What do you do when your sister gives birth six weeks early? Run to Target for baby supplies, of course!
Barbara Bush described how her twin sister, Jenna Bush Hager, helped out after she and her husband, Craig Coyne, welcomed their daughter, Cora Georgia, several weeks early, and in a different city than they’d planned.
Barbara, 40, was supposed to give birth in New York City, but her water broke unexpectedly during a visit to the Bush family home in Kennebunkport, Maine.
So, in a serendipitous twist of fate, Barbara ended up giving birth in a hospital named after her late grandmother, the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital in Portland, Maine.
In a recent People interview, Barbara revealed that her sister flew to Maine the day after Cora was born and “went to Target and did a big run.”
“We didn’t have a thing,” Barbara said. “We just weren’t expecting it. We didn’t have a car seat to bring her home from the hospital in or any of the necessities one needs with a baby.”
Jenna, who collaborated with Barbara on an upcoming children's book, "The Superpower Sisterhood," shared with People that she was “nervous” for her sister because she “knew that she was unprepared physically — meaning she didn’t have the diapers or the nursery set up.”
“But she was, of course, prepared because I think she has all the love to give,” she added.
Soon after her Target run, Jenna got to spend some quality time with baby Cora.
“Today is the day I got to meet my most beautiful, precious, feisty, niece (a bit earlier than we expected!),” Jenna wrote on Instagram at the time, sharing sweet photos of her new niece. “I witnessed in awe as my dearest, toughest @barbara.p.bush became a mama. And today is the day I fell in love! Some cousins are anxiously waiting to play with you, but not just yet love. Xx auntie j.”
The TODAY with Hoda & Jenna co-host recalled how meaningful it was to hold Cora see her sister as a mom for the first time.
“I got to hold [and] meet the baby and see Barbara through totally different eyes,” she told People. “She hasn’t needed any advice. But I think watching her fall in love — and now I get to have a baby niece — is so much fun.”
Jenna also shared that her children — Mila, 9, Poppy, 6, and Hal, 2 — “are totally obsessed” with 6-month-old Cora.
“To watch them fall in love with this baby has been the most beautiful gift,” she said. “Hal’s only 2, but he prays for baby Cora every single night.”
Jenna previously spoke on TODAY about how she reacted when she learned her sister had gone into labor.
“I woke up to a text message on Monday morning,” she said. “I burst into tears, I was frantic, I woke up (husband) Henry (Hager). He was like, ‘What?’ I’m like, ‘She’s in labor!’”
She also shared that her dad, former President George W. Bush, helped her stay calm.
“One of the things that I think is so cool about my parents is all my dad wrote back to the text: ‘God is good,’” Jenna said. “And it all of a sudden calmed me. I was kind of frantic. I was nervous.”