The touching moment a 6-year-old brother embraced his premature infant sibling.
"Mikey always knew in his heart that his younger brother would arrive; it was only a matter of time."
Mikey Marotta has had one consistent request ever since he learned to speak: a younger sibling.
However, Mikey's mother, Jessica Marotta, and her husband, Michael, believed the 6-year-wish old's would never come true after years of infertility issues and a miscarriage in early 2017.
"We had a heart-to-heart one night and decided that our family of three would be perfectly happy," Marotta told TODAY Parents. "When Mikey asked when he would get a baby brother, we explained that he might not get one — that some families only have one child, and that's okay. He would shed tears and say, "It's okay if I don't get a human brother; I have our dog, Dillinger."
Marotta experienced what she calls a "happy shock" in the summer of 2017 when she discovered she was pregnant again. The Massachusetts couple couldn't wait to share the good news with their son.
"When Mikey found out, he was overcome with emotion and ecstatic," Marotta recalled. "However, he was neither surprised nor overly excited to learn that the baby was a boy. He just stated, "Of course I'm having a baby brother; I asked for one."
Marotta states that her son diligently prepared for his new role as older sibling.
"On Halloween, while trick-or-treating, he discussed the costumes he and his younger brother could wear next year," said Marotta. "He had numerous plans. Whenever he had two of something or received something newer, he would say, "I'll save this one for my younger brother."
Mikey had planned out every aspect of his life with his sibling.
Marotta joked, "He believes he has red hair because I ate buffalo chicken while pregnant with him, so he kept telling me to eat buffalo chicken so the baby would also have red hair."
Mikey did not anticipate that his brother would arrive nine weeks early and spend more than sixty days in the NIU.
Marotta was hospitalized for several weeks after being diagnosed with intrauterine growth restriction, a pregnancy complication that affects the baby's growth, before delivering her son Jake via emergency cesarean section in March.
"When Mikey first saw Jake in the NIU, he just stared at him and appeared so overwhelmed and tense," Marotta explained. "His first remark was, 'He has red hair just like me!'"
“We told him what every tube and wire meant — every beep and alarm,” Marotta continued. “Αnd 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.”
Αnd the skin-to-skin bonding was a success — Marotta says 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,” Marotta explained. “Mikey was also the first one Jake smiled at, and for a while he was the only one who could make Jake smile.”
Marotta recently shared her sons’ story on Love What Matters, and says the connection the two boys share is heartwarming.
“Mikey tells Jake he loves him all the time and sings him songs he makes up,” said Marotta. “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 this little brother of his was coming — it was just a matter of time.”