I had just sat down to eat dinner when  I felt it… 

A CONTRACTION. 

I convinced myself it was probably a Braxton Hicks and continued eating my chicken sandwich. As I finished eating dinner I could tell that the contractions were happening regularly, so I thought it would be a good idea to monitor them on my phone just to be sure.

Right then, I probably should have gotten in the truck and headed to the hospital.

BUT I had been waiting all day to eat a piece of strawberry pie from Betty Boop’s, and I was going to eat it! After I finished my pie, I finally told John I had been having contractions, and we probably needed to go to the hospital. I hopped in the shower while we waited on my mom and Johnny to get there to keep the kids. About 45 minutes later, John and I were on the way to the hospital. Ten minutes into our one hour and fifteen minute drive, I informed John that he might want to hurry up. While the contractions weren’t getting closer together, they were definitely getting more intense. With every contraction I made John talk to me. It was my way of getting my mind off of the pain. This is something that he has had to do with each labor, so I just knew he would have thought of some things to say ahead of time.

WRONG!

On the way to Tyler we talked about some of the most random stuff. We arrived in Tyler in 38 minutes! Partially because John was out of things to talk about and partially because John was terrified we were going to have babies on the side of the road. We pulled into the parking lot with contractions still 7 minutes apart, so I was relieved to know that we still had a little time. 

WRONG AGAIN!

We made our way to the hospital entrance where they did my COVID screen.  I’m honestly surprised I didn’t pop out a baby right there. After our game of 20 questions, I put my mask on and headed up to labor and delivery. By the time we made it to L&D I was feeling a significant amount of pressure and could barely stand up. They opted to forgo the check-in process and got me into a room immediately. The doctor checked to see how my labor was progressing, and to her surprise,  I was dilated to a 9. The doctors scrambled to get a sonogram to see what position the babies were in. Thomas was head down and ready, but Trey was breech.  The doctor reassured me that she had done several breech deliveries and would do all she could to avoid an emergency c-section. The nurses quickly rolled me into the operating room. I laid there shivering under the bright lights, breathing and counting my way through contractions as we waited for a nurse to find scrubs for John. As soon as John entered the room the doctor gave the ok to push on the next contraction. Thomas was out with the second push, but Trey was a little more reluctant. The doctors tried to turn him first, but he didn’t budge. Next one doctor went in and grabbed his legs and pulled while another doctor applied pressure to my upper abdomen. Now this was my fourth natural, unmedicated delivery and my second time delivering twins.

But trust me when I say, “ I have never experienced the level of pain that I felt when they were trying to pull Trey out.” 

It honestly took me back to the days of pulling calves with Dr. Beeler when I was in high school, except this time I was the cow. After 4 minutes of the doctors pulling and me pushing, Trey finally made his arrival. 

Less than 45 minutes after arriving at the hospital, I delivered two beautiful boys. For the first time in what seemed like forever, everything that was going on in the world didn’t matter. They placed the boys in my hands for a brief photo and then rushed them away to the NICU. And so began our second NICU journey.

Stay tuned…