Every mama’s birth story is unique and miraculous. Some stories are stressful, some are textbook, some are complicated, some are scary, some are surprising and so on. The birth story of my twin girls was slightly reminiscent of an episode of Seinfeld or perhaps even Who’s on First? I will preface the story by saying I had given birth to my twin boys just 18 months before. The boys’ birth was extremely straightforward—a scheduled Caesarean section at the typical twin gestation of 37 weeks. I made it to my scheduled date without incident and with minimal complications. 

So, when my OB/GYN scheduled my Caesarean for the girls, I had no reason to believe things wouldn’t once again go as planned. 

Side note—my husband, Ryan, is a Chief Engineer in the U.S. Merchant Marines and was at sea during a good chunk of my pregnancy. I kept assuring him that things were all going according to plan and that there was no need for him to leave the ship before his trip was scheduled to end. In my mind, I wanted him to stay on the ship as long as possible, so he would be home longer to be with the newborns. I knew we were in for it with 2 toddlers and 2 newborns and he certainly did as well! 

Although Ryan agreed that this all sounded fine, he found himself having dreams that he didn’t make it home in time for the girls’ birth and a general feeling of uneasiness. I kind of chalked it up to reality setting in that we were soon going to have an instant family of 4 children. Eventually, his feelings of apprehension grew and he finally convinced me that it would be better if he came home earlier than we had anticipated. In my mind, we were still two weeks away from the big day and there was plenty of time. Oh little did I know!

So, Ryan arrived home and we figured we’d have two weeks together to tie up loose ends and deal with other pressing matters such as selling our home and buying a new, larger home. (We closed on 2 houses two weeks after the girls were born!)

Less than a day after Ryan arrived home, we went over to his parents’ house, so they could welcome him home with a cookout. It was a beautiful June day. We were outside in the backyard watching the boys run around and burn off some toddler energy. Me being me, I chased them around the yard despite everyone’s pleas for me to sit down and relax. My mother-in-law noticed me grimacing a bit and repeatedly rubbing one area on the lower side of my belly. I attributed the pains I was feeling to the fact that I had been on my feet a lot—having zero concept that said pains were occurring in pretty regular intervals and were possible contractions. 

We had a nice evening and then headed home for the night. I remember in true pregnant fashion feeling the overwhelming urge to pee on our ride home. The boys had fallen asleep in the car, so I decided I would use the bathroom after I carried one of them up to bed. My husband urged me not to carry him, but I was stubborn and didn’t listen. 

As I was ascending the stairs, I felt a significant gush of liquid. I just figured my bladder had surrendered and I had peed my pants as sometimes happens when you are very pregnant with twins! I put my son down in his crib and went into the bathroom to tend to my issue. 

At that moment, I realized that I still felt an overwhelming need to urinate, which I thought was odd. I called to my husband and said, “Babe! Something weird just happened! My pants are wet but I still have to pee!” Clearly, I was in severe denial at this point.

My husband took one look at me and my soaking wet pants and said with urgency, “Ummm I’m pretty sure your water just broke!” 

The next 20 minutes was like a comedy of errors—phone calls to doctors and to parents to come stay with the boys all the while I kept changing my pants only to keep gushing! I had nothing packed and my husband told me to get in the car and we’d figure everything else out later. 

My in-laws lived approximately 15 minutes away and we had literally just returned from their house. As they were on their way over to stay with the sleeping boys, my husband was ready to pull out of the driveway. I said, “What if they are in a car accident on their way here?? We can’t leave until they get here!” Clearly, neither of us was thinking quite coherently at the time. As soon as my husband saw their headlights, off we went to the hospital!!

I was admitted to the hospital and a few hours later, we had two beautiful, baby girls! It is important to note that it was my daughter Lillian’s water that broke and she is still the feistier one of the girls and I am very happy Ryan followed his sixth sense about coming home. He was literally home barely 24 hours when the girls decided to make their debut!