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Blizzard of babies reported in Denver

  • Story Highlights
  • Denver hospitals reporting increase in baby deliveries
  • Staff at one hospital working overtime to handle deliveries
  • One couple escaped snow but got caught in baby blizzard
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(CNN) -- The weather can affect your travel, your mood and apparently the size of your family.

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Edie is a proud blizzard baby, and her parents have already bought her a snowsuit for this year.

Denver hospitals are reporting a baby boom, which is arriving about nine months after two blizzards walloped Colorado's capital city. With roads shut down for days, couples were stuck at home and apparently cuddled up to stay warm.

Marjorie Silva told the Rocky Mountain News that she has a new baby because she didn't want her husband to play in the snow during the blizzard.

"It was cold, and we took a bath together," she told the newspaper, referring to husband Hansell. "And one thing led to another. He wanted to go outside and play with the snow, and I didn't want to. ... We just ate and stayed in bed."

Hospital staffers are working extra hours and using an overflow unit to take care of all the new babies and moms at Avista Adventist Hospital in suburban Louisville, according to Lynne Snyder, the director of women's services.

One baby couldn't wait to get to the second-floor delivery room. The doctors had to go to Mom at the bottom of the stairs, and everyone went into the emergency room to help the infant into into the world.

The infants are going home with T-shirts pronouncing them proud to be a blizzard baby. Video Dad: We waited nine months for our Christmas present »

Edie Coddington is wearing one of those shirts, even though her parents, Odele and Ian, were out of town when the storms hit. They were visiting family in Calgary and had to wait until the two blizzards cleared before they could get back to Colorado. Edie was a very happy surprise, Odele Coddington said.

Their joy is shared by co-workers who are having an "enormous rash" of blizzard babies, Ian Coddington said, adding that company picnics will be very entertaining in about five years, when the babies are older and running around.

For now, more babies may be on the way. Sky Ridge Medical Center, just south of Denver, expects a 20 percent increase in deliveries in October. One doctor at the hospital told CNN affiliate KMGH that he expects the baby boom to last for couple of more months.

"The snow stayed on the ground throughout December, January, and into February. My theory is that the cabin fever didn't set in until a little bit later," Dr. Steve Grover said.

Although the new parents and hospitals are having fun with the term blizzard babies, officials say it will be months before it can be determined whether there is any connection between the blizzards and the new arrivals.

And previous purported baby booms have been discounted after experts studied the numbers, according to The Associated Press. University of North Carolina and Duke University researchers found there were no booms after the New York City blackouts in 1965 and 1977.

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But already, Denver-area businesses say they are benefiting from a boom in sales.

"We've also been selling a lot of diaper bags and blankets. I'm completely wiped out of blankets. I can't keep up with the blankets," Linde Schlumbohm, the owner of Studio Bini, told the TV station. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

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