LOVE Olympia - Some pretty things for my friends at NICU

I always dreamed about the day I would have the opportunity to have my very own little family. Stephen & I were lucky enough to get pregnant quickly & after a pretty dreamy 8 months were very excited to meet our little girl. What happened next was the last thing we ever thought we would be faced with & some of the most emotionally & personally challenging moments of our lives.

I went to visit my obstetrician as I felt slightly concerned that she had not been moving as much - they sent me to the hospital & after many Dr visits & a scan she was delivered via emergency caesarean. Although she needed some help when she first came out she seemed fine & was sent to NICU for observation. A few hours after she was born alarm bells were raised once again as she was showing signs of seizure activity. The following day she was sent for an MRI & when the neurologist & obstetrician entered our room to share the results with our family they had tears in their eyes.

Olympia was diagnosed with Catastrophic Global HIE. Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) is a type of brain damage that occurs when an infant’s brain does not receive enough oxygen and blood. They do not know what caused it & the outlook was devastating.

We were shocked, heartbroken, confused & lost. I sat in her room all hours of the day for the 22 days we were in NICU sobbing. The NICU team sat there with me & held my hand, they ensured Stephen & I had as many opportunities as we needed to ask them questions, they sat with our families & offered not only their professional opinions, but SO MUCH MORE than that... they genuinely offered us their emotional support.

Over my time sobbing next to her cot I watched as the nursing team lovingly made her bed up everyday with cute colourful sheets that made the daunting hospital environment just that little bit more comforting. I asked them where they came from & they said they raised money to get them made but over time I realised they were running low & they said they often go missing & now they are very low. I also had many merino blankets for our little pooch & the nurses also mentioned that they would love to be able to wrap the bubbas in merino instead of cotton. The thing about the experience we had with Olympia was not just that we were devastated that our beautiful bubba would be faced with a life filled with challenges (although she is proving that she is the little fighter we knew she would be!) but that the two of us had to deal with how different this journey was going to be for us personally... & part of that for a mama was all the pretty things I had lovingly collected for her to wear (none of which fitted because she was so small) & the beautiful room we had made for her in our home which we were not in... instead we were surrounded by machines & screens.

SO HERE WE ARE... Olympia, Stephen & I will forever be grateful for the support the NICU team offered us when we needed it the most. This Christmas our little family thought the best thing we could do is get together and see if we could get a few nice things for the team at NICU so they can continue doing what they do best! We sat down with them & wrote a list. We thought we would aim to nail the top 2 & then make our way down the list when we can next year.

1. Colourful Cotton Flannel sheet sets x 500 ($20 per set)

2. Colourful Merino Wraps x 1000 (WALL Fabrics has VERY generously offered to donate most of the fabric needed however we still need a few more & they need to be hemmed / $5 each)

3. Queen Beds (& some nice soft touches) for the parents rooms x 5 (To have the ability for you & your husband to stay in the hospital close to your baby was priceless.)

4. Baby nighties/gowns x 100

5. Revamping the family/whanau room – They would like to refurnish this room so that it provides better comfort for mums/ Dads and siblings as a shared space. Dads in NICU have always felt a little on the ’outer’ and this is one way we can provide better spaces acknowledging the immediate families role in being here.

6. Revamping the mothers room - Whilst this is still a warm & generous space the last time it was done was almost 10 year ago and a refresher would be fantastic.

THANK YOU for taking the time to read this & for all your incredible support this year. Without it all we wouldn't be as strong as we all are now!

Lots of love,

Mimi, Stephen & Miss Olympia

Xoxo