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A Doubly Happy Birthday
Cousins who are the closest of friends have their babies only 17 minutes apart
Journal Photo by Bruce Chapman
Ashley Shepherd (left), her daughter at her feet, and Whitney Thompson, holding her son, meet and talk in the park.
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Published: September 8, 2008
When they were little girls, best friends Whitney Thompson and Ashley Shepherd imagined being mothers together one day.
"We wanted to have our babies about the same time," Shepherd said.
"We didn't say the same day," Thompson said.
But that's how it turned out.
On Aug. 4, they gave birth 17 minutes apart at Forsyth Medical Center.
At 2:42 p.m., Thompson and her husband, Kevin, became the parents of a boy -- Noah Ray Thompson.
At 2:59, Shepherd and her fiance, Justin Arnold, became the parents of a girl -- Aubrie Elizabeth Arnold.
The same doctor -- Scott Washburn of Lyndhurst Gynecologic Associates -- delivered both babies.
Shepherd's mother, Tammy Shepherd, and Thompson's father, Steve Fulton, are sister and brother, so the women are first cousins as well as best friends.
It all made for an exciting day at the hospital, said Tammy Shepherd and Steve Fulton's mother, Jettie Fulton. "Watching a son and daughter become grandparents on the same day was fun."
From the beginning, Shepherd, who turned 19 in April, and Thompson, who turned 20 Wednesday, were more like sisters than cousins, said Steve Fulton.
"They have been best friends their whole lives," Tammy Shepherd said -- so close for so long that they find it hard to analyze what they like so much about each other. One thing they appreciate for sure is that they can say anything to each other and know that it will go no further.
"I can trust her," Thompson said.
Shepherd was the first to find out that she was pregnant.
"She (Whitney) called a week later," Shepherd said, "and said, ‘Guess what? I'm pregnant, too.'"
In the months that followed, they served as sounding boards for potential names and read What to Expect When You're Expecting.
Both also ended up with Washburn as their doctor.
Neither thought to mention the connection to him. It was only after they ended up at the hospital an hour apart that he found out that they were best-friend cousins.
"They both got ready to start pushing at the same time," Washburn said.
Epidurals can make it possible to create some flexibility with the time of delivery, he said. So that's what they worked to do.
"I had to push as hard as I could," Thompson said.
"They made me stop pushing," Shepherd said.
Washburn had back-up in case it wasn't possible for him to be there for both of them. It turned out that he didn't need it. Seventeen minutes between births is by no means a personal record, he said. That is more like 2 minutes apart.
The Thompsons live in Walnut Cove. Shepherd recently moved from Kernersville to her mother's home in Winston-Salem. Arnold is in the Army National Guard, and, in the coming months, he will be sent to various bases in the United States for training in preparation for going to Iraq.
Now that the babies are here, the women expect their friendship to become even deeper.
"We have more to talk about now," Thompson said.
They have been talking on the phone at least once a day.
"Text messaging is usually all day," Shepherd said.
And, of course, they have to send pictures of their babies to each other every day.
They have caught up in person several times, and, in the years to come, those babies are going to be spending a lot more time together.
"They don't have to be best friends but they have to like each other," Thompson said.
■ Kim Underwood can be reached at 727-7389 or at kunderwood@wsjournal.com.
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