- Karina Largo gave birth to her baby under a Christmas tree in the lobby oft Orem Community Hospital a couple of days before Christmas.
- Jaxson was born three minutes after Largo arrived, surprising staff and family.
- The hospital gifted the family the Christmas tree Jaxson was born under.
OREM — For many mothers, a hospital is the ideal place to give birth.
"Yes, I wanted to have (him) in a room," said Karina Largo. "You always picture you'll be surrounded with doctors and nurses and helping you."
But sometimes, the baby just won't wait.
"My water broke by Center Street and McDonald's," Largo said. "I just felt like I needed to push, and my husband said, 'Just wait a little longer,' and I tried, but I told him, 'I can't, I have to push now.'"
The two pulled up to Orem Community Hospital around 2:49 a.m., just a couple of days before Christmas. Even getting to the door was a struggle.
"I was yanking at him and pulling on him," Largo said of their trip to the door.
"I mean, babies come whenever they want to," said Jessica Foutz, a labor and delivery nurse at the hospital. "People go into labor, and sometimes it goes really, really fast."
She and fellow nurse Corrina Bacon first saw Largo after a person at the lobby window spotted her.
"She looked up and noticed someone walking in the door and she said, 'I think I need to go grab a wheelchair for them,'" Bacon said. "As she ran out to get the wheelchair, we peeked through the window and could see that she was pretty uncomfortable."
Largo couldn't wait for a wheelchair. Her baby was ready now.
"I just want to lay down and I want to have the baby here, and the nurses were so nice," Largo said.
Just three minutes after walking through the doors, baby Jaxson entered the world — right there on the floor of the hospital lobby.
"It was the greatest gift. Just a simple birth," Largo said.
Jaxson's middle name is Ayani, Navajo for "buffalo." His family says that's appropriate, since he came into the world fast and strong. Of course, not making it all the way into the hospital isn't completely unusual in a place like this.
"We have done a few out here in the parking lot," Foutz said.
But one part of Jaxson's birth certainly isn't something that happens every day.
"I didn't even realize I was under the tree until I looked up and I was like, 'Oh! The branches!'" said Largo, thinking back on those moments after giving birth.
Jaxson was born right under the hospital's Christmas tree.
"It was definitely an unplanned gift, and I loved it," she said.
A gift for Jaxson's brother and sister, too. "They said, 'He's a cute baby, so I guess we'll keep him," Largo said with a laugh.
The hospital had a gift for the family as well — the very tree Jaxson was born under, which they loaded into the back of a truck and took home.
"I didn't really want him to come through Christmas, but the Lord knows its timing," Largo said. "He knew I needed this gift right now at this moment, so I'm very excited."
