We think it’s really important for parents to have the chance to dress their babies up if they feel like it, so we take care of all the logistics and they bring the creativity. Every year we are lucky enough to receive beautiful donated hats, often from graduate NICU parents or grandparents, and the hat is often the inspiration for a costume. For example, you could be a football, or a wise little owl …

Or you could be Minnie or Mickey!

We always have a number of ballerinas and superheroes, and perhaps the reason why (apart from the fact that they’re cute and very appropriate for our babies!) is that it’s pretty easy to make these costumes quickly and safely with easy-to-find materials. For example, it takes about 15 minutes for a non-crafty person to make a tiny tutu for a baby ballerina.

You start with a piece of tulle that’s about 10 cm long and 4 cm wide, and you fold it in half. You then tie the tulle around a ribbon by poking the ends back through the loop you created. We used kind of a fancy ribbon here with extra trim, but plain ribbon or elastic works well too, as long as it’s washable.

You do this with more strips of tulle (no need to cut precisely) until you have a nice puffy tutu, and then you can close it up with either velcro dots or a quick knot.

Here’s what it looks like on a real baby …

This year at our first session we had a parent who is a real artist, and she created this in about 10 minutes with a blank onesie and some fabric markers. She’s really looking forward to busting this out at rounds on Halloween!

And finally we had another parent who was a whizz at cutting out felt and turning it into something amazing …

So it probably doesn’t surprise you, after seeing all of this,  if we say we can’t wait for Halloween! We hope these photos have inspired you to celebrate (if you choose) wherever you are.  So happy Halloween, and don’t forget to save us some candy

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Beautiful hats made by a graduate mom and grandmother

We also had our old friends Ladybug and Turtle drop by, although as you can tell from the picture below they switched things up a bit with their costumes this year. Their wonderful mother brought a cake to share with NICU families and staff, and we so appreciated it!

We bet you’re all thinking, “Well, it’s nice to see the hats and talk about cake, but how about some babies!?”  Our families were gracious enough to give us permission to share some photographs, so you can see just how adorable these babies are.

So first, let us introduce you to our Minnie …

And here’s Captain Adorable!

There will be many Annas and Elsas this year going trick or treating, but here we might have the two smallest (and cutest). The  ingenious person who made these for us added braids to baby hats, which is the perfect solution for a preemie wig!

And last but not least we wanted to give a special shout out to a family who not only dressed up their beautiful baby as a wee ladybug, but who also got into the spirit of things themselves.

People have asked us (in a very nice way) why we care so much about Halloween. The answer is simple. Being in the NICU is tough. Many of our families are hospitalized for months, and those months are full of emotional ups and downs.  So when there’s an opportunity to have fun, to help families enjoy time with their babies the way they’ll do when they’re at home, we take it!  Being in a hospital with your child shouldn’t take away the joy of being a parent. So that’s why we do it. Plus we like candy.

So from all of us to all of you, happy Halloween!

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First … a cake! Do you remember Turtle and Ladybug from last year? Their sweet parents came by and brought a cake for us all to enjoy.

Thank you so much for that!

Now, nothing against turtle costumes, but for some reason the ladybug inspired quite a few parents this year to create their own versions. For example …

(And please note that this sweet little bunny did such a good job growing that she actually outgrew her ladybug shell which her lovely mother had made for her only one week before. Well done!)

And here’s another beautiful example …

Then we had a pumpkin …

a pumpkin and his monkey brother …

and a wee little ghost (who refused to wake up for his photo opp.)

Of COURSE we had superheroes (because our NICU is always full of them, whether they were capes or not. Some of them wear diapers, and some of them wear scrubs).  Here’s one with his lovely family …

And here’s another (you caught a sneak preview of his cape last week).

Last but not least we had quite a few graduates visit today, which always brings us so much joy. The Hulk came, and so did his little brother (who was a pony … we think??)

Ladybug and Turtle have graduated to big kid costumes ….

and we had a few other big pumpkins and goblins wandering around.   We also had a very recent graduate come by to visit, and we were so excited to see her! Mom made the beautiful tutu and headband ensemble two weeks ago in our Halloween craft group. Very talented!

Thank you to everyone who helped today, to the families who shared their photos, to the staff who made it all possible. We now feel kind of like this …

so we will say good night to you all. Have a safe and happy Halloween, and remember there’s no rush to eat all the candy!

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We get many requests from other hospitals about Halloween and how we dress babies up, so we thought we would share some tips we’ve learned over the years from parents, grandparents, trial and error,  and  from other hospitals.

First, you want to start a week or so ahead. This gives you time to wash whatever costume you make so that it’s safe for babies to wear. To be honest, most babies wear their outfits for about 7 seconds (just long enough for a photo), but safety is always your most important consideration. We got lots of support from our nurses and infection-control team who made sure that the materials we used and the costumes we created would be fine for all our babies.

Felt and fleece are great fabrics to use because they’re washable, they don’t fray, and you don’t need to hem them. Today one of our moms made the most amazing superhero cape by layering felt pieces over a regular baby’s bib.

We also had great luck this year at the local dollar store, where you can find costumes for terriers that also fit preemies really well. We are very open with parents about this, and so far most parents find it  pretty amusing. (“A dog costume?? Really!??”) We even found a tiny pirate hat that we are really hoping finds a wearer on Halloween; you’ll have to check back then to see if we succeeded.

Another wonderful way to get costumes is to have knitters or crocheters make some for you. We were so lucky this year to have adorable cat, bear and pumpkin hats donated by a very talented knitter.  A handy grandma made the unbelievably sweet ladybug and turtle costumes that were such a hit last year.

Our other stand-by which is popular every year is the tutu, which is incredibly easy to make and adorable as well. You can buy 10,000 km of tulle for about a dollar. You prewash and then cut into short strips of about 8cm by 3cm, which you then knot around a piece of ribbon or elastic, and then connect the ends of ribbon or elastic with stick-on velcro dots.  And there you have it … an elegant tutu for an elegant small baby!

If a baby is having a rough day and it’s not a good time for dress-up, we can always work around it.  One year, a clever mom and nurse duo put some fish shapes on the outside of the incubator, figuring that if baby couldn’t wear a costume, at least his temporary home could!  A dad had some fun with his baby under the jaundice lights by making the protective eyeshade look like a pair of sunglasses. There are dozens of other stories we could share, but they all prove one thing – when there’s a will, there’s a way.

People may ask (and do) why we go to such lengths for Halloween. The answer is simple. These are babies, and these are their families. Their status as NICU babies and families is temporary, and we don’t want the NICU and what we do here to get in the way of families having fun together the way families should.  Memories are being made, and we would like these memories to be good and happy ones. Of course, we can’t always control that; we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. So if we have an opportunity to have fun together, to create a fun moment for a family, let’s take it!

If you have other ideas for costumes or NICU Halloween fun, we would love to hear them. Please leave comments or feel free to email our Parent Coordinator at kate.robson (at) sunnybrook.ca.

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