Four nurses made a coloring book for NICU big siblings

Four nurses at Connecticut Children's Hospital have spent years making a coloring book for the people nobody usually thinks to comfort in a NICU: the older brothers and sisters at home. Called A Message to My Sibling, it explains the machines, the wires, and the wait in language a small child can hold. The nurses worked with illustrator Cheri Lenhow, who tried to introduce the equipment without alarming anyone. "It was really about introducing these things without scaring them, because it can be scary to see this equipment," Lenhow said. The book grew from families they watched, including one that drove long distances to visit a daughter named Anna, born at 31 weeks at 2 pounds, 13 ounces. One page lets children draw themselves and tape it to the wall of the hospital room. So the baby, too young to read, gets mail. From a sibling who cannot come in, the artwork goes in first.