Hurry.

Even though his wife, Monica, was 26 weeks pregnant with triplets, Greg Barton didn’t initially feel a sense of urgency when he received a call from their OB-GYN office that Monica was having contractions. He left work and headed home. Then he got her one-word text.

“‘Hurry.’ That’s all she said. And I knew it was pretty grave at that point,” he said.

When Greg got home, Monica was in tremendous pain, trying desperately not to give birth on the spot. They got in the car with the intention of making the hour-long drive to Nashville, where they had a birth plan at a local hospital, but when it came time to make the left turn to head in that direction, Greg found himself literally at a crossroads.

“If I turned left, we’d go to Nashville. That’s where I really wanted to go. That’s where our doctor was and the nurses who knew our story and would be on the lookout,” he said. “And if I turned right, we’d go to Vanderbilt Tullahoma-Harton Hospital. It was the difference between an hour drive and a 10-minute drive, and with the amount of pain she was showing in the way she gripped the door handle, I didn’t think we had much time.”

Greg considered VTHH as a good option for a minor health concern but wasn’t sure it was the right place for their emergency situation.

“It’s a small regional hospital for this area,” he said. “If my family needed a small ER or something outpatient, we would always go to VTHH. If it was something serious or a second opinion, we’d go to Nashville.

“I was panicked to have them at a regional hospital because it was a high-risk pregnancy and premature triplets. I thought maybe if we went to the ER, they could stop the process or put us in an ambulance that could get her to Nashville quicker than I could, or even LifeFlight. I didn’t know at that point and was about as scared as I’ve ever been in my life.”

The original plan was for the Bartons’ OB-GYN to induce labor between 32 and 34 weeks. They thought they had plenty of time. They were wrong.

“We thought we had six to eight more weeks to get ready for them,” he said. “And in the blink of an eye our whole world changed.”

‘Something didn’t feel right’

On the morning of June 28, 2023,Monica Barton told her 4-year-old son, Carter, that they were going to pick out a curtain for the triplets’ room and go to Bible camp that evening.

“The next thing I knew, something didn’t feel right. It was like my stomach was upset; I knew something was off,” she said. “I was on the phone with my sister, who had just had a baby two weeks prior, and I said, ‘What’s the rule about contractions again?’ She reviewed it with me, and I said, ‘I think I need to get off the phone.’”

Monica, who had joined several triplets groups, had read that if you went into premature labor, the doctors could stop it. But things progressed quickly, and the pain was severe.

“That’s when I realized I’m going to have these babies today,” she said.

She moved Carter to her room and put on a show to keep him pacified, then called her OB-GYN. A staff member asked if Monica was able to call Greg. Monica, who was on the floor, “begging my body to cooperate,” said she couldn’t. So, the woman clarified his number, hung up and called Greg, then called Monica back to say he was on his way.

“I was terrified. I was afraid I was going to lose them. I knew they were way too early, and that we didn’t have what we needed to have them at home,” she said. “Even if I had one baby, I didn’t know if I’d be able to stop or if they would all come. I was so scared, but I was also like, I can’t have them here.”

Monica’s father-in-law arrived to take Carter to his house, and Greg was right behind him.

“Greg asked me if I could get to the car and I said yes. And he asked me if I thought I could make it to Murfreesboro, and I said I didn’t think I could,” she said. “And then we go to the end of Thornberry Road.”

Trusting local care and calling ahead

Greg made a quick decision: He called 911 and asked them to tell VTHH they were on their way.

“The dispatcher kept saying, ‘Don’t have her push,’ which is easier said than done with a woman who’s having contractions,” Greg said. “I remember saying a quick prayer in my head to help me get there safely and to help her hold on. Babies’ lungs aren’t fully developed at that point, so my mind was racing.”

The drive took about 10 minutes, each of which felt like hours to the Bartons.

“I believe I passed a few people. I’m not going to say they were legal passes, but I was just praying and having faith that everything was going to work out,” Greg said.

When they arrived at the emergency entrance, there were two nurses waiting with a wheelchair.

“When I called 911, I said, ‘You’ve got 10 minutes. I’ve got premature triplets,’” he said. “I swung in, opened the door, and they wheeled her off to the operating room. I can’t thank them enough for the swift action they took.”

 

A quick check confirmed that Monica was past the point of an epidural.

“It got very exciting, very quickly,” Monica said. “They all just kept begging me to keep holding the babies in. It would come in waves, and I would think I don’t know if I can do it. And then I’d have a relaxed moment; then it’d hit again.”

H. Mather Bennett, MD, the on-call obstetrician that day, told Monica that part of the reason they wanted her to wait as long as she could was that they were trying to get as many staff members on site as possible.

“Everyone was so kind. I knew once I got up to the room, and they told me to keep waiting so they could get everything they needed that the boys were going to be okay,” Monica said. “I was definitely reassured.”

When Greg met with Bennett, he called Monica’s original doctor in Nashville, handed Bennett the phone, and they collaborated on a plan. The triplets would be born at VTHH.

“Dr. Bennett was very transparent. I never questioned his logic or choices. He was so calm and knew exactly what he was doing,” Monica said. “I felt confident because I could hear his confidence.”

Monica delivered the first baby, Matthew Keith, naturally and had the other two, John Michael and Weston James, via cesarean section due to risk factors. At birth, Matthew Keith weighed 2 pounds, 2 ounces; John Michael weighed 1 pound, 8 ounces; and Weston James weighed 1 pound, 14 ounces.

“There was a nurse in the operating room, I wish I knew her name, but she worked at Vanderbilt NICU years before and transferred to Tullahoma. She was barking out orders to every nurse in there,” Greg said. “Everybody’s energy level was through the roof because of the circumstances, and she said, ‘Brain is the main thing we’re focused on right now. Brain and breathing.’ I credit her for taking charge in that room.”

Once the babies were born and whisked away to warming beds and heat lamps, Monica was moved to postoperative care, and Greg found himself in another big moment.

“They came in and said all three boys were stable and awaiting ambulances for transport to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. They asked for names so they could start the paperwork,” Greg said. “We hadn’t picked out names, and Monica was in and out from the anesthesia, so we scrambled to pick out the names for all three boys. That was terrifying and a unique experience I didn’t expect. It may have been rushed, but we could not have picked better names for our boys. We love their names and who they have become.”

Later that night, after Monica was able to get up and move around a bit at Monroe Carell, Greg wheeled her down the hall to see the boys.

“They all had their own room and were in their little incubators. Goodness they were so tiny,” she said. “I was so relieved. I knew I had controlled every bit of it that I could at that point and then I got to let the hospital work its magic, which they did.”

Each boy went home at a different time. Matthew Keith was the first on Oct. 11, 2023, after spending 105 days in the NICU. Weston James went home on oxygen on Nov. 2 after spending 127 days in the NICU. After 130 days, John Michael was off of oxygen and able to come home on Nov. 5.

“It was a long time. We could probably make the drive from Tullahoma to Nashville with our eyes closed,” Monica said. “I had a NICU journal. Looking back, the things they were able to do, the little goals that they would set, the setbacks that they would have — that feels like a lifetime ago.

“They had to train their bodies to do things that would’ve naturally happened if they’d been born later. You don’t realize how much their bodies need that time. But it’s amazing to see that their bodies were able to learn things based on what the NICU had and what the nurses and doctors were able to offer.”