Cecilly’s NICU Story

Cecilly’s mom, Mitzi, had a newborn photography session all lined up for mid January 2016. Mitzi, her partner, Sherridan, and their one year-old son, Lincoln, live on a cattle farm outside of Grande Prairie. They were looking forward to meeting their newest arrival and this time around were excited to find out the baby’s gender. They ended up meeting Cecilly much sooner than they expected. Mitzi’s membranes ruptured in her 23rd week of pregnancy and she was admitted to the Royal Alex, here in Edmonton, where she was on bed rest for eight days. Cecilly was born on September 27, 2015 at 24 weeks and 5 days gestation. She weighed 1lb 9oz at birth. In Mitzi’s initial email to me, she wrote, “Cecilly is doing really well. The nurses are impressed with her and I now feel comfortable capturing her at this beginning stage.”

This is where I enter stage left. I wanted to not only capture some of Cecilly’s story, but also some of Mitzi’s story. Because their family is from out of town, Mitzi is staying in the Royal Alexandra Hospital boarder rooms. The boarder rooms are mainly a women only dorm, though there are two family rooms available. Each mother has a private room and shares the kitchen, laundry and bathrooms. Mitzi has been staying there since being discharged from the hospital. Sherridan and Lincoln have been down to visit a couple of times, but unfortunately their visit didn’t overlap with our session. Mitzi mentioned this was probably a good thing!

Despite being early, Cecilly is a fighter! At twenty-four hours old she was strong enough to breathe on her own and did so for six days. Another of Cecilly’s big accomplishments was at seven days old, when she lifted her head for the first time. Meet Cecilly and her glowing momma, Mitzi.

When I asked Mitzi to tell me three words to describe Cecilly she said “fiesty, beautiful, loved”. I couldn’t agree more!

And, Cecilly, I have a feeling a whole lot more people will feel that way about you!