March 02, 2010

Oh, baby! Surprise guest joins wedding party

CLAUDIA BOYD-BARRETT
BLADE STAFF WRITER

Invitation or not, Tova Phillips wanted to be at his parents' wedding reception.

He didn't quite make it, though.

By the time he arrived on Saturday, the wedding party had moved to Flower Hospital in Sylvania, where his mother gave birth to the precocious party-crasher.

"I don't think anybody expected it," Jamie Phillips said as she held her tiny son in her arms yesterday, her wedding veil still lying next to the sink in her hospital room. "It was a running joke, but when it actually happened everybody was like, 'You've got to be kidding!'•"

Tova's surprise arrival was a possibility the newly married Mr. and Mrs. Phillips of South Toledo hadn't taken too seriously when they planned their wedding two weeks ago. Both said they wanted to "do the right thing" and get married before the baby was born. The little boy was due March 7, so the couple thought they had a few days to spare. Still, Mr. Phillips had packed two hospital bags in the car, just in case.

Mrs. Phillips said she started feeling contractions as she walked down the aisle with her father at Calvary Assembly of God. She dismissed them as Braxton Hicks contractions, the type that are felt throughout pregnancy but do not signal labor.

Even when her water broke while she sat down to eat at the reception table, Mrs. Phillip imagined she might have a bladder problem. "I didn't have any pain, so I thought: Did my water just break, or am I having trouble controlling my bladder today?" Mrs. Phillips said, laughing.

As discreetly as she could, Mrs. Phillips described how she got the attention of her best friend and maid of honor, Mary Anthony, who, by pretending to fix the bride's shoe, confirmed that the baby was indeed on the way.

The news took even Mrs. Phillips by surprise. "Try to pretend nothing's going on when you've got 100-plus people in front of you!" she said. "All I could think was, 'How can I get out of here?'•"

It didn't take long for the word to get out, though. A few minutes later, Ms. Anthony announced the impending birth to the guests.

Mrs. Phillips' sister, Jessica Meyers, said she couldn't believe what was happening. "I really thought they were kidding," Ms. Meyers said. "Everybody had been joking about it since before the wedding. I thought it was a joke."

When Mrs. Phillips arrived at the Flower Hospital maternity ward in her wedding dress and veil, the nurses were surprised too.

"We'd never seen anything like it," nurse Meghan Junga recalled. "We were excited. It was very fun. She made my day."

Clinical Manager Cindy Ziemkiewicz, who has worked at Flower Hospital since 1975, said she'd never seen anyone arrive at the ward in a wedding dress before.

"I thought I'd seen all the firsts," Ms. Ziemkiewicz said. "This shows you just never know."

Yet despite the unexpected end to their wedding, the new Mr. and Mrs. Phillips said they wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

"I'm absolutely thrilled, I'm still floating," said a beaming Mr. Phillips, as he cradled his son. "I've got my wife and my son and I couldn't be happier. It's all I need."

 

LINK TO PHOTO:

http://www.toledoblade.com/article/20100302/NEWS16/3020359