July 3rd has always been a joyous day for the Cumberbatch family. That’s Elmo Cumberbatch’s birthday. But it looks like he’s going to have to share the spotlight in the future.
From now on, there will be three Cumberbatch birthdays to celebrate the day before Independence Day.
And grandpa couldn’t be happier about it!
A double surprise
The New York family was blessed with two new members – Hailey and Liberty. And they just happened to be born on grandpa’s 70th birthday.
Shari and Simone Cumberbatch are Elmo’s daughters, and they both happened to get pregnant around the same time.
They were both due in mid-July of 2019, but their little girls had some fireworks of their own planned.
A slight delay
When it turned out Simone would be having a C-section, she was able to schedule the birth of her daughter. She actually chose July 3 on purpose so her little one could share a birthday with her grandpa.
Not to be outdone by her cousin, Shari’s baby decided to come early! Hailey and Liberty were born four and a half hours apart.
In fact, when Shari went into labor hours before her sister’s scheduled C-section, she ended up postponing the second birth by a few hours. But both girls ended up being born on the same day.
“The doctor said, ‘We’ve got an issue. Your sister was induced and I didn’t expect her to go into labor until later but she’s 8 centimeters dilated and I’m going to have to take care of that,'” Simone Cumberbatch recalled to Good Morning America.
Shari gave birth to Hailey at 12:57 p.m. and Simone gave birth to Liberty at 5:30 p.m.
A joyous occasion
The two sisters live close to each other in Queens, so their baby girls were actually delivered by the very same doctor at the same hospital – Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre.
The hospital posted a special announcement about the coincidence on Facebook to celebrate:
“The Cumberbatch family has a lot to celebrate this holiday! Sisters Simone and Shari were both due to deliver their baby girls in the middle of July but baby Liberty and Hailey had other plans… they were both born on July 3rd at Mercy Medical Center, which happens to be Elmo Cumberbatch’s (dad to Simone and Shari) birthday! The family says that Fourth of July festivities will never be the same. Grandpa, moms and babies are all doing great!”
A festive 4th
Family get-togethers on the 4th of July are about to get a lot more festive!
Grandpa Elmo seemed to be looking forward to it – in fact, he seems to have had an inkling something like this could happen:
“I always used to say what if, what if it happened, not knowing it would actually happen,” he told a local CBS News station.
Now, the family will certainly find out. And holiday weekends will likely stretch out a day longer to accommodate all the festivities.
Shari and Simone are convinced their baby girls will be close.
“I’m kind of hoping her cousin will be her best friend,” Shari Cumberbatch said.
It sounds like the family has more than enough love to go around for all three July 3rd birthdays.
Be sure to scroll down to the video below to see the family tell their sweet story!
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