WakeMed volunteers create Halloween costumes for every baby in the NICU

Monday, October 30, 2017
WakeMed volunteers make Halloween costumes for NICU babies
Volunteers at WakeMed's NICU are dressing up premature babies in Halloween costume to bring families a little festive fun.

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Volunteers at WakeMed's neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) are dressing up premature babies in Halloween costume to bring families a little festive fun.

It's more precious than spooky! The little ones are ready for Halloween thanks to a group of parent volunteers who fundraised hundreds of dollars on Facebook to create costumes for every baby in the NICU.

The new get-up means more to Kionia Holiday than just a cute photo opp - it's a treasured moment for her and her son who was born at 26 weeks.

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"It's is very scary especially with a little bitty person going into surgery for his heart," she said. "There's been a couple of nights that I cried, but he made it through."

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A WakeMed NICU patient dressed up for Halloween in 2018.
WakeMed Health & Hospitals

Most of them were dressed as superheroes, ladybugs, and butterflies, and while their tiny capes aren't much of a freight, their deliveries weeks early were.

"It's hard to leave your babies up here, but when they're being taken care of and people are doing such special things for them, it makes it a little bit easier," Hannah Mitchell said.

It's why volunteers are trying to bring joy to the parents of these preemies - hoping to make their first-ever holiday celebration as a new family, a memorable one.

"I love it," Lakeshia Brunson said. "She's like a baby doll. I'm so happy. I can't stop smiling."

The costumes uplifted the spirits of parents as the little ones grow, spread their butterfly wings, and take off.

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