The cycle of life pays little heed to Mother Nature. Snowdrifts and icy roads? Babies don’t care. Across the country, they defied the massive snowstorm and kept coming, with the help of firetrucks, ambulances, Humvees and, in at least one case, good ole dad.
In Chicago, Julia Johnson went into labor close to midnight Tuesday. Her husband tried to free his car from 18 inches of snow, but eventually called 911. She made it to the hospital courtesy of a firetruck and an ambulance. (More on Time.com: Too Many Babies Are Delivered Too Early: Hospitals Should Just Say No)
“Definitely next time, if I have a baby in the winter, I might book a hotel room closer to the hospital and get to the hospital early – and often,” Johnson told the Chicago Tribune.
In Missouri, the National Guard dispatched Humvees to transport a woman in labor to the hospital. But a hospital delivery wasn’t in the cards for an Iowa infant who arrived with her father’s help at home at 3:42 a.m. Wednesday. A neighbor hopped on his tractor-cum-snowblower and helped clear a path for emergency responders, who eventually made it out to Lindsay and Buck Kastle’s rural home and certified that everyone — even the dad — was A-OK. (More on Time.com: Dad Helping with the Kids? Moms: Expect Conflict, Not Cooperation)
Even famous folk weren’t immune. In Manhattan, magician and stunt-man David Blaine and his fiancée Alizee Guinochet flagged down a snow plow to transport them to the hospital, where Guinochet gave birth to a daughter. They’d tried to no avail to hail a cab, Fox News reported, but there were no cars in sight. Car services weren’t venturing out either.
Despite his magical prowess, Blaine — who has made headlines for doing extremely unproductive stunts such as transforming himself into a human ice cube for 63 hours or suspending himself in a watery tank for a week in Lincoln Center — was apparently unable to make the copious amounts of snow blanketing Greenwich Village disappear.