- We're back with Brett Young and YaYa Gosselin.
Give it up.
(applause)
So five months ago,
my next guest's son was born with a hole in his heart.
She says she could never have gotten
through the emotional journey
without the continued help of his NICU nurses.
So that's why she's made it her mission
to give back to them.
Dialing in from the Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago,
let's say hi to Taylor and her son, Milo.
What's up?
(applause)
- Hi, Kelly. Oh my gosh.
Milo, say hi to Kelly Clarkson.
- Oh my gosh. So cute.
I wanna snuggle and he smells like little baby probably.
Well meet Brett and YaYa.
- [Taylor] Oh my gosh. - How are you?
- [Taylor] Hi guys.
- Hi. - [Brett] Hi.
- We listen to the country music station all day.
We're huge fans.
- Thank you. Thank you.
- Partially the song Lady gets me crying every time.
(Brett laughs)
- Well, how are you and Milo doing?
- Kelly, we're doing really good.
You know, he has been doing amazing lately.
He's been smiling and cooing.
We sit him up in the doorway all the time in his swing.
Yup. The mamaRoo.
And he just kind of like gabs anyone who will walk by.
But we're just trying to stay positive as we always have
and just focus on our goal, which is to get him home
so that he can finally meet his big sister, Charlie,
who's four and a half.
And hopefully we'll have him home,
my husband and I would love it
if we could get him home by Mother's Day.
It would be the perfect gift.
- Oh my gosh.
What a perfect day that will be.
I hope that happens.
And by the way, the mamaRoo?
Whoa, that'll save your life.
- Right?
- I love the mamaRoo.
It's like so mommy's just got to do like two things.
(chuckles) It's awesome.
(laughter)
Well, you do say that the NICU nurses
have been your saving grace, right?
- 100%. You know, they dove in right away
taking care of him and also taking care of us.
They have listened to our fears.
They've sat by our side
and cheered us on as we cheered Milo on.
They've just been simply incredible.
And you know, just an example of that is,
he's always had a feeding tube in his nose
or he had a suction in his mouth at one point.
But around the holiday time,
he was a little trickster and pulled out that feeding tube.
And we had about 24 hours where he had nothing on his face,
as you can see in this picture.
His nurse, Angie, when I left for the hospital that day,
dressed him up like Santa
so we could have holiday pictures of him tube free.
It was just such a special moment for us.
Also, we had a nurse, Jessica, we transferred hospitals
to the hospital that we are at currently at.
And she, the morning of Milo's big surgery,
I woke up to a Venmo alert that she had sent me money
to get us coffee that morning before his big surgery.
And she wasn't even our nurse anymore.
Just absolutely incredible.
- Oh my God, it's those little things
that I will just lose it for like half an hour crying
'cause I'm like what a sweet thing to do.
And it's just so thoughtful.
So you did something to give back, right?
To the nurses who continue to help you.
How'd you do that?
- We did. So I was sitting in the hospital one day
and there was this baby that we had gotten close with,
we called him big Mike.
and I kind of heard the nurses chitchat and they said,
Oh you know, he'd really benefit
from having a piano playmat.
And I was like, well, let's get big Mike, a piano playmat.
And then I noticed that another baby had the mamaRoo swing
and it was really helping their baby be soothed and calmed.
And I asked if they had one available for Milo to use
and all of them were being used up.
So I decided to create this Amazon wishlist.
And I didn't really think much of it.
I posted it on Facebook and people blew us away.
We had immediately enough to donate swings
and pacifiers and swaddles,
all these materials to three hospitals immediately.
Shortly after that, another two.
And we're hoping to just keep doing it
and to give to as many hospitals
in the area as possible.
This has changed our life
and we just want to do whatever we can
to help the amazing nurses that have helped us.
(applause)
- Absolutely. Do you have a nurse in your family?
- Yes. My aunt is actually a ICU nurse
in the children's hospital in Dallas.
And it's crazy.
Not only does she, she treats kids and babies with COVID.
So not only does she put her life on the line,
she also devotes almost her entire life
to helping children and infants.
She's such an incredible person and so sweet.
And what she does is absolutely incredible.
- [Kelly] Please tell her thank you from all of us.
That's an amazing thing she's doing.
And I think people are really
respecting the heck out of those essential workers
as frontline workers.
And they are putting their lives
on the line while trying to help out.
And it's a beautiful thing.
Well, we actually have one of the NICU nurses
who cared for Milo on the line.
So let's bring her into the conversation right now.
What's up, Jessica?
- Oh my gosh.
- Hi.
- Jessica. Milo, look who it is.
- [Jessica] He's smiling.
- So wait, so Jessica what did you think
when you got all these items from Taylor?
- It was unbelievable.
We were shocked.
Our patients use those items every day, the swings,
the toys, the blankets, all of it every day.
And when we use them, we think about Milo.
They left a legacy in our unit
and just the selflessness that in their hard moment,
they were still able to give back to the unit
and we couldn't be more grateful.
So we just want to say, thank you.
We love you.
We love Milo, miss you guys.
- Aw. It is cool, it's like family
and those moments when you're there,
like you're around each other
more than you're around your family, you know?
And it becomes like this extension.
It's just being hospitalized and having those people
coming in and checking on you,
your family or your loved ones,
it is a really beautiful thing that y'all do for people.
And Taylor is making a huge difference and we wanna help her
help as many NICUs in Chicago as we can.
So we reached out to our friends at 4moms
who are celebrating their 10th anniversary
of the 4moms cares program,
which donates thousands of products to NICUs in need.
A wonderful thing they do already.
And they love the work that you're doing
and they're gonna be donating 50 mamaRoos
to continue supporting your mission at Chicago's NICUs.
How'd that sound?
- Thank you so much 4moms.
You guys are incredible.
It's amazing. Thank you so much.
- And I'm telling you what,
from one mama to all ya mamas out there,
that mamaRoo is a blessing.
It's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
Well, thank you so much, everyone.