Arina Donahue's daughter made her dramatic entrance into the world on an historically blustery day. Little Emily was born as both of her parents struggled to get to the hospital during a massive snow storm.
Arina, a nurse at Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood, Pa., was getting ready to head into work from a coworker's house when her water broke three days early.
"I was like, 'Oh my God, I can't believe this is happening,'" she said. Luckily, she had two fellow nurses by her side.
Both Arina and her boss were staying with a co-worker near the hospital, so they wouldn't have to travel far during the storm.
Initially, the two nurses didn't believe the mom-to-be.
"They were laughing at me, saying I was trying to get out of work," she said. When they realized Arina wasn't kidding, they jumped into the car to make their way to the hospital.
"My manager kept telling me, 'Don't have the baby in the car! No babies in the car,'" she said, laughing.
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Once safely at the hospital, Arina called her husband Garth to tell him their little girl was ready to make her debut. But Garth was an hour and a half away at the couple's home in Delaware. With all of the snow, he worried he would miss his daughter's birth.
"I was like, 'I can't believe this is happening,'" Garth said. "I didn't know what to expect, you know, it's our first baby, I didn't know how long it was gonna take."
So with the clock running, Garth grabbed a shovel and dug out the driveway in the heavy snow. He made his way up to the hospital in plenty of time to catch the arrival of Emily Caitlin.
Doctors say Arina's labor may have been induced by the Nor'easter's falling barometric pressure as it moved off the coast and intensified.
Regardless, the couple has dubbed Emily their little "miracle in the snow."
