Breanna Barnett was like many soon-to-be parents; she envisioned the perfect start to her baby’s life.

Baby Landon had other plans though. He made his arrival three months early, marking the start of a harrowing time for their family.

“I was 27 weeks and five days. I ended up having a placenta abruption so when I got here, they checked me and then I went for a C-section within an hour,” Barnett said.

Landon would spend the next 88 days in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at West Boca Medical Center.

“It is the scariest thing that I probably will ever have to go through,” she said.

Nurse Kelley Swannick was on a mission to ease those fears. So, she got to work making adorable outfits for Landon and the other NICU babies to commemorate each holiday and special milestone spent in the hospital.

“I decided that for the babies that were here for such a long time, their parents miss every happy event,” she said. “So, I wanted something to be a memory for them so that they can remember their first Christmas, their first Halloween, their first New Year’s and graduation because literally sometimes it’s three or four months.”

The nurses also put together special arts and crafts like magnets for the fridge and foot print ornaments and key chains around the holidays; a simple act of kindness that made a huge difference during the family’s darkest days.

“I couldn’t dress him because he had a PICC line so the fact that they were able to do that what they did with him was amazing. I mean I cried like every holiday because it was the cutest thing,” Barnett said.

“We try to make the parents feel like when they leave, we are going to take care of their babies just like they would,” added Nurse Kelly. “I mean I have four my own children and I treat these babies like I would treat my own babies.”

Baby Landon is now healthy and back home with his parents.

Source: https://cbs12.com/news/local/local-nurse-brings-joy-to-nicu