143 Blankets of Love, a dozen humidicrib covers and a bunch of beanies!

 

This was the jumbo-sized delivery that Di B, Margaret and I had the pleasure of giving to the Royal Prince Alfred (Sydney) Neonatal Intensive Care Unit last week, after a wonderfully productive year by our St Mark’s (Darling Point) Quilters.

 

Fundraising Manager Dahlia Brigham and Associate Professor David Osborn, Director of the Newborn Intensive Care Unit, were excited too, as they unpacked our Blankets of Love.

Pretty humidicrib covers, like this one made by Gillian, not only shield tiny babies from the bright lights of the nursery, but help to make it look much less sterile for the families who need to spend so much time there.

The RPA Neonatal Intensive Care Nursery does amazing work helping tiny bubs, some born as early as 26 weeks’ gestation, to survive. I saw one little poppet so tiny her hands were the size of my thumbs and almost transparent!

As well as making quilts, Margaret knits tiny beanies and a visit to the nursery is always an opportunity for her to personally hand over these special gifts to any parents there at the time.

As you can imagine, there are always tears (happy ones!). It’s just so heartening to see how a small gesture like this can brighten the day for a mum of a newborn bub struggling with health issues.

Here’s sweet little ‘A’ (below) and her lovely mum with Margaret (above).

At one stage we looked around and realised we’d lost Margaret, but it was soon obvious where she was when camera flashes started coming from the other end of the nursery. A grateful family was taking her photo. She is such a star!

Our enthusiastic quilters make this all possible, and we’re ever so grateful for our supporters {you know who you are}.

Did I say we love what we do?

 Di