Baby, it’s cold outside: Parents deliver daughter in subzero temperatures

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV/Gray News) – Nicole Namba and Wyatt Gray weren’t expecting to welcome their daughter to the world until Jan. 7, but their baby had other plans.

Namba knew on Dec. 22 it was time to go to the hospital.

The temperature in Colorado Springs was below 0 degrees Fahrenheit that morning, accompanied by snow and ice.

The inclement conditions made the trip to the hospital 15 minutes longer than normal.

Gray said about eight minutes from the hospital, Namba told him she had to push.

“At that point, I was asking her you know, ‘Is it OK if you wait? Can we wait? We’re only eight minutes away,’” Gray told KKTV. “And of course, she knew better than I did that you cannot hold that up.”

After calling 911, Gray pulled over and walked around to Namba in the passenger seat as the dispatcher talked him through the delivery of his daughter.

“Once I pulled that door open, I saw my baby’s head, and I about dropped to the floor. I’m on my knees, in the snow, in negative 14-degree weather,” Gray said.

Namba and Gray complimented each other on the process, with Gray saying that Namba seemed so confident, it was like she’d done it 100 times before.

“By the time he came around the car and opened the door, she was already coming out,” Namba said. “He ended up being Dr. Daddy, and catching her, and doing such an amazing job.”

After their daughter, Lilly, was born in the passenger seat of the car, Gray drove the rest of the way to the hospital, where the couple said nurses flocked them with jackets, hand warmers, and a wheelchair for Namba as soon as they heard what had happened.

“We ran through the whole hospital, and we got upstairs and we finished doing, like, checking on her, making sure everything was good,” Namba said, adding that everything has gone smoothly since.

Namba said Lilly is meeting all her milestones, eating great and is healthy.

The parents were in the hospital with Lilly for two days before they were able to bring her home to her two older brothers on Christmas Eve.

“The best present is to have her right before Christmas and actually get to be home on Christmas Day,” Namba said.

The parents said that the hospital gave them the option of listing the intersection Lilly was born at on her birth certificate, and according to them, she’ll be the first person with the cross street of Family Place listed on the document.

Copyright 2022 KKTV via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.