I have been low-key waiting for a prompt like this. The story of finding out I was an aunt is probably the most dramatic story of my life (so far) so I figured I would write about it lol

This story begins a little over three years ago. I had actually just completed my first day working for the school, so I was still highly stressed from that big change. That evening, I get a text from my sister, asking if she could come over so we could talk about something. Instantly, I am on edge because usually she is the type of person who just spills everything over the phone, so I knew it was a different situation. While I was waiting for her, I remember making the comment, half-jokingly, to Kolton about how she was probably pregnant. We both looked at each other hesitantly, unknowingly foreshadowing the chaos that was to come.

My sister gets there, and she wants to talk out in the car. One of her friends, whom I had only met once or twice before was with her which I thought was odd. I take a seat in the car and am just waiting for something to drop lol She is clearly making small talk about work to stall the inevitable, so her friend starts prodding her to spill the beans. She takes a deep breath, and begins with “You know I love you right?” It just sort of clicks in my mind what this is about just based on her absolute nervousness and reluctance to tell me. Before she can get anything else out, I blurt out “Are you pregnant?” a sort of relief quickly washes over her face, and she confirms with handing me the ultrasound pictures and yep, there is a baby. So, I am pretty shocked at this point, but I quickly notice the date of the ultrasound, of which she got this done in November of 2021. I pause, as it was then August of 2022…I then ask how far along she was since that nine-month cooking time is cutting it kind of close you know? She then hands me this other note with her supposed due date, and it was in fact 6 days previous. So, not only did I just find out I was going to be an aunt, but my sister was also almost a week OVER-due.

*I think it is important to note here that my sister has always been a slender and small person. We had actually just met with her that past weekend and when I say you could not tell she was pregnant, I am not joking you. She would also wear baggy shirts so at the most, it looked like she had just put on a few pounds. Again, I was not going to mention the weight gain since you would expect people to come out and be honest that they were pregnant*

I start panicking a bit and asking all these questions about how my sister has been feeling. Luckily, the baby has been active and nothing out of the ordinary has been happening. I then ask if our mom knew what was going on and of course, I was the first family she had told. Now, while this was incredibly short sighted of my sister, it is important to understand that we do have a pretty religious family. My sister and her boyfriend were obviously not married so she was stuck in her head with how everyone would react. As it would turn out, everyone loved my niece to pieces, regardless of the circumstances but I get the hesitancy. Also, the baby daddy was no longer in the picture, so I felt like everything was shoved onto my shoulders all of a sudden.

At this point, I should have forced her into the hospital right then and there but again, I had absolutely no idea what to do so I make a plan for that following day. After I get off of work, we are going to tell Mom, and we are all taking a nice, calm trip to the hospital. Oh, how that would not be the case lol

That very night, I cannot recall when my sister called but it woke us up out a dead sleep. She was having some pain and was unable to tell me if she was having contractions or not. She had actually tried taking a shower to alleviate the pain so her water could have broken without her realizing it. Kolton and I quickly get ready and pick her up. I instantly become aware that she has gone into labor due to her moments of pain and calmness. I am trying to calm her down while telling Kolton where to go, I was on one lol We finally make it to the hospital and are starting the whole interrogation process with a nurse. They could not understand the fact that there was no plan of action for this moment, so we had shown up at the closest hospital. As it turns out, this hospital no longer delivers babies…. however, my sister was clearly far too down the path, so they got a bed set up anyways. I will spare you all the traumatic details of childbirth, but my niece is delivered, and my sister is having a time, but she and Lillian are both healthy. Thank God for that man. Bearing witness to birth when you are not emotionally, mentally or physically prepared, is a trip man!

Also, I will take the time to mention how much attitude the staff was giving my husband. Everybody just assumed he was the dead-beat dad who did not go into the room with us. I was too absorbed into the circumstances to clear anything up and I do get why they made that assumption. However, it was actually aggravating the crap out of me. Just ask instead of immediately treating him like crap. He is literally just the ride lol Chill out.

They both get ambulanced to the nearest hospital with a labor and delivery section, and we are following along behind them when my mom calls my sister’s phone. Instantly, I start panicking again because my mom still has no idea, she is now a grandma. I pick up and tell her to meet us at the hospital. I try to explain that everyone is okay, and I want to have this conversation with her in person.

We make it to the hospital when my mom calls again. I somehow always forgets she is terrible with technology, so I am trying to lead her here without fully knowing where she is at. She then drags the news out of me and at this point, I am getting beyond exhausted, so I just drop the bomb on her, and she honestly reacts very calmly about it which was good. The whole reason I did not want to tell her when she was driving was because she has a terrible tendency of freaking out and I did not want her to get into a wreck because she cannot handle her emotions.

She eventually makes it up to the hospital and the everything goes a bit calm for once. Lillian ends up having to stay a bit in the NICU due to decreased oxygen levels, but she is in good health. My sister ends up spending just a couple more days in the hospital so that was a blessing as well. My sister had the unfortunate job of telling our family individually about the surprise. I would have loved to hear those conversations but alas, I went back to work the next day. I just thank God everything turned out alright and everyone was healthy.

I am sorry for the long post but man, this was the most chaotic and stressful events of my life so I though it matched this prompt.