Baby’s Coming!

On June 28 La Grange’s Halee Neiser went into labor and ended up having her baby Tess in an ambulance on the way to a hospital in Austin.

Mother and baby are doing well and Halee wrote about the experience online. We asked her if we could share her harrowing, but ultimately beautiful story in the newspaper and she agreed.

We are happy to share this with you ...

They say a picture is worth a thousand words but these are worth so much more. They’re proof God is real. They’re a story no one would have believed had I not documented it. They’re something that still seems so unforgettable but also I don’t remember the pain at the same time.

The pics tell it all really. I waited too long to head to Austin to “see if I was in labor” - I was induced with (our first daughter) Dani Mae so I never experienced contractions or uncomfortable cramping.

I went to a baby shower and then took Dani Mae to a birthday party the same day not knowing that I guess I was technically like in labor?

Imagine being a fly in the car on this adventure to Austin… IMAGINE!

Around 10 p.m. I started feeling more cramping that was getting uncomfortable. I couldn’t lay down and get comfy. After 30 minutes of convincing myself it wasn’t happening I was like “Justin, we gotta go.” My husband still had stuff to pack. I had stuff to pack - you know, normal Halee and Justin stuff.

We get on the road. Need to get gas and that puts us “10 minutes behind” according to Justin. At the pump I asked him for a blanket to sit on just in case, but “we didn’t have time” to get that to me. Later he’d regret not handing it to me.

I didn’t think I’d make it to Austin so I asked him to stop in Smithville. They don’t have a Labor and Delivery department there and neither does Bastrop hospital so save yourself some time and don’t go there.

Between Smithville and Tahitian Village my water broke. When I told Justin my water broke his exact words “How do you know?” I probably could have choked him out right then and there but he was my driver.

That’s when the contractions really started. And were hard to talk through.

So I called 911… through all the conversations with dispatch I told them we’d be at Buc-ee’s in three miles. The ambulance was less than a mile from Buc-ee’s so the timing was perfect.

We flashed down the ambulance and I managed to get on the gurney.

FYI - they cannot deliver a baby while the ambulance is in motion. So they did tell me that they’d check me and make sure baby wasn’t coming but that if baby started to come they’d have to stop and prepare to deliver… I asked for some pain meds. They also do not give you anything … FYI!

Since no baby was trying to escape just yet they started heading to hospital. Justin followed in our car behind us. They tried to take us to Bastrop hospital but like I said they have no labor and delivery Department …. According to Justin we were driving all over Bastrop County … they told him they’d only stop if baby was coming or something else happened.

WELL, WE STOPPED! The paramedic checked me and hollered “baby’s coming!”

I pushed twice and she was on the gurney. He looked away for a second and then the baby was there the next. The driver didn’t even have time to make it around to the back to assist.

Justin missed it all. I remember them opening the doors so he could come in… and his face being as white as can be. He was in pure shock that I had her already. He said he thought I was just starting to push or something. Not that I had already her!

When he finally got into the ambulance he asked me if I was okay. I was like ‘No dude, I delivered our baby in the back of an ambulance and have no clue what just happened!’

Anyhow, Tess was healthy and well taken care of by the paramedics. They did a phenomenal job and crossed every T and dotted every I! We exchanged hugs at the end. I couldn’t have done that without their encouragement and support. I didn’t get their names. So if you recognize them please let me know. One is in Smithville, one in Temple area and the lady - her name is Jennifer.

Since Halee wrote this original story, she has since learned the names of those medics with Acadian Ambulance Service that helped her so much. They are Jennifer Evans, Walter Petrash and Russell J. Cataldo Jr.

“They were incredible,” Halee said. “I kept saying I can’t do this, and they kept saying yes you can.”

Halee does lament that she and all the other mothersto- be in her friend group are building families in a Fayette County that no longer has a Labor & Delivery department (closed in 2017) or even a hospital (closed in 2023), and leaving expectant mothers here in a dangerous void.

As Halee has told her story to folks, she said that several people’s reactions have been along the lines of – ‘of all the people this could happen to, of course it was you ... you are the only one we know who could have handled something like this.”

“What’s that saying?” Halee laughed. “God gives his strongest battles to his toughest warriors.”