A mother of two NICU graduates wrote a children's book to help families navigate the experience.

The book, "Welcome to the NIC-ZOO," aims to help older siblings understand why their new baby is in the hospital.

Before Paige Pedroli had children, neonatal intensive care units were not a top-of-mind consideration, but her first daughter, Penelope, changed all that.

“I had Penelope in 2018,” Pedroli said. “She was actually full term, but that morning, I didn't feel her moving, so I had gone to the doctors, and they sent me for an emergency C section.”

Penelope spent 10 days in the neonatal intensive care unit or NICU. Pedroli had experienced a rare problem with the placenta that did not cause other symptoms beyond her baby’s inactivity. Noticing that and having her doctors act on it prove

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