A suburban couple faced challenging circumstances Sunday when a pregnant mother began having contractions ahead of her scheduled C-section delivery as more than 19 inches of snow blanketed their Arlington Heights home.
Chicago’s fifth largest blizzard in history hit at the least ideal time for the couple. And as the expectant father frantically starting shoveling the Super Bowl snowfall to clear the roadway outside of their suburban home, he quickly realized he wasn’t going to be able to beat the blizzard and keep up.
With no side street snow crews in sight, Margie began having contractions, the Daily Herald reported.
"We thought we'd have to call an ambulance, but we didn't know if they could get down the street either," she told the Herald.
That’s when quick-thinking kicked in and the couple called the Arlington Heights police and public works departments. The city sprang into action, quickly dispatching two snow plows to the home in effort to help welcome their next newborn resident.
"We paid special attention overnight in case they needed to get to a main road," the city’s snow village command spokesman Glenn Adams told the Herald. "I have four kids so I know it can be fast or it can take hours. We just wanted to make sure everything was good."
Margie said without their help, they wouldn’t have been able to get out of the driveway to make it to the hospital.
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Sam Vincent was born at 9:26 a.m. at 7 pounds and 10 ounces, thanks to the city’s help.
"We just started referring to him as our 'blizzard baby,'" Adams told the newspaper.
