that's small then realizing my son was half of that.

I had a baby in the NICU, he was not a preemie but a large baby with problems.
I AM going to scrap his pages differently, for one thing it WAS different then my other births. So, there are different emotions, etc. JMO. Each mom/dad has to figure out what works for them though, for me that is what is going to be the most therapeutic, to create some pages that allow me to think out loud on how those days of him being in the NICU meant to me. I was scared for him, but also lots of positive came out of it.

I finally got the little 8x8 album uploaded of my little preemie.

Dusty's Album

The "Miracle Machines" LO is up if anyone wanted to see it.

NICU Album

• Scrappy-Emmy Said:

I love the finished product on this LO. Great job! I left a comment in your gallery.

• LadyJohnstone Said:

Thanks! I'm not quite done yet. My DD was in the NICU for 19 days, so there's still a bit to go! Thanks for your comments.