Help the Stroup Family's Little Fighter

This fundraiser is for the Stroup Family. Little miss Mila Reneé was diagnosed with gastroschesis when I was 20 weeks pregnant with her. This is a condition that causes the baby’s bowels to grow outside her belly through a hole that never closed in the belly. Along with this she had been diagnosed with restricted growth.

We had anticipated her being underweight and a little premature but on May 20th, 2024 she definitely had some big plans for us. At 31 weeks and 2 days pregnant I was going in for one of my 2 weekly nst’s and had felt less movement that morning but didn’t want to stress out just yet. We went to Prentice Woman’s Hospital and went from a routine nst to triage and then labor and delivery, they kept me there from 10 am- 5ish pm and finally delivered the news that little miss Mila wasn’t waiting for her due date, she had to be delivered within 48 hrs. They tried to give me the 2 steroid shots to strengthen her lungs but the situation quickly escalated and had decided on an emergency c section soon after the first shot, not leaving any time for the second. They rushed me to surgery and quickly began, by 8:02 pm she was born. She was a little over 3 lbs, 15 inches long and the sweetest little girl we could ask for. She had her surgery for her bowel quickly after at Luries Children Hospital.

Since then we have been on an up and down journey with the many curve balls a nicu baby can deliver. We love our sweet little pea so very much and she’s on the road to recovery. Right now we don’t have a timeline for how long our sweet girl with be here in IL, but we’re staying here until she can come home to IN with us. Any help that can be offered is greatly appreciated and we already appreciate all the love and support we’ve received from family, friends and hospital staff. We are so blessed our little rainbow girl has fought this hard and succeeded, and we’re gonna see her through until we can come home to our family, friends and our sweet honey dog. We thank you again for all/any support!

7/15/24

Just an update on the little one! We’re getting closer to total volume feeds but still have an indefinite time being here! We’re still struggling to pay bills as we didn’t plan on being here this long or my extended maternity leave. Any and all help it so appreciated while we’re here caring for Mila at Luries Children’s Hospital of Chicago<3