It was 12 years ago that my twin daughters entered this world. And boy did they enter with a splash. I had decided to take my wife on one last getaway...just the two of us before the girls were born. It was 6-weeks before her due date. Against everybody's concerns, I planned a long weekend in Lee, Massachusetts. The weekend was going to be filled with lounging by the pool and relaxing.
The first evening, my wife was sick all night. The following morning, I approached her and said that this was probably a bad idea...maybe we should go home. She said that she was feeling better and would see how she felt later in the day.
The day was relaxing. We spent our time shopping at the Berkshire Mall and then lounged around the pool for the rest of the afternoon.
I hopped in the shower to get ready for a nice dinner with my wife. When it was her turn to get ready, she was in the shower for an unusually long time. When she came out, she said that she thought her water had broke. Being the compassionate and considerate person that I am, I said, "what do you mean, you think your water broke?"
From that point, Murphy and his famous law kicked in at every opportunity.
We called her OB. He was out of the office, so we spoke to the on-call physician. He said to get to the nearest Emergency Room. I called the front desk of the hotel and asked for the closest hospital. I was dismayed to hear that it was a 40-minute drive up Route 7 in Pittsfield.
I received the directions and headed with my wife to our brand new mini-van (we had just purchased it in anticipation of the birth of our twins. It was the type of van that has sliding doors on each side for easy in and out access).
I stopped my wife before letting her in the van and ran back to the room. You see, it was a brand new car, so I grabbed the towels from the room and covered my new seats...just in case. It's amazing the little details you can remember in crisis situations.
We made it to Pittsfield. My wife was taken by the medical personnel while I filled out the paperwork.
When I finally got to see my wife she was crying. The doctors told us that the twins were coming. The bad news was that the hospital wasn't equipped to handle high risk premature babies, so my wife would need to be transported by ambulance to Bay State Medical Center in Springfield. Since I know a thing or two about geography (I was a long haul truck driver in a previous career), I asked how long it would take to get to Springfield. The doctor said about 45 minutes. My reply, "just wrap her up and I'll get her back home to Connecticut in a little over an hour."
It was at that point, that I realized the seriousness of the situation. The doctor said, "you don't know how sick your wife is...she could go into convulsions...she needs to go by ambulance to Bay State right now." My reply..."make it happen."
As soon as I got in the mini-van to follow the ambulance, I realized that my gas tank was on empty. When you have owned a car for awhile you realize how far you can push the gas gauge. There was no such luck this time as this was the very first trip we had taken with the van. I couldn't lose the ambulance and traveled the entire Mass Pike with the light on and bells ringing telling me I was almost out of gas.
While driving, I decided I had better call my in-laws and my family. Every single member of our families had told me it was a stupid idea to take a person on a trip when they were carrying twins and only 6-weeks from their due date.
We arrived at Bay State and as it turns out, we were at a hospital that was more than capable of handling high risk pregnancies. They halted my wife's contractions because as it turns out, only Baby A's water had broken. It seems that Baby B wasn't ready to come out.
As my wife went into contractions the next day, the families all started arriving at the hospital. Baby A was born at 5:02 p.m. and then the labor stopped. Baby B still didn't want to enter the world. The doctor's decided that Baby B was coming one way or the other and induced labor. That night, at 10:19, Baby B finally entered the world and joined her sister in the neonatal unit.
They spent a four days in Massachusetts and then were transported to Yale New Haven for another week of close monitoring and growing.
When their tour of New England had finally ended Baby A (Ashley) and Baby B (Brittany) were brought home nearly 2-weeks after being born.
My message to my two beautiful, bright, and precious daughters...I love you both with all my heart and each day you each make me so proud of you.
And to my readers...the Pickleman speaketh...don't drive on empty, don't take your high risk pregnant wives on trips during their final trimester, don't think you know more than skilled physicians, and don't worry about staining your car seats in emergency situations. But do love your wife and children every single day.
happy late bday
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