GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The sounds of joy were palpable Tuesday evening as a sea of families entered the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum with their tiny miracles in tow.
Nearly 170 children who received care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Trinity Health Grand Rapids, accompanied by their parents, got to celebrate the medical staff who helped them get to the finish line.
The highly skilled nurses and doctors in the Level III NICU have a long-running tradition of reuniting with the same tiny patients they helped keep alive years ago.
For Muskegon residents Tara and Cameron Marbra, the nurses are unforgettable.
Tara Marbra told MLive she gave birth at exactly 24 weeks. At the time, her twin girls, Lenora and Lakelyn, weighed a little over 1 pound each and spent 113 days in the NICU.
“It sounds crazy, but the twins were more theirs at times than they were mine,” Tara Marbra,30, said. “The majority of their life was spent with the nurses in the beginning, so I’m just excited to show how far they’ve come and how big and cute they’ve gotten.”
This year, the event was space-themed, complete with T-shirts worn by nurses and families stating, “NICU Stars Born to Shine,” and “Little Astronauts, Big Adventures.”
Attendees also got to play around the museum, eat cake and chat with other parents.
Trinity Health has successfully cared for newborns at 22 weeks’ gestation and some weighing as little as 11 ounces at birth.
Michaela Behrens, a registered nurse at Trinity Health for the past six years, said the youngest in attendance at the reunion was a 4-month-old.
“It’s just so rewarding to see the progress that they’ve made,” she said. “Most of our babies are premature, but a lot are full-term who need extra support. We see babies that are in the NICU for only a day or a couple of days to maybe even several months.”
Grand Rapids residents Erica and Brendan Getz have twin 16-month-old girls who spent three weeks in the NICU.
Erica Getz said although they were born six weeks early, the babies have no developmental disabilities. This year marked their first NICU reunion.
“It’s a journey, especially with two girls, but it’s great,” she said. “We’re all set with growing our family, so it makes every day even more special to just try to remember to take our time.”
One moment that still stays close to her heart after giving birth is when she was able to produce her first milliliter of breast milk.
Although her husband was at work at the time, she didn’t feel alone because the nurses were right by her side experiencing the moment with her.
“I was really excited and they were really excited for me,” Getz said.
The Marbra family shared a similar experience with their nurses.
They said the doctors and nurses gave them updates about their twin girls every single night.
Now, the two girls are healthy and thriving, with the only drawback of having to see an ophthalmologist for vision checks.
“If the worst thing about these babies being born at 24 weeks is that they need some glasses, I’m going to take it and run with it,” Marbra said.
With a 15-bed NICU, Trinity Health Grand Rapids cares for up to 300 newborns in the unit every year. The most common reason for a baby staying in the NICU is premature birth.
Other reasons for babies needing extra care include infection, respiratory distress and low blood sugar.
For parents who may have children in the NICU or are preparing to, Behrens offers a piece of advice: take it one day at a time.
“It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon,” she said. “Trust your nurses and your staff, and advocate for yourself and your baby. Each day there’s going to be different hurdles to jump over. Sometimes it feels like two steps forward, three steps back, but just take it one day at a time.”
Donations to the St. Mary’s Foundation help fund the NICU reunion each year. To help support, visit trinityhealthmichigan.org/foundation-and-giving/saint-marys-foundation.