Babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health’s Women & Babies Hospital will be going home with a special memento thanks to students in teacher Nick Hower’s graphic communications class at Conestoga Valley High School.
Hower’s idea for the project came from personal experience. He and his wife Sandy are the parents of three children, now ages 8, 6 and 3 — all of whom were NICU babies. When the couple had their first baby at WBH, they surprised the staff by dressing their daughter in a onesie that read: “I love my NICU nurses.”
That experience gave Hower the idea to incorporate it into his lesson plans as a teacher.
Students from Hower’s class (pictured) custom-designed a onesie with checkboxes that read: “Picked my own due date. Made dramatic entrance. Rocked the NICU like a boss. Out NICU.”
This is the second year Hower’s students have designed and created onesies for WBH’s NICU grads to wear on discharge day — much to the delight of their families!