One of the things they say to do with babies in the NICU is to read to them, because it’s a way to bond and reduce stress. Plus, there’s not much else you can do. You read and have them hear your voice. That was all we could do with Harrison1. For so long, that was it. Then we found out that he has partial hearing loss, so who knows if he was even hearing us the entire time? Our instinct tells us he heard something. 

We would read a bunch of books to him, but there were two we read every night before we left. The one that I read to him was Goodnight Moon. That was Mom’s book. Guess How Much I Love You was Dad’s book. A friend had the idea to do a book drive, and we ran with it. We thought it was something we could do to help new parents and to give back to the NICU that saved Harry’s life2 — I don’t know how many times.

We set out to raise money for 76 books, because Harry was 76 days early. We ended up getting enough to donate more than 600 books. It’s great! 

Infant baby, with oxygen tubes in his nose, and hearing aids, he is smiling and holding a binkie while pointing at the camera

On his first birthday, equipped with hearing aids, Harry heard his family sing “Happy Birthday” and pummeled a smash cake. At last weigh-in, he tipped the scales at nearly 13 pounds. |Photo: Courtesy of Madeline Shepherd

Notes

  1. Harrison Justin Shepherd, named after Beatle George Harrison, weighed exactly 1 pound when he was born.
  2. Harry spent 232 days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Cleveland Clinic’s main campus, where he underwent multiple surgeries, breathed with the help of a ventilator, ate through a feeding tube and had to be resuscitated more times than his parents, Madeline and Justin, care to remember. In April 2021, Harry came home, where he continues to thrive.