Image by travisdmchenry from Pixabay
I’m a mom of two children. Our daughter was a “textbook” pregnancy from start to finish (with the exception of the gestational diabetes). In fact, she was so comfy and cozy in the womb that she had to be induced. She arrived two days after her schedule due date.
Two years later I became pregnant with our son. From five weeks onward there was one issue after another with the pregnancy. I was bleeding on and off. He was SGA (Small for Gestational Age), he was upside down with his head crooked, didn’t practice moving in the womb and a variety of other issues.
Being on bed rest (which I should have been doing) was easier said than done with a toddler at home and my family who lived far away (my husband’s family wasn’t any help except for my mother in law, but she also worked).
When I was 31 weeks pregnant I had to rush to a larger hospital (not one of our local ones) because my OB/GYN felt like there were going to be issues larger than the local hospital could handle. No sooner did I arrive there I was rushed into surgery because his heart rate was dropping rapidly. I had to have an emergency C-section.
Holding our precious son while he was still in the NICU
Our son was born 9 weeks premature. Not only was he small for his gestational age, he also had Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). He was 14.5″ and weighed 2.5 pounds (the smallest the hospital ever delivered was only 11 ounces).
What followed was stay in the NICU that I thought would last forever. Thankfully we were able to bring him home 33 days later (he was 4 pounds). Sadly there were other babies there born before our son that were going to be at the hospital for months. We were also lucky that there was nothing wrong with him, health wise. The only thing that happened down the road was that he needed to wear leg braces for two years because his ankles rolled inwards, making it hard for him to walk. That also entailed two years of physical and occupational therapy.
33 days old – the size of a regular football.
While our son was in the hospital, our daughter was only 2 1/2 years old. She didn’t understand at all why her baby brother couldn’t come home. She also wanted to see him but she was not allowed in the NICU. All she saw were pictures of him.
Our daughter the first time she met her brother (she was 2.5 years old, he was 33 days old).
He was hard on her. She didn’t understand what was going on. All she knew is that Nanny (my mom) would come down every day to stay with her for several hours so mom could go see her baby brother in the hospital (the hospital was about an hour away). My husband would be with him after he got off work. A few times my mom met me at the hospital and would take our daughter around the grounds to keep her busy while I stayed with our son.
Our son now.
These days our son is a healthy 26 year old man. Time sure does fly.
If your family has a child in the NICU, and you have other children, you might want to check out the book called Waiting for Max. It is similar to our situation where our son was in the NICU because he was a preemie, and our daughter (whose older), was anxious to meet her baby brother.
Here is some more information about the book.
One in ten babies in the U.S. will spend time in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)—yet few children’s books explore this experience, especially from a sibling’s point of view. Waiting for Max: A NICU Story (The Collective Book Studio / October 21, 2025), written by debut author Emily Rosen and illustrated by Esther Diana, fills that gap with tenderness and imagination.
Readers meet Louise, a spirited big sister eagerly awaiting her baby brother, Max. When Max is born early and must stay in the NICU, Louise uses her vivid imagination to make sense of the wait—and to dream up ways to help bring him home.
Inspired by Emily Rosen’s own experience with her son’s 16-day stay in the NICU, Waiting for Max is a deeply personal, yet widely relatable book for siblings, parents, and caregivers. It helps children understand and process what happens when a new baby needs extra care before joining the family at home.
“Every day during Max’s NICU stay, we brought a picture book to read to him,” Emily says. “It was one of the only ‘normal’ things we could do as new parents. But I struggled to find stories that reflected what we were going through. So, I decided to write one.”
With warmth and honesty, Waiting for Max offers comfort and connection to siblings, parents, and caregivers navigating uncertainty. Through Diana’s bright, cozy illustrations, young readers see that love and imagination can bridge even the hardest waits.
Emily will donate a portion of the book’s proceeds, along with copies of Waiting for Max, to NICU hospitals and nonprofit organizations across the country—offering comfort, connection, and a reminder to families that they are not alone.
“Waiting for Max removes the fear and uncertainty of the unknown and gives young children solid ground in understanding the newest member of their family.” – James Fritzell Jr., MD, Medical Director NICU and Chairman of Pediatrics at Saint John’s Health Center, Santa Monica, CA
I received a copy of the book to review. I truly wish I had a book like this when our son was in the NICU. This would have been perfect to read to our daughter. I wish I could have had extra copies to leave at the NICU where our son was for the other parents I met while he was staying there.
This is a wonderful book for anyone who finds themselves in the same situation (even if the older child is a boy and the baby is a girl/boy). The gender doesn’t matter. What matters most is the heart of the story.
Waiting for Max is available at many retail locations including Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Kimberly
*I received a free copy of this book in order to do this review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own and not influenced in any way.
