Hey everyone, Lindsey here! As you may know by now, mom is in Georgia with Alicia. Alicia gave birth recently to her third child. Unfortunately there were complications with her pregnancy and baby Sebastian had to come early, so he is spending time in the NICU.
The good news is, he is doing really well! Alicia is pretty much a pro at dealing with babies in the NICU since her oldest son Adrian also was born early and had to spend time there. I wish I lived closer so I could help out with watching kids, transportation, cooking, cleaning etc. I started wondering, what can I do to help my sister while she is dealing with this stress while she is in Georgia and I am in Arizona? I figure I am probably not the first person who has a friend or family member with a NICU baby, and maybe you too were wondering, what can I do to help them? So I asked Alicia, what are the things that NICU parents need? These are her answers: IDEAS to help out nicu parents:
1. Food: At the top of her list was helping out with meals. Of course, most NICU parents are spending many hours in the hospital, and making some good homemade meals isn't easy! This can become exponentially harder when you have older kids who still need to eat, and/or if the hospital is kind of far away from where they live (which is the case with Alicia).
If you live nearby you could drop off meals at their home. Alicia said they set a cooler on their porch in case people dropped off meals while they weren't home. If you have a large cooler you could offer it up for meal storage. Or, if you know them well enough that they feel comfortable giving you a key, you could offer to drop by at certain times during the day to move meals from the cooler to the refrigerator or freezer indoors. For people like me, who live far away, it is so much easier in this day and age to digitally send gift cards to restaurants in the area, or even just a reloadable VISA type card that they can use anywhere. I have also ordered food from a family favorite and had it delivered. So easy to do out of state! You could also offer to pick up groceries for them, and again, you can do this from far away through things like Instacart, Amazon Pantry, or other grocery delivery services.
2. Babysitting: This one is obviously easier for those who live nearby, but if your NICU family has older kids, volunteering to babysit the older kids is a huge help! Even before my mom was able to fly out to help watch Alicia's older kids while they were with Sebastian in the hospital Alicia had people who lived nearby, like our cousin Tara, and some friends of theirs, who helped watch the kids and make sure they were taken care of so Alicia and Adrian could focus on the baby and Alicia's recovery while at the hospital.
3. Helping to clean: Another big help as your NICU parents are traveling back and forth to the hospital, especially since mom is recovering from giving birth, is help cleaning up their house! I remember when Emily was a baby one day one of my ministering sisters through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints texted me and said she was going to come over and clean while Emily and I slept. She came over and cleaned my kitchen and did some laundry and then left. We were sleeping. She didn't ask to hold the baby or try to have me sit up and chat with her. She just came, served, and went home. It really meant so much to me that she was willing to do that! Can you imagine how much more it would mean to someone who's baby is spending time in the NICU? To be able to come home to a clean house can really lift your spirits when everything else can feel so crazy.
For those who live far away, if it is in your budget, maybe you could hire someone to spend a few hours cleaning at your friend or family member's home, as long as they're comfortable with it.
4. Baby supplies: If the hospital will let you dress baby, it can be helpful and comforting to parents to be able to have clothes to dress their little one in, in order to feel some sense of normalcy while they're in the hospital. Plus, if baby came early enough, they might not have supplies yet, and it can help them feel like they're ready to bring baby home when the time comes.
This is one that people who live far away can do as well! Alicia had a gift registry on Amazon and I was able to send her some diapers for Sebastian from all the way in Arizona. I know I'm not the only one who did that for her. Since their second child is six, and they moved prior to the baby being born, they needed some supplies and Sebastian came just before Alicia's baby shower. So sending baby items is so helpful! Alicia also specifically mentioned getting mom a good breast pump. With a NICU baby mom's usually aren't able to nurse at first. If breastfeeding their baby is a goal mom has, you can support her in that buy getting her a good pump, or spare pump parts so she has everything she needs to pump! (Including a mini fridge to store the milk in!)
5. Care package for the NICU parents: Along with the breast pump and supplies you can send a care package of things mom (and also dad) will need to keep their energy up! I love this Honest company New Mama Care essential gift kit linked above! You could also get mom Gatorades (Gatorade was a HUGE help with my milk supply!) and snacks for while they're spending their day in the NICU. A care package could also include hand sanitizer, breast pads, nipple cream, maybe a neck pillow for dad if he falls asleep in the hospital while mom is pumping or something, a small night light for night time pumping, ice packs, and a small cooler for transporting milk.
6. I'll add my last thought that as you are trying to help, try not to be an additional burden on mom and dad. If you have more free time to say, I can come to your house on this day to set up the nursery for you, then that is great! But if all you can manage right now is to send a gift card, don't try to schedule for anything extra that might require them to meet you, or arrange their schedule around yours. Sometimes a simple note or text letting them know you're thinking of them and praying for them can go a long way to energize their spirits.
Having a little one in the NICU is obviously a stressful time in a parents life, so remember, in your goal to be helpful, don't add to their burden, you're just trying to lighten the load any way you can!
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This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for any purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support! Years ago I received an Oster Bread machine, and I loved how easy it made it to mix up dough, but I could never get the bread to bake without collapsing. It was very annoying, as kneading bread is my least favorite part of making bread, and I liked how simple a bread machine made it to have fresh baked bread everyday. I mean a fresh loaf with about 5 minutes of work on my part is a dream. Alas I felt it wasn’t meant to be for us, and once I got my KitchenAid, the bread machine sat on a shelf collecting dust. And we went back to buying store bought bread. But I guess I wasn’t exactly ready to give up on my bread machine, because it is one of the things that made the move with us to Georgia. And with the prices of groceries rising everyday, it seemed like a good time to pull it out and give it another go. I mean millions of others use bread machines to make great loaves of bread, I knew I could too. Plus now we’re more in the country and farther from stores so it makes running to the store for bread a big hassle. If I could just make a loaf every night of the next day, it’s less time consuming and more economical!
THIS POST CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS. WE WILL BE COMPENSATED FOR PURCHASES MADE THROUGH THOSE LINKS AT NO ADDITIONAL COST TO YOU. ALL VIEWS EXPRESSED ARE OUR OWN.Our 6 year old daughter is really into arts and crafts. I can always guarantee the toys she is going to play with everyday are her Legos and her arts and crafts bin. If she has a spare moment she will pull out paper and pen and draw. So when she had a Daddy Daughter Date night they decided to pick out a craft project they could do together. She got really excited about Perler Beads, and so did her creative dad. They spent the night making cute scenes of unicorns and rainbows to decorate her new room with! Then the Perler Beads came out to be used everyday for the whole of the next week. Many MineCraft characters, more unicorns, Godzilla, and even a big Megaman made their appearance. But I was hitting a creative block of what to make to join in on the fun. That’s when my daughter said she was going to make her own bracelet. She designed a very cute simple square bracelet for herself and it reminded me of the fun earrings I used to wear in high school. My freshman year of high school those large chandelier earrings were in vogue and I loved to wear them. (Side note: One of the reasons I loved them was the nostalgia they provided from this picture book we had about getting pierced ears. Lots of fun earring designs in there!) And so I decided to design and make little, funky, colorful earrings. It was so easy and fast. I made three pairs for myself and then used a jewelry making kit my cousin gave me to attach them to hook earrings. Here is a kit I found on Amazon. And here is a kit specifically for jewelry! To make the earrings I used a square base plate and whatever Perler Beads I liked to make cute designs on the plate. If you decide to do this, make sure the beads are adjacent to each other so they will melt together. After you have the design you like, use a hot iron and a piece of parchment or wax paper over your beads. We found it worked best to Let it melt the beads for a few seconds before trying to move the iron around. Otherwise the beads would come loose and your design could be ruined. Once the first side is done flip the base plate over and remove your designs. Put the melted side down on another piece of parchment. Replace the parchment over your design and melt the other side. When that’s finished, set something heavy over your earrings to keep them flat (if that’s the look you’re going for. I accidentally melted the hole away in my peeler beads so I just heated up a needle and melted a new hole in the top bead. You could also attach post earring backs or clip on earring backs with glue or by melting the plastic and pushing the post into it, though I have not tried that method. The earrings came out so cute and fun! My daughter decided to make me more and we’re going to get some clip-on backs to add to some of the earrings for her to wear.To make the earrings I used a square base plate and whatever Perler Beads I liked to make cute designs on the plate. If you decide to do this, make sure the beads are adjacent to each other so they will melt together. This would be a fun activity to do at a birthday party. I love the kind of party favors that will last more than a week and will be something the party goer can use over and over again. Or do it for a Girls Night with your friends! It would be an awesome Galentine’s Day Activity. Or just on your own, the possibilities are endless! We've found other sources of ideas for Perler Earrings, too! Check these out: Maker Mama The Thinking Closet Here are some great Perler Kits to help you with designs:
This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. All views expressed are my own. Thank you for your support! In June of this year my wonderful mother passed away. When I look at this awesome picture of her, it is hard for me to believe that she is gone. She was always so alive and such a presence in my life, even though I lived far away from her most of my adult life, I knew that she was always there for me. I've written about the many things I've learned from her on posts here and here. In reality, there is no way to express in just a couple of posts all she has meant to me and my siblings throughout our lives.
Not only did she mean so much to her own children, but she was adored by grandchildren and great grandchildren alike. She had made quilts, afghans, and slippers for everyone over the years that all of us cherish. She wasn't afraid to teach life lessons to any of her posterity, even just days before she passed away. She had 26 grandchildren and if I'm counting correctly, 41 great-grandchildren. (forgive me family if I counted wrong!) At any rate, with almost everyone making it to the funeral, there was a lot of children in attendance. Many of them were young and didn't have any experience with my mom except as an old woman. They didn't know all of the wonderful things about her and the things that she experienced throughout her life. For example, they didn't know that she loved to dance and that she always made the most delicious tacos, pies and cookies. We wanted the children to have something to keep that would teach them more about her. Also, there needed to be something to keep them entertained throughout the funeral service. Alicia came up with the terrific idea of making a special program booklet for the great-grandchildren that would keep them busy and somewhat quiet throughout the service and also teach them something about their marvelous great-grandmother! |
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Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
July 2024
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