Kaitlin Carver found the perfect names for her twin boys after she gave birth prematurely while away from home
Credit: Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Kaitlin Carver unexpectedly gave birth to twins at 28 weeks while over 100 miles from her Virginia home
- Her husband Isaac missed the birth while saying goodbye to his father, who passed away the next morning
- The couple named their twins Knox and Neyland after the University of Tennessee, where Isaac’s dad once played football
Kaitlin Carver never expected to give birth more than 100 miles away from home.
The new mom, 28, traveled with her husband, Isaac Carver, 29, from their home in Virginia to Tennessee last April for a specialist visit. They were in Knoxville to see if one of their unborn twins possibly had a cleft lip and palate, but were supposed to head home shortly after their appointment.
But the night before the visit, Kaitlin went to sleep — only to wake up 30 minutes later to realize that her water had broken. She was only 28 weeks pregnant with her twins.
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"I was terrified," Kaitlin told Today.com, sharing that they were over 100 miles from both her home and her OB-GYN. "I knew they weren't ready to be born, and we were also so far away from home."
Kaitlin and her husband Isaac went to a nearby hospital and were then transferred to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville. By the morning, they learned that only one of the twins' amniotic sacs had ruptured. Kaitlin was then told she'd have to be in the hospital until she gave birth.
"They said, 'It looks like you're going to be here with us for a while, we'd like to get you to 34 weeks,' " she remembered.
As Kaitlin spent the next few weeks in the hospital, Isaac's father, who'd recently had triple bypass surgery, suffered a massive stroke. They were soon alerted that he would not recover, and Isaac went to be with him in Virginia. He was there when Kaitlin started to go into labor in Tennessee.
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Isaac quickly packed his things and headed to Tennessee, but missed the moment his little ones were born. The twins were delivered by emergency C-section and soon taken to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
"It's one of the greatest moments of my life," Isaac said of meeting his sons. But unfortunately, his dad passed away the following morning.
"We fully believe Big Poppy held these babies before handing them over to us earth side," Kaitlin wrote in an Instagram post. "I'm sure he had the biggest smile knowing that he got to meet and love on them before any of us."
When deciding on names for their sons, Kaitlin and Isaac reflected on their journey to welcoming their twins. They looked out their hospital window at the University of Tennessee campus. The college was already special to Isaac's family, since his late dad had played football there.
Credit: Getty
The two then decided to name their little ones after the school. Knox, for Knoxville, and Neyland, after the college's football stadium.
"We were tossing names around, not really sure," Isaac explained. "And then it just kind of hit us — that's exactly what their names needed to be."
"It's always going to be a reminder of where they started and where they come from," he added.
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