Dulaney prayed endlessly and supported his wife, who was an emotional wreck many nights at the hospital. He also played some of his early gospel songs for the baby at the hospital.
“Nobody can take that away from our relationship,” Dulaney says about those nights in the hospital.
Two years later, the couple had to live through this experience again. This time, though, Kenyetta was pregnant with twins. Doctors determined early that the pregnancy was high risk.
Her water broke at 22 weeks. The first twin didn’t survive. Still, no one knew why her cervix couldn’t hold the babies.
“Once the first baby came out, my cervix actually closed back,” Kenyetta says. “It’s crazy because that never happens.”
She kept her baby girl, Taylor, inside for about four more days. Again, while on bed rest, she felt the urge to urinate. As she used the bedpan, her baby girl came out at 1.7 pounds. The medical staff didn’t think the baby was viable. But Dulaney and his wife begged the nurse to rush the baby to the NICU.
Taylor underwent the same heart surgery as her older brother. Today, she’s a healthy 3-year-old girl.
“They are just, like, clowns,” Dulaney says affectionately about Todd Jr. and Taylor. “They like to play, athletic, all of that. We’ve been blessed for real.”
With her third child, Tyler, who went full term, Kenyetta asked for a cerclage (cervical stitch) along with taking progesterone shots in hopes of preventing premature birth. She said the doctors didn’t want her to have a cerclage, but she would not back down.
Tyler was born in August 2015 at 8 pounds.
“Once we started getting higher in months, I was like, oh yeah. We’re rolling now,” Dulaney says. “Anything that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. We been through some things but any type of hardship will make you stronger as long as you continue to press forward.”