NICU babies dressed in Halloween costumes knitted by their nurse

— -- Halloween just got tinier! The youngest patients at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite in Georgia are dressed up in knitted costumes handmade for them by one of their nurses.

Tara Fankhauser, a nurse with the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, started the tradition of dressing up the babies last Halloween.

This year, she had 30 costumes ready for the Halloween holiday, like this Pinnochio outfit that baby Paxton is wearing.

It can take her anywhere from a few hours to a few days to make a costume.

The NICU nurses dressed little Grant as a potted plant.

"I start making costumes in late spring and continue right up to Halloween – we had three new babies this week so I made some new small ones to deliver yesterday, including a Superman cape," said Fankhauser. "It’s a fun months-long project for me and nothing is cuter than seeing our tiniest patients at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta dress up for Halloween."

She said that she makes her costumes in a variety of sizes since they never know how big or small the babies may be.

Fankhauser used Pinterest for inspiration to design the adorable costumes, like Charleigh's gumball machine outfit and Giovanni's baseball getup.

Of course, she had to make a classic pumpkin costume for one of the newborns, as seen on baby Angela.

Fankhauser has worked with the babies in the NICU and their families for five years. As a mother of three young children, she said she understands how precious these babies are to their parents and wanted to help them have a fun and festive holiday with their babies.

"As a nurse, for the time I’m there in the NICU, our job is to just give as much love as possible to these little ones," she said.