Care Packages for October 15

My heart just falls out of my chest when I hear the word NICU or hear about another micro-preemie. It's a tender spot in my heart, and it's something I welcome because it's something Jenna left behind for me to feel. I want so badly to reach families in the NICU enduring neonatal loss.

So... I am changing the way I do my memory boxes.

They are going more of a care package for newly bereaved parents. There are some special things going inside, which is in the works right now, but I can't figure out how to make them available to these newly bereaved parents without asking for your help.

For starters, I will be calling local hospitals even if Jenna's hospital won't accept them there are so many others that need to provide some type of care package to newly bereaved parents. Truth be told, Jenna's hospital supplied us with a beautiful care package anyway. It was a giant pink square box with pamphlets on grieving and support group contact info inside... I can't remember most of it, as it was mostly papers... but they also included a clay mold of her feet and hand in another purple box wrapped inside a receiving blanket (the other hand had the awful IV in it so only one had got to be molded) :(

Anyway... there's so much that needs to change when parents leave the hospital empty-handed. There were so many women that told me they left with little or nothing besides a broken heart. Many large hospitals have made strides in this area and supply these parents with beautiful mementoes and all sorts of unexpected things. I remember the nurse telling me I could take anything from Jenna's isolette I wanted. I remember we took a her name tag taped on the front of her isolette, probably a few other things and a diaper :) It was TINY. It was still huge on my little girl though, but I love that I got to keep something like that. We actually took several and gave one to my grandmother and the other to Pete's grandmother. They adore that small keepsake to this day. It's seriously one of the cutest little things you've ever seen.

So hopefully by October 15 in honor of all our babies, this new site (I hope hope hope) will go public, it will actually be replacing the current memory box site. There will be many types of care packages specific for things like:

*neonatal/infant loss
*fatal diagnosis
*miscarriage

*stillbirth

*baby's first birthday anniversary

I don't want to leave any type of loss out, so please let me know if something needs to be added. The care packages will range in sizes, and gifts inside to fit all budgets. The outside of the memory boxes will look similar to the Memory Box Collection- different quotes/ themes around the box.

Kristin Cook has graciously allowed me to use her resources page info to put inside the boxes for these newly bereaved parents. There are a few other special women around the babylost community working with me on this project too. Along with the small mementoes and gifts inside the box I will also be including a list of support places online and special ways to remember your baby.

I am seriously so excited about this. It's already tragic enough to leave the hospital without your baby... a feeling of drowning emptiness. I just remember feeling so useless and powerless. Like the battle had ended. The war was over. What was the point of going on? I know that no care package can replace or even come close to mending such an empty feeling but if I can ease the pain just a tad and show these families that there is support, and that there is a world of mothers just like them who get it, then I want to do it.

I hope you'll help me spread the word, and follow this new cause. I will probably be creating a page or something on Facebook to get the word out. Any idea that you might have are welcome too!

A side note: This blog has been my lifeline since Jenna died. And I can't say thank you enough to all of you who come and read, even if you don't comment. It means the world that you care enough to come and read about me, my daughter and our life after losing her.