Like a play-by-play for a movie script, the birth of two babies has helped make Father’s Day extra-special this year for one Cleburne family.

Brothers Cody and Michael French, both of Cleburne, each welcomed a child into the world June 6 at the same hospital within a quarter of an hour.

“They were 14 minutes apart from each other, and that wasn’t expected,” said Teresa French, mother of Cody and Michael and grandmother of the two babies.

The close births were a surprise, Teresa said, because the babies originally had two different due dates.

“Yeah, you know, it’s funny how things work out,” Cody said. “For all of it to unfold within 14 minutes.”



The families

The French family lives in Cleburne.

Teresa, 54, and Tommy, 58, are the parents of Cody, 29, and Michael, 25.

Cody has a wife, Leslie, 24, a daughter, Gracelyn, 1, and his newest child, son Gage.

Michael’s family is wife Charla, 25, son Erik, 6, son Justin, 2, and his newest, daughter Carly Annette.

Both babies were due in June, but no one expected them to be born within minutes of each other in the same hospital.

“Michael’s daughter was due June 1, and Cody’s son was due June 29,” Teresa said. “Well, one decided to wait, and the other decided to come early!”

The proud parents were in rooms one and four at Harris Methodist Walls Regional Hospital early on the morning their babies were born.

Teresa, the grandmother, was torn.

“I was running back and forth from room to room,” she said. “Somehow I managed to make it to both of the births.”

Grandfather Tommy was home watching the babies’ older siblings.

Michael and Cody have always been competitive, Teresa said. They’ve also been full of surprises.

Apparently babies Carly and Gage have more in common than their birthday.

As it turns out, Michael, Charla, Cody and Leslie chose the same day to announce the pregnancies.

“They all announced it on Christmas day that they were expecting,” Teresa said. “So it was destined.”



The birth

Gage was born first at 10:54 a.m., and Carly followed at 11:08 a.m, but the race to the finish was anything but short.

Both women went into labor hours before.

Cody and Leslie, whose baby wasn’t due for weeks, had been to see her OB/GYN on June 5 for a routine appointment.

“He said everything was fine,” Cody said. “Her due date was June 29. But then that night her water broke. I’d been up all night painting the house, and it was about 2 in the morning. I was just getting ready to go to bed when her water broke.”

Cody and Leslie were in disbelief at first, but their daughter Gracelyn had also been premature, so they knew it was possible for Gage to be premature, Cody said.

At 3:25 a.m., they called Teresa.

“That’s pretty much when we panicked,” Leslie said.

“We got to the hospital in less than 10 minutes,” Cody said.

Meanwhile, Michael’s wife Charla was supposed to begin induced labor at 6 a.m., but she went into labor on her own, also at about 2 a.m.

When Cody and Leslie called Michael and Charla, a bit of confusion ensued.

“We called her to tell her we were at the hospital,” Cody said.

“She thought we were there for them,” Leslie said.

“We’d told them we would be there for Charla’s induced labor,” Cody said. “So then it was like, no, you don’t understand: Leslie’s in labor too.”

The brothers, always competitive, had just begun playing a new game.

“Then it was a race, after that,” Charla said. “My husband was coming in there every five minutes going ‘We’ve got to beat them!’”

“It’s a friendly competition,” Michael said.

“By the end of it, people were saying, oh, you must be the family with the two babies,” Charla said.

“Once the whole competition thing was over, it was nice,” Leslie said.

Carly weighed a healthy eight pounds 11 ounces; her premature cousin Gage weighed in at exactly three pounds.



Father’s Day

“Between all the hospital visits, I definitely learned what it’s like to be a father that day,” Cody said. “I got broke in that day.”

Cody went from watching his son being born to holding his niece. Soon after the births, Cody’s 2-year-old daughter, Gracelyn, became very sick and needed treatment in the emergency room at Walls.

“I hadn’t been asleep at all,” Cody said. “First the paint, then the babies, then Gracie was sick, and I spent the next seven or eight hours with her in the emergency room at the same hospital.

“I think I figured out why people drink coffee. It’s because they’re tired from being a parent. It’s hard work! And then by the time their kids are grown, they are addicted to it so they can’t stop.”

Teresa laughs as her son talks. She and her husband had wanted grandchildren for years.

“It was just maybe two and a half years ago my Dad was telling me we needed to get busy and have grandkids,” Cody said. “And now he’s got four in two years.”

For Cody, Father’s Day will be special this year because he finally has the boy he wanted, he said.

He’s known for 15 years he wanted to name his son Gage someday.

“I was really excited that this one was gonna be a boy. I wanted someone I could take fishing,” Cody said.

Gracelyn has a little brother to pal around with. Erik and Justin have a little sister to pick on.

Cody and Michael kept their competitive spirit about them and are now thrilled to help care for their babies.

“We both lost the competition on two boys,” Cody said. “But the neat thing is we both got a boy and a girl.”

“I think it’s cool we had them so close together,” Michael said.

“It’s brought us all together,” Charla said.

“It’s making Father’s Day a big day, with everybody getting together,” Leslie said.

“It’s overwhelming,” Cody said. “It’s definitely a good thing. It was just a happy day all around. We were taking turns holding the babies. The cool thing is, it’s a boy and a girl, so you got the best of both worlds right there. They’re going to grow up really close, and that’s a good feeling.”

The families vowed to do whatever it takes, including move, to ensure that Carly and Gage attend the same school.