Kelsey was hospitalized February 20 th with medical issues related to her pregnancy. Bedrest and medication helped Kelsey maintain the pregnancy until March 20th when Kaia was born at 30 weeks, weighing a mere 1 lb 12.4 oz. Kelsey’s blood pressure rose after birth, requiring her to stay in the hospital another 5 days. Dad Tyler checked in to the Family Room on March 21 st . He was able to get a good night’s sleep to be able to be present and visit both mom and baby.
Kaia needed time to grow and for the hole in her heart to close, a common issue in premature births.
Kelsey and Tyler are wonderful examples of how the Family Room helps. For 83 nights, the Family Room was their home. They live in Glenmora, LA, approximately 90 miles from the hospital. Kelsey and Tyler would spend hours a day in the NICU instead of hours driving back and forth from home. The hours spent in the NICU helped Kaia with some feeding issues. With patience and time, she mastered her feeding and was discharged on Tuesday 6/25/24, after 97 days in NICU. The Rhoades family “loved having a place to stay without an enormous hotel bill for 3 months, and all the conveniences including the washer/dryer, and personal fridge for breast milk storage. The staff went above and beyond to make the special days (Easter, Mother’s/Father’s Day, and even both our birthdays!!) extra special for us. Staff and volunteers were always asking if we needed anything and keeping up with Kaia’s condition and even advocating for us to extend our stay way past the hospital max of 30 days. We are forever grateful for the kindness shown to us during our stay. Thank you for bringing us closer to our daughter for the past three months.”