Gabriel Lee and Aliyah Sarai couldn’t wait another day to meet their mommy Paticia Strickland of Worcester, Massachusetts. The twins, who were due Feb. 27, decided to come five weeks early, in the middle of the city’s historic blizzard.
Paticia said, “It was ferocious, like the snow was going everywhere, you could barely see.”
Paticia was home Monday night when her water broke. With her boyfriend’s car snowed in, they called 911.
“I was crying the paramedics I’m like 'I can’t walk, I can’t walk,'" said Paticia. "He’s like 'you can do it, you can make,' so we get into the ambulance, there was like snow everywhere, it was crazy but that wasn’t even my concern, I was just like 'please get me out of here, get me to the hospital in time.'”
But little Gabriel couldn’t quite wait long enough to make the short drive from Park Ave to UMass Memorial on Belmont Street, so one of the paramedics had to deliver him in the middle of the storm.
Paticia said, “He looks down and he’s like 'oh my God you’re breech' and I could tell like he probably didn’t deliver a baby before, so we’re both like looking at each other like oh my god, he’s on the phone, he’s like 'your baby’s coming' and another big push and my baby was out on the stretcher.”
Paticia says a minute later, they made it to the emergency room where Aliyah – not as adventurous as her older brother – was delivered by doctors and nurses there. Both are in the NICU weighing a little over four pounds each and doing amazingly well.
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Paticia's boyfriend hadn't even made it to see his newborn twins as of midday Wednesday because he was still snowed in with the couple's three older children. As of right now, the twins should only have to stay in the hospital another week before they can come home.
