DES MOINES, Iowa – The littlest patients at MercyOne’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit are celebrating their first Halloween. Staff are making it special for parents as they’re facing a challenging time in the hospital.

Baby Emmie was born ten weeks early and weighed just two pounds and 14 ounces, according to her dad, Drew.

After six weeks in the NICU, she’s gained nearly two more pounds and is celebrating a holiday she wasn’t planned to be here for.

“The staff here is just amazing. They’ve been so welcoming and caring for Emmie so well,” Drew said. “For Halloween, we wanted to dress her up as our heroes and her hero too, which is the nurses.”

Nurses who take care of these babies and give their parents a special memory of their first Halloween.

Little Damian is dressed as a dinosaur, after coming early at 36 weeks and spending the past 36 days in the NICU.

“He’s a champ and I’m so proud of him,” Isabel Garst, Damian’s mom, said. “He’s come a very long way.”

And tiaras for twin girls Lucy and Jaclyn, who were born at 32 weeks.

“It’s something we’ve been looking forward to for like weeks. Everyone asks us, ‘what are the girls being?’” Kaylee Hollenback, Lucy and Jaclyn’s mom, said. “Actually, a nurse and respiratory therapist chose the outfits for the girls. And I thought that was so special that I didn’t have to decide, but someone else wanted to, and they love the girls enough that they did that.”

A labor of love from the medical team that cares for these little babies every day and photographs them for Halloween.

“It’s just one of the moments we can make this place a little better for them,” Pam Kroeger, a registered nurse at MercyOne who took the photos, said. “It’s a hard place to be a parent.”

Thanks to the generosity of parents who get it. Both of Janice and Damian Beard’s babies were admitted to the NICU after they were born, and now they are on a mission to help parents who are going through the same journey.

“There are others that have been there, that are doing it, and we are all here to support you. You are not alone,” Damian Beard, executive director of Holding Tiny Hands, said. 

As leaders of Holding Tiny Hands, they provide resources and support for families as well as gather Halloween costumes to donate to MercyOne.

“So often times, some of those normal things that parents do whether it’s changing their diaper or feeding them, often times they don’t get to do those things when they’re so tiny,” Janice Beard, assistant director of Holding Tiny Hands, said. “And so getting to dress them up in these costumes makes them feel like they are parents, and creates that bond and connection that is so valuable to these babies and their parents.”

An effort to educate everyone about the NICU experience.

“I think it makes people who have gone through this feel seen and have a sense of community too,” Kaley Long, registered nurse at MercyOne, said. “And for us as nurses, it’s important for people to know what our NICU can provide us well, as they can feel comfortable… and confident in our treatment that we can provide too.”

A meaningful moment for those currently going through it.

“To remind us he’s a fighter,” Garst said about her son Damian. “And it all happened for a reason.” 

The parents say they are taking it day by day and are hoping to take their babies home soon.

You can learn more about Holding Tiny Hands by clicking here.