Birth Story: The Best Wedding Gift Ever

They were the cutest young couple. First baby. Doting Boyfriend.

She came in at 3-4 centimeters and they spent the morning walking around the unit hand in hand - the occasional doppler reading between trips per protocol.

By noon, the next doppler check was due, she and her husband were nowhere to be found.

 It wasn't unusual to have couples in labor walk around the unit or down to the cafeteria....or even out the door in the neighborhood for a little walk.  

An hour later I spotted them in the hallway.

"Hey -  there you two are!" I waved at them and smiled.  " I thought you had disappeared on me! I need to hear what your little one is up to.....how are things going - are you doing ok?"  I led them to their room.

They looked slightly flushed and a little bit sheepish. 

She handed me admission papers.

I took them from her and looked at them, not able to compute what they were for.  We already had her admission papers......and here were some -  with a totally different name on them.

"Oh....so the other admission papers weren't done correctly?" I asked.

"Ummm.  Yes they were.  Ah.... we just went out and got married.  Just now. My boyfriend......I mean husband [ he was grinning ear to ear at this point] didn't want our baby born without him being his legal daddy......" she explained between contractions.

Of course, all the nurses and docs had to congratulate them,  and we were wishing that we at least had a bottle of bubbly to give them!

Their best Wedding Gift ever came approximately 5 hours later.