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Prematurity Awareness

  • Writer: mirandatamaska
    mirandatamaska
  • Nov 9, 2017
  • 2 min read

November is Prematurity Awareness Month and if you have followed Miranda Southern long enough you know that I have not one, but two preemies. Our daughter Elle (who will be 11 on November 12) and our son Hollis were both born at 28 weeks. Wanna hear something crazy?? They both were born at 8:10pm AND the both weighed 2lbs 11oz at birth!

A few weeks back Caleigh Bird reached out to me about sketching a photo of Hollis and I. She must be a true follower of @mirandasouthern on Instagram because her exact words were "since you and Hollis are always attached at the hip." I giggled a little when I read that because no truer words have ever been spoken! She asked me for a photograph and immediately I knew I wanted to be able to honor the time we spent in the NICU.

This photo is about 7 weeks into our NICU journey with Hollis. We were out of the woods of wondering if he would survive or not, however we still had no idea when he would be coming home. I lived hour by hour, many times just going through the motions of each day. During these days I was waking up around 6am to get our older two children ready for school. I would leave for the hospital at 7:30am to feed Hollis and I would stay with him in the NICU until 3pm. I would make it home by 4:00pm to get the kids off the bus and we would start our evening routine of homework, dinner, and bath time. Around 8pm I would head back to the hospital for Hollis's evening feeding and would stay with him until 3am when I would head back home to sleep for a couple hours before starting all over again. Exhausting doesn't quite define these days, but this was our life and I desperately wanted to be with our little boy as much as possible.

Caleigh did an amazing job and capturing the beauty, the love, the grief, and the hope in this photo. She was able to take an image that reminded me of such a hard time in our life and turn it into a beautiful memory of my son and I.

All of Caleigh's work is phenomenal! Each portrait is hand drawn and with her impeccable skills she is able to replicate your family snapshots and create priceless works of art. She is genuinely a master of this domain! Whether you need Caleigh to sketch your children, your pets, pregnancy or wedding photos, I have no doubt she will blow your mind with her gift. Oh and PS: I happen to know she has a few spots available before Christmas!

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