Levi Saier can’t keep his eyes off his newborn daughter. “She’s so small,” he said.

His daughter Aniya is only a few hours old. He’s looking at her from behind a glass window as she’s monitored in the Brandon Regional Hospital Mother/Baby Unit and Nursery.

Aniya was born via C-Section and is doing great – but needs to be monitored in the nursery just to make sure. Saier had many questions.

“Just what they’re doing to her and how long it’ll be until I can hold her in her hands,” he said.

Bonnie Guagliardo reassured Saier that his daughter is right on track. She’s the director of the unit and has had similar conversations thousands of times over the years.

But after 35 years of taking care of babies and their families, Guagliardo is retiring. She’s been with the maternity ward since the beginning. During her time, 90,000 babies were born at Brandon Regional, and she’s touched the families of all of them.

“Since I’m not a labor and delivery nurse, I take care of them afterwards,” Guagliardo said. “What my whole staff does is nurture those families, so when they leave here they’re comfortable with the babies; they’re comfortable with what they need to do to take care of them.”

Amy Vought has worked alongside Guagliardo for 18 years.

“Bonnie has been our life here,” she said. The charge nurse can’t imagine working in the nursery without her.

“She’s going to be hard to replace,” Vought said. “I can’t even imagine life without Bonnie.”

It’s going to be hard for Guagliardo to leave her work behind, but she knows her time here left a lasting impact.

“I think it’s really important as families grow that we nurture them,” she said. “The heart of our country is our babies and our young couples and our families.”

“If they have strength, than the rest of the country has strength,” she said.

Saier already feels lifted – reassured by Guagliardo that his daughter is doing just fine.

“It’s always a good thing to have somebody who knows what they’re doing and around to be able to tell you that everything is going to be OK,” he said.

Levi Saier looks over his newborn daughter Aniya, who was born at the Brandon Regional Hospital Friday, Feb.  12, 2016. (Amy Mariani, staff)