October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. This awesome design of a Momma and Baby Fox was created by Kathleen Riehl of Bloom and Grow Designs. Kathleen and her husband Jim started their shop that features incredible custom designs, jewelry, and other wooden creations in memory of their precious son Nicholas Dean, who left this world a little over one year ago after his courageous fight in the NICU. Kathleen’s perspective, strength, and resilience is incredibly inspiring to me. You can visit their shop at www.BloomandGrowDesigns.com.
Please take a moment to read the following from Kathleen about their boys and how their shop came to be. You can also find Kathleen’s story of Nicholas’ life here, in hopes of remembering him and little ones like him.
“My boys Nicholas and Noah were born on June 24th, 2015 at only 25 weeks gestation.
My entire pregnancy was considered high risk because they were mono-di twins (Identical).
I was put on bedrest at 15 weeks gestation because of incompetent cervix. At 20 weeks I went in for a routine check up and was told I was 3cm dilated and my bag of waters was coming out. They admitted me into the hospital and the very next morning I received a cerclage, A few small stitches inserted into my cervix to keep it closed.
I was sent home on strict bedrest and stayed there until I reached 23 weeks and I was then admitted into the hospital on bedrest, given steroid injections and was to stay there until the boys were born… hopefully at a much later date.
My cerclage ended up holding, that was never the reason for the delivery.
On the morning of June 24th they came in to do a routine ultrasound scan on the boys and they kept losing Nicholas’s heartbeat. It was showing he had absent end-diastolic umbilical flow and suffered from severe IUGR (Intrauterine Growth Restriction). They told me that it was extremely dangerous for Nicholas and his only chance of survival (and Noahs) would be to deliver them that day. We decided to deliver them.
They were both born via c-section at 1:23pm. Noah was first, he weighed 1lb, 12oz. Nicholas weighed 1lb, 1oz. They both were 12 inches long.
I wasn’t able to see them for about 4 hours. My husband was able to go back and fourth to the NICU and back to me to tell me how they were doing. They were doing as well as they can for 25 weekers.
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Nicholas and Noah both had a rough road. They both had multiple infections, apnea spells and other prematurity related issues.
Nicholas suffered from severe IUGR. He was never able to get off of steroids, his lungs weren’t developing, his liver and kidneys were failing and his body swelled up from everything.
Nicholas survived 34 days in the NICU before his prematurity and complications from an Infection were too much to overcome. He died peacefully in my arms while I sang the song “Edelweiss” to him.
Noah spent 90 days in the NICU and had a really rough time. He had to be re-intubated 8 times because he’d stop breathing and not start again. He came home on oxygen and monitors but was able to get off of them after about 3 months.
He’s meeting all of his milestones for his adjusted age (12 months adjusted, 16 months actual). He’s already caught up in his height and weight for his actual age which is amazing. He’s my little miracle.
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My husband and I decided to start Bloom and Grow Designs in memory of our son Nicholas.
After scouring the internet for tiny urns and memorial boxes we realized that there isn’t very many personal/custom pieces out there.
I really wanted a wooden music box that played “Edelweiss” and I could not find one anywhere.
My father-in-law decided to make a beautiful wooden box for me and inserted a music box into it. I had the top and front of it engraved in a Winnie the Pooh quote that I relate to him and his brother. It was perfect!
My husband and I decided we wanted to make these memorial boxes for other loss parents. They can customize them with any saying, quote, scripture or picture that they want on it.
We invested in the machine and have been making wooden items every since.
The company is called Bloom and Grow because its the lyrics from the song “Edelweiss”. “Bloom and Grow Forever!”
I hope to raise awareness about Prematurity as well as Pregnancy and Infant Loss through my designs. I want to give back and help other parents going through the same thing.”
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