Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

NILMDTS provides remembrance photography to parents suffering the loss of a baby with a free gift of professional portraiture.

Our Work

NILMDTS offers the gift of healing, hope and honor to parents experiencing the death of a baby through the overwhelming power of remembrance portraits. Professional-level photographers volunteer their time to conduct an intimate portrait session, capturing the only moments parents spend with their babies. Parents are gifted with delicately retouched heirloom black and white portraits free of charge.

These priceless images serve as an important step in the healing recovery for bereaved families. NILMDTS remembrance photography validates the existence and presence of these precious babies by honoring their legacy.

NILMDTS recruits, trains, and mobilizes professional quality photographers around the world.  Through NILMDTS, medical personnel are given a meaningful option to offer bereaved parents by creating remembrance portraiture for their babies.

Through further engagement in the organization, such as the NILMDTS Remembrance Walk and online support, families become a part of a compassionate and supportive community.  Parents gain a sense of inclusiveness, alleviating the alienation and perception of being alone in their pregnancy or infant loss journey.

History

Maddux Achilles Haggard was born on Feb. 4, 2005, with a condition called myotubular myopathy. It prevented him from breathing, swallowing or moving on his own. On the sixth day of his young life, his parents had to make the excruciating decision to take him off life support. But before they did, they called photographer Sandy Puc’ to take black and white portraits of them cradling their son. Puc’ photographed the couple with Maddux at the hospital before he was removed from life support and after — when he was free from the tubes and the wires that had sustained him.

Did you know that Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep's first session outside Colorado was in Minnesota? It was for a beautiful baby named Chase Allen on August 25, 2005.

Remembrance Walk

The NILMDTS Remembrance Walk has taken place in Stillwater, MN for the last three years.  The Walk is for parents, family members, and friends to come together to remember a precious baby who has died due to miscarriage, stillbirth, SIDS, neonatal or any type of pregnancy of infant loss.  The NILMDTS Remembrance Walk includes a presentation with readings, music, and speakers to honor your baby.  During the event, each baby is honored by having his or her name read aloud.  Following the program participants journey together for a reflective walk.