Grandma Jan sent us a note awhile back telling us about how for years here friends gathered new PJ’s to donate to the Children’s Hospital and are no longer doing it. We agreed that this would be a perfect thing for us to do to honor Gracie.
When in the hospital, Gracie was always full of tubes and wires. It really helped when we could put Pajamas and or leg warmers on her. Sometimes they could only be partially on, sometimes we’d have to alter them somehow so the nurses could do their job while allowing her to still be stylish. But the bottom line is comfy Pajamas really make a big difference to the kids and the parents. You could just see the joy on Carrie’s face the first time she was able to put a festive pair of leg warmers on her baby that she had been excited to dress up for 9 months.
I was checking out the Children’s Hospital’s website the other day and I’m sure the number has been updated, but it said between the Minneapolis and St Paul Campus, there are 332 staffed hospital beds. Now because of the constantly changes ages and sizes of kids, there is no way that we can outfit everyone, but I think that is a great number to use as our goal for the year. We, along with several friends and family have started collecting robes, pajamas, leg warmers, etc. We find many great deals on the clearance racks. The ages and sizes range from the smallest preemies to 18+ (yes, there are even some adults that are treated in the Cardiovascular Critical Care unit that were born with congenital defects).
Our intent is to continue to do this throughout the year, with the plan to present all of them to the hospital sometime around Gracie’s birthday at the end of November.
We will continue to find ways to honor our girl and don’t want anyone to feel pressured to do anything or everything that we do, but we want to invite anyone that may be interested to join us in this effort.
