LAGUNA HILLS – From the moment they were born, Jack and Robbie Lawson were record-breakers.
At a combined 18 pounds, 13 ounces, the brothers are the largest set of twins delivered in the more than 25-year history of The Women’s Hospital at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center.
After 39 weeks of pregnancy and more than 14 hours of natural labor, Samantha Lawson, 27, of Aliso Viejo, gave birth to Jack Riker Lawson (9 pounds, 10 ounces) at 12:55 p.m. on Aug. 20, followed 20 minutes later by Robbie Ripley Lawson (9 pounds, 3 ounces) born at 1:15 p.m.
“Everyone was shocked because you just don’t see that,” said Dr. Daniel Sternfeld, who delivered the twins. “It’s so rare.”
Twins are usually delivered about a month early and the average twin babies weigh about 5 pounds each, Sternfeld said. While he didn’t know of any official way to check, Sternfeld said he believes Jack and Robbie are likely among the largest twins in the county and, possibly, state history.
“They’ve been nursing like champs. I’m kind of worried about having to nurse 18, 19 pounds of baby, but they’re doing great,” Lawson said Thursday, a day after the twins’ births.
When Lawson and her husband, Jesse Lawson, native southern Californians who moved back from the East Coast last September, decided they were ready for a second child, they thought it would be nice to give their 3-year-old daughter Michelle a baby sister.
At the couple’s first ultrasound, Jesse Lawson didn’t initially realize what the doctor was showing him.
Once the doctor pointed out the twins, “we were both like ‘ah, what?’” he said. “Because we had just figured out, OK, yeah, we could have another kid, we can do a little girl, a little sister.”
“Got twin boys instead,” Samantha Lawson said.
Despite the change in plans, the pregnancy was “picture perfect,” she said, with no complications or issues.
Both parents knew the boys were going to be big, but it was still a surprise just how large they ended up.
“I got really big, bigger even (than normal) for twins,” Samantha said. “But our last growth scan, they told us they were going to be about 7 1/2 pounds, so they were off a little bit on that.”
The Lawsons came into the hospital Tuesday evening, once Samantha’s contractions were about three minutes apart. Their primary doctor, Dr. Kenneth James, happened to be away on vacation, so Sternfeld stepped in to help.
The couple knew, after a tough induced labor with Michelle, that they “wanted to keep it as natural as possible,” Samantha said. Once she was almost ready to push, Samantha got a little rest thanks to an epidural, then made the move to the operating room, where it is standard procedure to have twins delivered.
Jack was the first to arrive, older by 20 minutes and bigger than Robbie by about half a pound and half an inch. The delivery lasted about 45 minutes.
After a day of recuperating, the Lawsons were discharged Friday.
“For a woman to be able to hold those babies in and then successfully deliver them, have a normal delivery, it’s amazing,” Sternfeld said. “It’s an amazingly rare thing and a happy ending for everybody.”
As the newly expanded family recovered on Thursday, Michelle cradled one of her newly born, record-breaking brothers, taking quickly to her role as a big sister.
“Ever since they’ve been born she’s been calling them ‘My babies,’” Jesse said.
Michelle had been excited about having younger brothers, talking about how she would teach them to share once they arrived.
“We’ve talked a lot about it. She saw my belly getting bigger and felt them wiggling,” Samantha said. “We got her a couple books on being a big sister and she’s taking to it awesome.”
Michelle even got to help name her brothers, selecting the boys’ first names from a short list of fairly traditional names narrowed down by her parents.
The middle names were up to Dad and both came from favorite pieces of pop culture: Riker after “Star Trek” character William Riker and Ripley after Sigourney Weaver’s character, Ellen Ripley, in the film “Alien.”
Twins didn’t run in either Jesse or Samantha’s family, but they had been somewhat prepared by Michelle, who was a 10-pound newborn.
“We grow ‘em big,” Samantha said.
Contact the writer: 949-454-7323 or jwilkinson@ocregister.com
