Go Time

Just before 12:45am on July 23rd, Laurel woke up to go to the bathroom and a few moments later her water broke! There was a moment or two of panic - centered around which pants she should wear - and then we were in the van headed to the hospital. Contractions started in the car and were about 5 minutes apart.

We arrived at the hospital around 1:30am, checked in and headed straight to the delivery room. We knew the kids were early, we knew they are twins, we knew C-Section was a real possibility, so we didn’t really mess around with small talk. Monitors were set up, and it was very noisy and uncomfortable. Laurel’s contractions had escalated and she was in near constant agony. We had a couple of short conversations with the doctors and specialists. July 23rd is exactly 2 months earlier than full-term. The medical team wanted to confirm that this was not a false alarm, which can happen in pre-term babies but, after a quick check, it was no false alarm… it was very real and very now.

Knowing “the plan” is a major part of birthing these days, for us “the plan” was - healthy mom & healthy babies, whatever that takes.

That meant that Laurel was prepped, I was thrown a gown, told “wait here”, and then Laurel was gone. The image of her in a wheelchair is the last I saw of her until a nurse came in and said “Come with me” and added, “You ready for this?”

I rounded a couple of corners and saw Laurel, just a neck and head sticking out from under a tarp. Two anesthesiologists stood with her and about 8 people worked quickly behind the curtain. I talked to Laurel and asked how she was - she was comfortable and no longer in pain. She looked beautiful.

My attention shifted quickly when I saw people run out of the room with hot-potato 1 and hot-potato 2!

I hopped up and followed my girls to a nearby room where I was able to meet them, see their tiny faces, and ceremoniously snip the cords. Realizing I was very useless, I returned to Laurel to share pictures of our babies and see how she was doing. We talked a bit and held hands. We were given wrist bands with the birth times of our two little ones.

7/23/19 @ 3:09am - 2 lbs 15.5 oz, 14 inches long

7/23/19 @ 3:11am - 3 lbs 3 oz, 15.75 inches long

At this point, I realized it had only been two and a half hours since this had all begun. In the moment it felt like it was all flying by at “Ludicrous Speed” - turns out it was! We went from looking for pants to being parents of two beautiful little girls in 150 minutes!

A few moments later, someone came and asked if I wanted to come to the NICU with the twins. We talked decided that was the best plan, so I chased a team of blue onesies down the hall while all the king’s horses and all the king’s men (and women) put Laurel back together again.

~ Berto