Gayla Thompson knew she was in for a wild ride as she experienced labor while speeding down the highway near the exit. She gave her husband Ryan, who was behind the wheel, an ultimatum: either accelerate or call an ambulance.
Convinced that Gayla wasn’t in active labor, Ryan made the decision to keep driving. Little did he know that their poor Jeep would never forgive him for that choice.
Gayla, a newborn photographer in Nashville, Tennessee, later revealed that she hadn’t realized she was in labor for two days leading up to this dramatic roadside birth. “Contractions were painful the day before, but super irregular, so we just figured it was really bad Braxton Hicks,” she explained.
In her area, children under 12 weren’t allowed in the hospital due to current restrictions, so she had to quickly drop off her five-year-old son, Connor, at daycare. The daycare was in the opposite direction of the hospital, adding to the challenge.
“I made a few phone calls while dropping him off and headed to the hospital. It was halfway there when the contractions got so bad that I could no longer scream and just went totally silent. That was the sign that told me the baby is on the way, and we won’t make it!”
That’s when Gayla presented her husband with a critical decision.
“I gave Ryan the option to get to the hospital and speed up, or call 911, which he refused to do because he was still convinced it was false labor. He finally called when Carson’s head crowned.”
Gayla continued, “Carson was born at 8:56 am on the side of Interstate I-440! His head was stuck for two solid minutes between contractions/pushing. Ryan pulled him out on the next push, and held him while I ripped my top off for skin-to-skin. He grabbed some shirts from the back to cover him while we waited for paramedics.
“It was the quickest and longest 10 minutes to wait for them! They took me and the baby to Vanderbilt Hospital, as Ryan followed. I delivered my placenta at the hospital (which was WAY more painful than the natural Jeep birth). I lost a ton of blood that prevented me yet again from getting any drugs. But all is well, and the baby is totally healthy! My poor Jeep, LOL.”
Sheridan’s path to motherhood was fraught with heartbreak. Miscarriages, months of invasive treatments, and IVF left her feeling defeated and praying for a miracle.
What happened next was beyond anything Sheridan and her husband Andrew could have ever dreamt of. They were finally pregnant—with twins. But with only one embryo implanted, how was it possible they were expecting twins? Incredibly, Sheridan had conceived naturally while she was already pregnant through IVF.
Andrew and Sheridan had always known they’d try for a baby as soon as they married, so when the NSW couple tied the knot in November 2018, they didn’t waste any time. In March 2019, they were ecstatic to discover that they were expecting.
“Andrew works away weekends in Narrabri, so he is away from Thursday to Monday every week. My first ultrasound appointment at 10 weeks gestation was booked when Andrew was away, so I attended the appointment by myself.
I lay on the table, bladder full, watching the screen. The technician went quiet and asked me how many weeks I thought I was. I knew at that moment that it was not good news; the embryo had stopped developing at around the 6-week mark. I left the appointment in a daze and somehow managed to make it home before I fell into a heap on the floor in tears.”
