Baylor Grapevine ‘steps’ it up for Mother’s Day

For moms who have newborns hospitalized on Mother’s Day, it’s a day of happiness tinged with sadness because their babies aren’t home.

But the staff at Baylor Regional Medical Center at Grapevine has taken “steps” to make the day a lot brighter.

On Sunday, new moms who visited their babies in the neonatal intensive care unit found little gifts from them.

At each bedside was a cast of the newborn’s feet.

Although the footprints in Mod Podge clay in a heart shape said it was from each baby to his or her mother, the Baylor staff had a little hand in making the feet.

For the past decade the NICU nurses have been making the individual footprint gifts, first for Christmas and soon afterward for Mother’s Day, too.

“It’s a special treat,” said Kathy Kamp, NICU supervisor/educator. “New mom’s can’t have their babies at home so this makes it kind of special.”

Most of the mothers of the NICU babies have been discharged from hospital but their babies are still hospitalized.

The staff began making the gifts on Thursday. First they made the footprint molds, which dried overnight, and then decorated them.

Each one is unique,” Kamp said, adding that this Mother’s Day the hospital was home to seven infants ranging from 28 weeks to full term. “It gets the whole unit into the spirit of Mother’s Day.”

New mom Jenny Gunderman missed out on the Sunday surprise, but she’s not complaining. She and husband Taylor brought their baby Gavin home on Thursday after the April 30 birthday boy spent a little over a week in NICU.

“We didn’t get the gift but I’m so glad we’re home,” the Keller resident said of her healthy and happy firstborn. “It’s gift enough having him home.”

This story was originally published May 13, 2015 at 9:40 AM with the headline "Baylor Grapevine ‘steps’ it up for Mother’s Day."