LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — For many families spending time in the neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU, can be tough. One mom, Caroline Bentley Noble, went through that with her twins and the experience helped her start a non-profit that focuses on giving hope and joy to families.
Caroline says, "It was the most wonderful moment of my life."
She says the moment she found out she was pregnant she was so excited. She wasn't just having one baby, but two.
"I got to have two experiences where we announced to our family that we were having one baby, then we had to correct the announcement and go to twins so that was pretty funny and awesome,” says Caroline.
She says her pregnancy was normal until it wasn't.
Caroline says, "I believe the stress from my immediate family caused my water to break... And there was a circumstance that kind of went down at my house, and my water broke that night."
At 22 weeks, her water broke unexpectedly. She was admitted to UK HealthCare for some time before her twins -- Paisley and Jaxson -- were born on December 16, 2023. Caroline says they spent months in Kentucky Children's Hospital's NICU unit, that's when a nurse suggested she tap into her creativity to pass the time. She started making bracelets.
Caroline explains, "It's just little things like that, that may not have been a medical recommendation that changed the course of our stay there."
Then she started making bunnies. Each one is unique, and each yard of fabric used to make it has a story.
Caroline says, "This one is actually the chair from... The fabric from the chairs of my grandmother's dining room. So, this means to me, these are the chairs I grew up eating my holiday dinners... Is now a bunny which is kind of fun. And then my natural default is my -- oh, it runs deep -- my love for bandannas."
Bunnies for Babies was born. It's a part of Caroline’s non-profit Lucky in Kentucky, which she started to give a little joy to patients and their families in the NICU. She wants to make 700 bunnies, and right now, she's at around 500. Each one has a little piece of Caroline made into it.
Caroline says, "I hope that they just, it embodies the love I have for creating and the love I have for life and for my children. And that they get like a little hug or something from it."
She told me there's a lot more she wants to do. But above all, she wants to give patients and parents hope and show health staff that helped her and her babies appreciation too.
Caroline says, "I think that it can change the whole course of your life. It has changed mine drastically. I mean this has opened up worlds for me that I never even dreamed was possible. And I am just finding... I feel so drawn and I find such a purpose in doing it."
To donate or learn more about Caroline’s non-profit, you can visit the website, www.LuckyforKentucky.org.
