NICU Babies Get Ready for Solar Eclipse at Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital

Newborns at Ohio's Cleveland Clinic are getting ready to celebrate the upcoming solar eclipse.

On Friday, April 5, the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) — which is directly in the path of the upcoming total solar eclipse — announced it was getting all of its patients ready to experience the phenomenon.

"Our babies in the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit are prepping for the solar eclipse on April 8!" the medical center wrote in a statement. "While it’ll be about two decades before we experience another total solar eclipse in the United States, these newborns will be 75 years old the next time we see another total solar eclipse in Ohio!"

According to the hospital, caregivers dressed babies in special onesies that read, "Total Solar Eclipse" alongside the date of the totality, as well as eye covers mimicking solar eclipse glasses.

"Their eye covers aren’t the official glasses for viewing the solar eclipse, but they do protect their eyes from light used during certain therapy treatments in the NICU," the Cleveland Clinic said in its statement.

NICU nurses overseeing the special event told PEOPLE they hope to continue their tradition of helping their baby patients celebrate all the life events they would outside the hospital.

"It's such an exciting time here in Cleveland," says Dana Traci, BSN, RN, Cleveland Clinic Children’s NICU Clinical Nurse. "Since our babies in the NICU won’t be going outside to see the total solar eclipse on Monday, we all really wanted to do something special to mark this day in history."

"It was so much fun dressing the babies up this morning and taking photos so the newborns and their families always have something to look back on," Traci adds.

"We celebrate all sorts of things in the NICU: milestones, holidays and now the solar eclipse!" says Katrina Wiedenfeld MSN, RN, Cleveland Clinic Children’s NICU. "It's so sweet to involve the babies by dressing them up for the occasion."

"I fashioned my patient in her eclipse onesie, a classic baby hat with a bow and colorful pants for our fun photo shoot," Wiedenfeld continues. "The families now have this special onesie to have as a keepsake to remember the total solar eclipse in Ohio."

According to NASA, the upcoming solar eclipse is Monday, April 8. Exact timing depends on where viewers are located in North America, where the phenomenon will pass after it begins over the South Pacific ocean.

Patients at Cleveland Clinic Children's — and all of the Cleveland area — will see the totality for nearly four minutes, beginning at around 3:13 p.m. local time, per NASA's Eclipse Explorer.

After the eclipse begins its path across the U.S. in Texas, it will pass through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, as well as small parts of Michigan and Tennessee.

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Those interested in viewing the complete solar eclipse can look up exactly where in their state is within the path of totality.