Team Andi
My daughter Andi was born 10 weeks early weighing just over 2 pounds. She lived in Mount Sinai Hospitals NICU facility for almost 3 months. I brought Andi into this world, the NICU staff brought Andi to life. Not being able to bond with her in privacy and having to leave her nightly was really difficult and heartbreaking. I missed her first bath and diaper change; I didn't know what each of her different cries were trying to tell me. When I brought home Andi as an infant, I missed being able to really connect with her right from birth. I was also petrified of her. I think it is very important for both the parents and their at-risk newborn to have as much bonding time together as possible. I took my passion for running and combined it with my gratitude toward Mount Sinai's NICU and created TEAM ANDI. Since we started in 2014, we have created our first TEAM ANDI private room that can hold one family. We hope to create many rooms for future NICU parents to live with their newborns, hear them cry, smell them, hold them whenever they want, bathe them and be their 24/7 all within the support of the NICU staff.
For more information, visit www.teamandi.org
