Twin preemies arrive in a snowstorm

By Maureen Gilmer, Riley Children’s Health senior writer, mgilmer1@iuhealth.org

Lillian and James Manship picked an exciting time to begin pushing their way into the world – in the middle of a snowstorm and well before their due date.

The twins, the first children of Clay and Diana Manship, arrived in the middle of the night at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, hours after the city was blanketed by nearly a foot of snow Jan. 5-6.

“I had been perfectly fine. I had a great pregnancy,” Diana said from James’ room in the NICU at Riley this week. She and her husband alternate time between James in one room and his sister right next door.

At 25 weeks pregnant, Diana, a Riley NICU nurse herself, wasn’t expecting her babies to arrive so quickly.

“I had no symptoms. I was asleep and woke up around midnight, and my water had broken.”

The couple, who live Downtown, began the treacherous drive to the hospital, at one point following the tracks of a snowplow clearing streets in the darkness.

Normally a 10-minute drive, the trip took close to 30 minutes, Clay said, but they pulled up to the doors of the Riley Maternity Tower at about 1 a.m. Jan. 6. Diana had planned to give birth at IU Health North Hospital but knew they had to go to Riley.

Clay threw the keys to his truck to a valet at the maternity tower entrance and hustled his wife upstairs to labor and delivery.

There, the team was able to pause the delivery for 24 hours, but the twins refused to wait any longer, arriving at 2:12 a.m. and 2:13 a.m. Jan. 7. They were immediately transferred over to the NICU in the adjoining Simon Family Tower at Riley.

“It was quite an experience,” Clay said, thinking about the mild panic they both were feeling at the time. “I stayed as calm as I could, given the situation.”

Because it was so early in Diana’s pregnancy, the couple didn’t have a “to-go” bag packed, so they arrived with just the clothes on their back, he said.

Today, they are counting their blessings, despite the rushed delivery. Both babies are doing well, mostly working on lung development. James has already been extubated and is breathing with oxygen support, while Lillian is not far behind, Diana said.

“Lilly is a minute older, and she’s the one who broke my water, so we tease her a lot,” the new mom said. “She was ready to come out, but James was pretty cozy in there.”

As a NICU nurse, Diana is no stranger to the care of micro-preemies, but it’s wild being on the other side of their care as a mom, she said.

“I can’t silence the alarms like I used to, and I can’t have access to all of the equipment,” she said, “but it’s really comforting to know all of my wonderful co-workers are taking great care of them. We feel very blessed that we’re here and that they are being taken care of by the people I trust.”

For now, they are content to embrace their role as new parents, rejoicing over every milestone their twins achieve.

And theirs is a story they will share with family and friends alike as the babies grow.

“Someone somewhere has to give birth at 2 in the morning, and someone somewhere has to drive through the snow to do it,” Clay said. “You can focus on the bad luck of it or focus on the good luck of having two healthy kids. We choose to focus on the good.”

The babies, who weighed just over 2 pounds each at birth, will likely be in the NICU for at least two months as they continue to grow and develop.

“We have a long road ahead of us, but we look forward to the challenge,” Clay said. “The more the storm, the more the strength.”