MADISON, Wis. (WLAX/WEUX) – A Little Library at SSM Health-St. Mary’s Hospital is now helping parents of premature babies bond with their newborns. The Victory family delivered 400 books to the hospital earlier this week.

Ryan and Katie Victory got the idea after their son Elliot spent 96 days in a Marshfield NICU. The family started Elliot’s Little Library as a charity. And they’ve now delivered books to 5 Wisconsin hospitals.

They say it was tough because NICU babies are isolated, “His first two weeks of life, we couldn’t hold him, we couldn’t rock him, we really just sat and looked at him in an isolette. And reading was one thing the nurses suggested to us to try to form that bond since we weren’t getting that immediate connection with him.”

Elliot is now in first grade and loves to read chapter books.