Manhattan hospital cameras allow families to live-stream newborns from NICU

MANHATTAN, New York -- For the first time in Manhattan, special hospital cameras allow families to keep an eye on their newborn until they're strong enough to go home.

Having a baby in the neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU) is hard enough, but a new technology makes it a little easier for parents who have family far away.

Baby Landon was born weeks early at Lenox Hill Hospital, while his parents Chris and Jamielynn were visiting from Seattle, Washington.

They credit the hospital staff for saving their son's life, but it's been difficult having their preemie 3,000 miles away from home. The circumstance was not the plan, but they say it makes a huge difference knowing family can check in on a live, protected and private webcam anytime.

It brings Landon's grandparents much joy to be able to watch him 24/7 in New York.

"They cried, my mom cried," Jamielynn said. "She actually wrote me messages back, saying, 'I'm getting tears in my eyes. He's responding to your voice and you can tell.' It's just been hard, but it makes it easy since they can't be here."

And as first-time parents who are also out-of-towners, the NICU view helps them feel connected even if they have to run out of the hospital for a bit.

Lenox Hill NICU nurse manager Patricia Quinn points out that all the babies are preemies, and they can't leave the hospital after two days.

"It's a way to still be able to connect and not be here," she said.

Lenox Hill can monitor how many times family and friends have logged on, and so far, more than 800 have checked in on Landon. And by the looks of it, the boy mom Jamielynn is referring to has her "Park Avenue Prince" appears to be a natural New Yorker.

"He's already way cooler than us," Chris said.

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