For over 60 years, the Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach has continued an adorable holiday tradition: swaddling newborns born between Dec. 23 and Dec. 26 in Christmas stockings.
These little holiday miracles were nestled in oversized stockings as a special keepsake to celebrate their first Christmas before nurses wheeled them back to their parents.
“It was beautiful,” local mother Hivon Quezada said of the hospital’s holiday tradition. “I liked it, such an amazing experience.”
Quezada’s newborn son Andre Armani laid peacefully in his giant red stocking, waiting to go home for the first time on Monday morning.
A few feet away, another baby gave his new lungs some exercise, wailing from within his stocking. It was a full circle moment for the Cardwell family, since dad Seth Cardwell had taken part in the very same tradition when he was born at the same hospital over 40 years ago.
“We thought for sure he would come on Christmas, but we’re grateful that he’s able to join our family and his siblings right before,” said mom Ahrisa Cardwell. “He’s so precious.”
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