{"id":107044,"date":"2025-12-24T00:20:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T00:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/107044\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T00:20:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T00:20:18","slug":"miller-childrens-womens-hospital-celebrates-little-christmas-miracles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/107044\/","title":{"rendered":"Miller Children\u2019s & Women\u2019s Hospital celebrates little Christmas miracles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long Beach Miller Children\u2019s & Women\u2019s Hospital brought in 14 newborn babies swaddled in Christmas stockings \u2014 just in time for Christmas Eve.<\/p>\n

Every holiday season, the hospital does a festive photoshoot for the parents of newborns, swaddling their bundles of joy in stockings to take home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[It] brings joy to the families but also the community too because new born babies symbolize new beginnings, new life, new opportunities for families,\u201d said Nicole Noche, the clinical operations manager for the postpartum unit.<\/p>\n

Nurses delivering newborn babies in festive Christmas stockings has been a Miller tradition for 63 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Miller Children\u2019s and Women\u2019s Hospital nurses held the snuggled up newborn babies, who displayed a range of emotions like crying and sleeping on Dec. 23, 2025. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)<\/p>\n

Noche, a 12-year nurse at Miller hospital, said they\u2019ve seen multiple generations of families participate in the event, creating a full-circle moment for many families.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Donning red bows, flower headbands and Christmas-colored necklaces, nurses wheeled in the newborn babies and presented them to their parents, beaming with pride and joy. As newborn babies were walked out, the parents circled the walkway, recording the special moment from a distance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For first-time father Fernando Hernandez, it\u2019s an exciting and life-changing event for him. \u201cI\u2019m excited to be a dad officially, that\u2019s life changing,\u201d Hernandez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hernandez\u2019s daughter, Fernanda, was born on Dec. 21 and the baby is expected to be discharged tonight pending lab results.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re glad, we\u2019re gonna be hopefully home right before Christmas,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re totally ready for it. We were expecting her to come a little later and she decided to move the date a little forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The freshman father said the event caught him and his wife by surprise and they were extremely happy to participate.<\/p>\n

\"\"Fernando Hernandez looks at his newborn baby Fernanda after coddling his baby, freshly delivered in a Christmas stocking on Dec. 23, 2025 in Long Beach. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the staff took care of my wife, the baby, myself included,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cBeing a first parent, it\u2019s a little nerve-wracking but they made the experience so much better, they comforted us for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noche said she wanted to bring the families an extra piece of joy along with their newborns, going that extra mile for their patients and the families in the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to thank the families who choose to deliver and be here, to have their babies here at Miller Children\u2019s Hospital,\u201d she said. \u201cWe feel honored and thank them in any way, shape or form and now through the holidays, we do that for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Fernando Hernandez and his wife are shown their newborn baby just before the newborn stocking event on Dec. 23, 2025 in Long Beach. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)<\/p>\n

\"\"Nurse Christine Nguyen wheeled the newborns out of Nursery 4 and back to the parents rooms after the newborn stocking event concluded on Dec. 23, 2025 in Long Beach. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)<\/p>\n

\"\"Fernando Hernandez and his wife smile as they walk through the Miller Women\u2019s and Children\u2019s Hospital walkway with their baby, two-day-old Fernanda, wrapped in a Christmas stocking on Dec. 23, 2025. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)<\/p>\n

\"\"Families and nurses smile with newly swaddled babies delivered in late December, as they hold the newborns and slowly rock them on Dec. 23, 2025 at the Miller Children\u2019s and Women\u2019s Hospital. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)<\/p>\n

\"\"The 63-year tradition of delivering newborn babies to parents continued on Dec. 23, 2025 in Long Beach as nurses and parents of newborn babies born in late December celebrate and hold the swaddled newborns. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)<\/p>\n

\"\"Miller Women\u2019s and Children\u2019s Hospital nurses hold the swaddled newborn babies as some of the parents record and watch in the background on Dec. 23, 2025. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)<\/p>\n

\"\"Smiles and laughter from parents and nurses fill the room as newborn babies let out occasional cries during the 63rd annual newborn stocking event at Miller Women\u2019s and Children\u2019s Hospital. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)<\/p>\n

\"\"Media and the parents of the newborn babies circle the small walkway on Dec. 23, 2025 as nurses wheel out the newborn babies at Miller Women\u2019s and Children\u2019s Hospital. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)<\/p>\n

\"\"After the newborns were delivered in Christmas stockings, they were returned back into the parent\u2019s room. Fernando Hernandez, the father of two-day-old Fernanda, held his baby as she slept quietly on Dec. 23, 2025. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)<\/p>\n

\"SamuelSamuel ChackoPhotojournalist<\/p>\n

Samuel Chacko is an award-winning photojournalist from Long Beach, California. Samuel currently works as a freelance journalist for multiple publications and he is a class of 2025 Cal State Long Beach graduate. Samuel loves watching sports (the Ravens and the Yankees) and taking photos.
Check out more of Samuel\u2019s work here: https:\/\/samuelchacko.com\/<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long Beach Miller Children\u2019s & Women\u2019s Hospital brought in 14 newborn babies swaddled in Christmas stockings \u2014 just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-107044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}