HollyMatkinRochester, NY – When a pregnant New York State Police trooper began experiencing labor pains on Jan. 28, she headed over to the hospital maternity ward, and slipped into her favorite inflatable Tyrannosaurus Rex costume (video below).
In a Facebook live video recorded by the father-to-be, Brockport Police Officer Lucas VanDervort, Trooper Laura Lenhard, a devout dinosaur enthusiast, danced to Salt and Pepa’s “Push It,” as she worked through her contractions.
“Laura always had a bit of an obsession with T-Rexes,” Officer VanDervort told WHAM. “[She] said, ‘Well, we have to take the T. Rex costume to the hospital with us.’”
“He didn’t want to,” Trooper Lenhard added.
“Yeah, I’m not as huge of a fan of the T-Rex as Laura is,” he admitted.
“I had to beg him, but I said it would make me happy,” the trooper said.
The couple had incorporated the dinosaur throughout Trooper Lenhard’s entire pregnancy, to include pregnancy announcements that appeared to show a baby T-Rex in utero.
“’Push It’ was naturally on the playlist for when she went into labor,” Officer VanDervort noted.
“She pulled up the song on her phone and dressed up in the T-Rex costume, and the rest is history,” he said.
Trooper Lenhard danced in the hallway and throughout her room, as hospital staff looked on.
“It was a little bit of confusion, it was a little bit of excitement, it was a little bit of ‘this lady’s crazy,’’ Officer VanDervort recalled.
At one point when Trooper Lenhard seemed to be getting worn out, Officer VanDervort asked if she was ready to stop.
“You all done? Are you having a contraction right now?” Officer VanDervort asked.
“This was your idea,” he reminded her as she danced across the room, moving a little more slowly.
But Trooper Lenhard kept pushing through the rest of the song.
“Hey, can the doctor deliver my baby wearing this?” the trooper asked a nurse in the video.
The couple’s baby girl, Jordan, was born approximately 10 hours later, WHAM reported.
She already has her own stuffed T-Rex toy.
Watch Trooper Lenhard’s dinosaur-themed laboring technique, with Officer VanDervort narrating, in the video below: