6-Year-Old Boy Shares Heartwarming Skin-to-Skin Moment with Premature Baby Brother

The Heartwarming Bond: A 6-Year-Old’s Journey to Embrace His Preterm Newborn Brother

“Mikey knew in his heart all along that this little brother of his was coming… it was just a matter of time.”

Ever since he could talk, Mikey Marotta had held onto one persistent request – a baby brother. But after years of struggling with fertility issues and facing a miscarriage in early 2017, Mikey’s parents, Jessica and Michael Marotta, believed that their 6-year-old’s wish might never come true.

“We had a heart-to-heart one night and decided we would be perfectly content as a family of three,” Jessica Marotta shared. “Whenever Mikey would ask when he was going to get his baby brother, we would explain that he might not get one – that some families only have one child and that is OK. He would tear up and say, ‘That’s OK if I don’t get a human brother; I have Dillinger,’ our dog.”

However, in the summer of 2017, Jessica received what she called a “happy shock” when she found out she was pregnant again. The couple from Massachusetts couldn’t wait to share the good news with their son.

When Mikey found out, he teared up and was genuinely happy,” Jessica recalled. “But he was never surprised or overly excited when we found out it was a boy. He just said, ‘Obviously I am having a baby brother; it’s what I asked for.'”

Mikey worked hard to prepare for his new role as a big brother.

During his baby brother’s 62-day stay in the NICU, Mikey learned what every wire, beeping sound, and tube meant.
“On Halloween, while trick-or-treating, he talked about all the costumes he could wear with his baby brother next year,” Jessica said. “He had so many plans. Whenever he had two of something or got something new, he would say, ‘I’m going to save this other one for my baby brother.'”

Mikey had every detail of life with his sibling planned out.

“He is under the impression he has red hair because I ate buffalo chicken when I was pregnant with him, so he kept telling me to make sure I ate buffalo chicken so the baby would have red hair, too,” Jessica joked.

But Mikey didn’t account for his brother arriving five weeks early and spending more than 60 days in the NICU.

After being diagnosed with intrauterine growth restriction – a pregnancy complication that affects the baby’s growth – Jessica was monitored in the hospital for several weeks before delivering her newest son, Jake, via emergency C-section in March.

“The first time Mikey saw Jake in the NICU, he just stared at him and looked so overwhelmed and nervous,” Jessica said. “The first thing he said was, ‘He has red hair like me!'”

“We told him what every tube and wire meant – every beep and alarm,” Jessica continued. “And Mikey understood how important skin-to-skin contact was for the baby because we talked often about how it was something he and I did when he was a baby.”

And the skin-to-skin bonding was a success – Jessica says that today, Mikey and Jake, now nearly 5 months old, are unbelievably close.

“When Jake hears Mikey’s voice, his little head twists and turns to look for him,” Jessica explained. “Mikey was also the first one Jake smiled at, and for a while, he was the only one who could make Jake smile.”

Recently, Jessica shared her sons’ story on Love What Matters, and she believes that the connection the two boys share is heartwarming.

“Mikey tells Jake he loves him all the time and sings him songs he makes up,” Jessica said. “He says things like, ‘You are a part of me and I will never let anything bad happen to you,’ and he keeps a picture of Jake in his little wallet.”

“I feel like Mikey knew in his heart all along that this little brother of his was coming – it was just a matter of time.”

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