[Needlework Monday] Challenge: 5 NICU Hats

When I caught onto @crosheille 's Community Challenge for January, it was already almost two weeks old. I couldn't give a good upvote to the original post, at any rate.

But sometimes I do challenges anyway. The worst that happened was I couldn't get done in time, right?

This challenge was to make at least five preemie baby hats and donate them to a local hospital who uses such things to be a handmade help to these most fragile little people as they fight to grow big enough to go home to their rightful place with their families. Babies lose a lot of heat through their heads, so these tiny soft hats can be a huge help to a preemie being able to maintain their body temperature.

Thankfully, @crosheille included a link to a handy pattern and a site that would help me find a hospital nearby. I actually found four in my area that not only have addresses and requests for NICU hats, but gave sizes needed.

One of the sobering things about this search was the discovery of how many hospitals are looking for burial garments of this size. We don't think about things like infant mortality in this day and age, but if the number of hospitals requesting burial garments for preemies is any indication...even today, the survival of such very tiny people is a miracle of miracles.

Whenever I'm expecting, I sort of hold my breath through this stage, marking the time from when my babies are survivable as micro-preemies, then as preemies, then as early term, then (in my most recent baby's case!) late term. My little lost baby was only eight weeks old, too small for even the smallest hat to fit. He could fit in the palm of my hand, his tiny perfect head no bigger than a marble. But all the rest have made it through this tricky time with no problems at all.

I made the five hats in gradually increasing sizes, from the smallest size requested on up through my hook sizes. Each one of those hook increases is a victory, a sign of diligent effort on the part of dedicated NICU staff, of gut-wrenching fear and love on the part of preemie parents (every day is a new roller coaster!), of resilience on the part of the babies, and of great blessing from God that we live in a time where a surprising number of these pint-sized fighters can survive. Never before in history has a child this small been able to live outside their mother.

I took the pictures of these tiny hats with my two-and-a-half-month-old son for comparison. He's about 13 pounds and 25" long. His head is only about 13 or 14 inches in circumfirence. And compared to the babies who could wear these hats, he's gigantic. This littlest hat I made is meant for a 25 week preemie. Daniel is about 52 weeks old. That's a lot of growth to happen in a short time!

These were originally going to be a bit more decorative - I have some little flowers I made to attach - but I realized that if I did that, the hats would all become girl hats while as it stands they could work for either gender. They are made of super soft sport-weight yarn that I had to order since I knew I'd never get out to the store in time to find some before the challenge was ended. Each hat took about 30 minutes to make and I worked on them in the evenings after all my babies were tucked away for the night and my husband was reading "The Creature from Jekyll Island" aloud (yeah, we go for light reading in the evenings!). It was a special project and I appreciate the nudge in the backside from this challenge to get it done. I have enough yarn to make a few more and will probably do that before I send these out, but in the meantime...all five are completed!

Lauren Turner, Wife, Mother, Chief Cook and Bottle Washer, Blogger and Caretaker of Civilization