SURPRISE! SURPRISE! WE HAVE TWINS

On September 18 1961 I was watching the Jack Paar show which came on TV at 1030 PM. My wife, who was very pregnant came out of the bedroom and informed me we had better head for the hospital. I asked her why and she informed me that the water had broken. Back in my deep memories I had heard that when the water broke it would be a short time until we had a baby boy or girl.
We took off for St. Lukes hospital and, once we arrived, they put Mary in a wheel chair and took us to the maternity ward. I was very nervous and apprehensive and kept asking questions and probably getting in the way of the nurses etc. doing their duty. They sent me downstairs to check Mary into the hospital and get me out of their hair.
They asked me the usual questions about our address and other pertinent questions which I had no trouble answering. Then the lady asked me my wife’s maiden name and my mind was so full of all kinds of things that I could not, for the life of me remember her maiden name.
They then sent me back to the maternity floor and to a small room where husbands waited for the birth. I was a smoker at the time and smoked cigarettes one aftert another. Going through my mind were all kinds of things. What would the baby look like? What color hair would it have? Would it have all the parts it was supposed to have? Would the baby ever come? We were four weeks early so no Xray had been taken prior to the birth.
Shortly after midnight the nurse came in with our little boy who had been born at 12:25 AM. He weighed 5 pounds 4 ½ ounces. All I could see was his face. It was beautiful.
I breathed a sigh of relief and sat back in the chair while the nurse started to leave. As she opened the door she exclaimed, THERE’S ANOTHER ONE RIGHT BEHIND HIM.
This opened a whole new can of worms in my mind, which was full to overflowing. Would this be a boy or girl? Would this be a long wait. I had no time to wait as the nurse returned and reported we had a girl born at 12:31 AM. She weighed 5 pounds 1 ½ ounces. The nurse said she couldn’t bring the girl in as she was turning blue and they had put her in an incubator.
What do I do now? Do I dare call anyone in the middle of the night? I thought I would call my Dad. I told him we had twins but that he couldn’t come up the hospital as only the husband was allowed on the floor. He answered me with, typical of him, The hell I can’t, and It was a short time until I heard him bellowing up the hall.
We named our precious babies John Charles Stuelke and Lisa Elllen Stuelke. They finally let me in the room and we got to see both babies. They were perfect.
I returned home and thought , now I must find another bed, another high chair, anoither stroller etc. etc.
We went to the hospital to bring the twins home and the Doctor decided they couldn’t come home until they gained back to their birth weight Finally, they regained the weight and we were able to hring them home.
We have watched them grow up and, graduate from college, get married and have children of their own.. Thank God for our twins.