2024 Contest Winners

Meet the winners! Here are the category winners of the 2024 NICU Grad Then & Now Photo Contest that were featured in the Then & Now 2025 Calendar. Enjoy the winning photographs and stories of these NICU graduates. Congratulations to all the 2024 category winners!



Hospital: St. David's Women's Center of Texas, Texas

Azrael spent 69 Days, 1,656 Hours, 99,360 Minutes, 5,961,600 seconds in the NICU. Her parents spent 8,062 miles traveling to & from the NICU while also taking care of her older sister at home. She met 48 Nurses, 12 Nurse Practitioners, Speech Therapist, Occupational Therapist & ENT.

She was put on IV fluids for the first few weeks, CPAP/ Oxygen, Photo Therapy & had an NG Tube up until a week before being released. She had to have a Frenotomy, Abdominal ultrasound & Voiding Cystourethrogram to rule out vesicoureteral reflux. She endured countless injections to get her levels stable & Multi-vitamins & iron.

All of these things led to the very moment that we were able to bring her home and if I had to do it all over again, we would.



Hospital: Kaiser Permanente - San Leandro, California

Leo and his brother, Nolan (Twin A), were born precipitously at home at 25 weeks, 4 days. Our beautiful Nolan passed away about two hours after birth. Shortly after, we were transferred to Kaiser-San Leandro where Leo officially began his grueling and long NICU journey. Leo fought valiantly through his 159-day NICU stay and surprised every NICU nurse and neonatologist that came his way. He survived pulmonary hemorrhage, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, anemia of prematurity, blood transfusions, bilateral retinopathy of prematurity, acute renal failure, and so much more. Despite everything, Leo came out guns blazing through like he was a force to be reckoned with. Leo officially graduated from the NICU at 5 months old. He is such a happy baby. Almost 2 and absolutely thriving!



Hospital: Christus Mother Francis Hospital NICU, Texas

James was born at 27 weeks. He has been the strongest fighter since day one. Throughout his 4 month journey in the NICU he was on the ventilator and oscillator for 27 days. He fought through pneumonia and campylobacter, went through numerous blood transfusions, Avastin injections for Retinopathy of Prematurity, and hernia surgery, he graduated from the bi-pap, to c-pap, to nasal cannula. He had more shots, blood withdrawn, steroids, morphine, and versed in his first 4 months of life than most people will ever have in their entire life. He is the most resilient little human I have ever met. He was able to graduate after 122 days in the NICU. He went home on oxygen and now at 20 months old he is breathing room air, moving around at the speed of a sand crab, and living his best life.



Hospital: Medical City Children's Hospital, Texas

Jack was born at 26 weeks 3 days and weighing 1lb 2oz due to placental insufficiency and severe IUGR. He spent 128 days in the NICU fighting respiratory, eye, growth, and feeding difficulties. He liked to take his time with everything. He spent 28 days on the oscillator ventilator then worked his way through the conventional ventilator, CPAP, bubble CPAP, nasal cannula, high and low flow oxygen and at 9 months old was finally off all respiratory support. He overcame stage 2 ROP in both eyes. He was finicky with nurses and had a little attitude that liked to set off all alarms if he was touched, but he loved his primary nurse and care team and did best with them. It was a long 128 days, but Jack was strong, hard-headed and determined to overcome every obstacle that got in his way. He shocked doctors, beat statistics and made everyone fall in love with him.



Hospital: Advocate Christ Hospital, Illinois

Mya was born at just 24 weeks. She weighed 1lb 2oz and had a 148 day NICU stay at Advocate Christ Hospital. She was given a 20% chance to live past the first week but she fought! She endured many many blood draws and pokes but always remained strong. She was the fashionista of the NICU with many bows and always had her room and door decorated. Mya went home after her 6 month NICU stay with a very busy schedule. She is now 5 and the QUEEN of the household. We could not have gotten this far without all the healthcare heroes at Christ NICU! Without the constant care, support, and help from all the doctors, nurses, aides, specialists, therapist, and the nutrition department, we would not be where we are with Mya today. There have been some hospital stays along the way however we always make it back home!



Hospital: Rocky Mountain Hospital For Children at Presbyterian St. Luke's, Colorado

Where to start? Our first NICU journey on top of having to live through a pandemic. This was a roller coaster of happy and scary emotions. I was life flighted to Denver due to preeclampsia symptoms and Kaleo was born early the next day. He didn’t even need oxygen and was breathing on his own. The hardest part was having to leave Kaleo until we could visit again. The hospital was four hours away. Travel was exhausting, and so was having to tend to our other children. Siblings and other visitors weren’t allowed to visit due to the pandemic. But it was always worth the visits. We knew he was in good hands. Our favorite part was always looking forward to our care times with him and watching him gain weight. Overall Kaleo was a thriving and strong preemie. He graduated after 51 days in the NICU. We’re forever grateful for all the amazing doctors, nurses & staff. They are the true heroes!



Hospital: The Fairfax Neonatal Associates NICU at Inova Children's Hospital, Virginia

Unlike most NICU grads, Aubrey was full term. However, her traumatic birth resulted in brain damage and a brain bleed, discovered due to seizures at 4 hours old. While the NICU was one of the hardest times of our lives, it taught Aubrey from day 1 that she was capable of persevering and overcoming anything that comes her way.

Since her NICU time she has added diagnoses of epilepsy, apraxia (a severe speech disorder), motor processing disorder, and is labeled as intellectually disabled. Despite these limitations, Aubrey is known for her incredible spirit. She is always smiling and has a love of learning. She continues to prove everyone wrong, accomplishing things we weren’t sure she ever would. We have her OT, PT, and speech therapists to thank for the amazing progress she has made. Once being told she may never walk, we now get to see her enjoy running, dancing, and playing soccer! We cannot wait to see the additional things she accomplishes in the years to come!



Hospital: St. David's Medical Center, Texas

Olivia burst into this world at 24 weeks and remains a firecracker to this day. She overcame not being able to breathe on her own for half the time in the NICU. She suffered from reflux for several years and still only likes a handful of foods. She has outgrown her asthma and her PDA, and many other things. She had to be headstrong to survive her beginning, and she still wields that power today.



Hospital: Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU, Virginia

This young dragon-slayer started off with the worst prognosis. Born 11 weeks premature, no immune system yet and fighting a big infection, they didn’t think tiny 3lb Dylan would make it. He endured 20+ brain surgeries, several scary diagnoses, tons of therapies, and had so many awesome people helping him with the toughness of a true dragon-slayer: a miracle medical team, a few wonderful teachers, friends & family that believe in the impossible, and fierce moms that won’t quit against all odds. He turned 12 years old this year.

Dylan's amazing like a superhero, and it takes lots of spirit, toughness (and amazing gear) to keep him in top shape. He wears hearing aids, uses sign language and speech approximations. Has 2 VPL shunts to manage fluid in his brain (Hydrocephalus), a g-tube in his belly to help his nutrition due to CP, wears braces on his feet/legs to help him walk and a wheelchair when he needs to rest. He has epilepsy, wears glasses, and is developmentally delayed, but always progressing.



Hospital: CHI Bergan Mercy Hospital, Nebraska

Our GGG triplets are our whole world! Beth and Abby are identical twins and Kim is fraternal. They spent 16 days in the NICU and all went home on the same day. They surpassed everyone’s expectations. We had to buy smaller car seats just to get them home. They are now 13 years old.



Hospital: UF Health Jacksonville, Florida

Danielle was born at 28 weeks weighing 2 lbs 9 oz.
She was born on a Saturday and on Thursday, we received a call saying she had taken a turn for the worse. Her only hope was a blood transfusion, and we needed to sign papers at the hospital immediately. They also needed to drain fluid from her ventricles. She had hydrocephalus, and the doctor said she would most likely have some brain damage from the pressure caused by the excess fluid in her ventricles. We were very blessed that she only spent 6 long weeks in the NICU. She has had issues with her eyes and heart due to her prematurity. The doctors and nurses are miracle workers. Our little miracle is here today because of them.



Hospital: Helen DeVos Children's Hospital & Mott Children's Hospital University of Michigan, Michigan

Lily was born 5 weeks early, had open heart surgery at 9 days old and would have 4 other surgeries before she was 2. She had more hospitalizations than we can count from the time she was born until around 10 years old.

She is now graduating high school and is artistic, beautiful, a wonderful singer, and is one of her mom’s biggest inspirations. She has overcome so much over the years.



Hospital: Dayton Children's Hospital, Ohio

Mychal was born 11 weeks early. He weighed 2lbs 11oz and was 21 inches long. He stayed at Dayton Children’s for 55 days. My baby was a true fighter. We almost lost him when his appendix ruptured at 4 years old, he had to have his gallbladder removed, then a few months later he had a small bowel obstruction. Mychal is now a high school graduate with honors



Hospital: St. Vicent's Hospital NICU, Wisconsin 

Meet Molly Ann, she was born in 1996 weighing in at a whopping 1#14oz, 13 1/2" long. She is considered a 'micro-preemie' small for gestational weight. She was born emergency C-Section due to my pre-eclampsia. It was 1-week before I got to hold her, then only once a week for 10 minutes. She was the smallest baby ever to reach the 'home room' because of huge NICU boom in 1996. She was nicknamed Miracle Molly & remains our miracle to this day. She had minimal obstacles due to prayers & our faith in Jesus. She is 28-years old, she does still deal with epilepsy but she is married & has given us our first grandchild named Faith. Molly has a heart of gold, she became a pre-school teacher to help those children who need that extra special attention. She has the voice of angel & even got to sing on stage with Martina McBride in 2017 after holding a sign saying, "my mom's biggest dream is for me to sing Anyway with you on stage, she is a 6x cancer survivor". Look her up! Yooper girl sings on stage with Martina McBride. Molly raised funds for March of dimes for many years, she was the Ambassodor Child and also won a Most Outstanding Youth Award as a child for the March of Dimes. She would not be here today if it were not for the NICU Doctors' and Nurses.