Nurse invites one of her first preemie babies to be her flower girl
For many couples getting married, the go-to flower girl is a young niece or cousin, maybe even a younger sister. Emily Rosimo instead turned to a family she chose, rather than one she was born into. She asked August Giotta, aka Augie, one of the first babies she had ever cared for as a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurse, to go down the aisle before her. It was symbolic of a very special relationship born of unfortunate circumstances.
Augie was born in February 2015 at 29 weeks at OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland, Ore., in a surprise C-section that her identical twin did not survive.
“But Augie did,” her mother, Genevieve Giotta, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “She is still a very fiery personality, and a fighter from day 1.”
Rosimo was brand new to the NICU, but she decided to become a primary caregiver for Augie, meaning that she would take care of the infant every time she was working. It’s a way to give the parents and newborn consistency during a very chaotic and difficult time.
“I knew just as soon as I met the family that they were something special,” she tells Yahoo.
Rosimo was one of four nurses who worked as Augie’s primary caregivers, but Giotta felt a special connection to Rosimo most of all when she visited her daughter late at night.
“I got to know Emily because the NICU at night is this kind of magical, quiet place with all these babies that are growing,” Giotta says.
Having that relationship made a huge difference in her experience. “You don’t know when your baby is coming home, and you don’t get to stay there every night in the hospital with your child. So you rely on the nurses, and to have someone as special as [Emily] where you can feel truly comfortable and say, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s as if I was there, because I know this person’s heart is in it with my child.'”
After 10 weeks in the hospital, Augie was cleared to go home, but not before Giotta made it clear to Rosimo that she wanted to keep in touch. “Jennie and I pretty much talk every day,” Rosimo says. “She forever has called [Augie] ‘our’ baby. She refers to me as her NICU mama. They have made me basically a part of their family, which has just been incredible for me.”
So in planning her wedding, which took place in September, Rosimo asked Giotta to be her bridesmaid and Augie to be her flower girl. To make sure Augie didn’t veer off course, as 3-year-olds are wont to do, older kids pulled her down the aisle in a wagon. The youngest of four girls relished the experience.
“Augie was thrilled to do it,” says her mom. “It was this opportunity to be the center of attention.”
When Rosimo shared a photo of herself and her flower girl to Reddit, another NICU nurse chimed in to say she had also included former patients in her wedding party. Many families do keep in touch with their babies’ caregivers, but this level of closeness isn’t typical. Parents usually send updates and photos from their birthdays, or they post to Facebook groups like the one Doernbecher Children’s Hospital has set up for the NICU.
Their unique bond, even after the Giottas moved from Oregon to California, is something Rosimo wanted to tell others about. “I feel like people don’t necessarily understand what NICU nurses do, and how challenging it can be, and how rewarding it can be,” Rosimo says of why she decided to post her photo to Reddit. “It was not the best circumstances to be brought together and to become friends through, but it is what it is. We consider it our magic little story.”
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