There is much joy and celebration in my family–my youngest sister and her husband have become “Insta-Parents.” Little Alice Kennay’s birth mother only found out last week that she was pregnant and thought she was only a couple of months along. Lo and behold, Alice, who will obviously fit in quite well in our family because she obviously already has a mind of her own, was born on Thursday, about 2 months early.
She is a little peanut of 2 pounds, 7 ounces but she is breathing on her own and when she gets up to about 4 pounds, she will get to go home. This has been a very long road, filled with disappointments, for my “baby” sister and her husband and I am pretty sure that Alice is the one that chose them to be her parents.
Now, I need your help! Could you direct me to sewing patterns and such for premature babies? Even the “xxxs” patterns at Simplicity were for up to 7 pounds.
Advice and suggestions on how this doting aunt can sew for Alice would be greatly appreciated.
Oh, and please keep little Alice and her birth mother who is recovering from emergency c-section in your thoughts and prayers.
Doll clothes! I was also born nearly two months early, and my mother made all my early clothes out of doll clothes patterns. BTW, I love your podcast!
I had the same thought — doll clothes. It’s been a long time since I’ve looked to see what baby doll patterns are available.
I see I was too late with the doll clothes suggestion! What about things that your sister can use as your niece grows? Burp cloths, bibs, a quilt, etc.? There’s a fabric basket here: http://ayumills.blogspot.com/2008/05/tutorial-fabric-basket.html
I tried googling charity sewing for preemies and that turned up a few things. A sleeper for 4-6 lbs at http://www.touchinglittlelives.org/prsleeper.html. A list of preemie patterns at http://www.angelfire.com/planet/mcshelpsite/sewingstuff/freepatterns.html/#preemie
Then this woman was looking for testers for a preemie smock, but I don’t know if she still is http://everythingyourmamamade.com/2009/02/02/looking-for-pattern-testers/
I’m one of those who downloads your podcasts and listens to them! Happy Holidays!
Embroiderers Guild supports preemie programs with weecare patterns. They are a snap to make.
http://www.smocking.org/weecare_program.php#patterns
I just saw your post. I’m an adoptive mom, too. I’m praying for your sister/husband, and Baby Alice and her birthmom. May they all be home together soon.
PS…if she can get some donated breast milk, there ways to get it, it will help baby Alice in a big…way.
Thank you, Debbie!
My sister is also looking into “induced lactation.” I had never heard of this but apparently women have a long history of being able to nurse children without having been pregnant. It is amazing what a woman’s body can do when it needs to.
http://www.babyzone.com/baby/feeding_nutrition/breastfeeding/article/induced-lactation
Now, I know that you want to sew her something nice, but she will only be tiny for such a short time. I found that Wal*Mart had the widest selection of preemie clothes (for some reason). For how short a time they wear that size, Wal*Mart was the way to go for most of our daughters preemie clothes (in fact, she had too many cute dresses, and it was a tragedy when they didn’t get any ‘runway’ time). I found that my daughter started staying in her clothes longer at about 6-9 months size (which for her was like around 8-12 months of age), and by the time I got to 12-18 months size, we were all out of cute baby shower clothes. I wished then that I had more of those sizes, in the long run. If you do make her clothes now, the BEST thing to have in high supply is a bunch of those gown type pajamas with the drawstring at the bottom (extra plus- with built in mittens). Can’t have enough of those.