Get thee to a nursery! Babies named Romeo and Juliet delivered at same hospital, to different parents, hours apart.
A baby boy named Romeo and an infant girl named Juliet were born within 18 hours of each other, in the same hospital, to parents united only by circumstance.
The fair Juliet and the handsome Romeo entered the world at Coastal Carolina Hospital in Hardeeville, South Carolina, on Sunday. He came first, at 2:06 p.m., and Juliet followed 18 hours and 8 minutes later.
The parents were in adjacent rooms, but had never met.
The hospital’s newborn photographer, Cassie Clayshulte, had already taken images of Romeo Hernandez, the son of Morgan and Edward, when she was hired by Juliet’s parents, Christiana and Allan Shifflett.
“I got their names and then I said, ‘Oh my God.’ It took a minute for it to sink in,” Clayshulte told InsideEdition.com Tuesday night.
Then she went running to the nurse’s station to see if HIPPA (federal patient confidentiality) laws allowed her to tell the parents about their babies’ names, she said.
The nurses said sure, so back Clayshulte ran, telling both sets of parents: “I’d really like to photograph them together!”
The moms and dads were just as excited as she was, Clayshulte said. “They were so excited, I think they were just shocked,” she said.
Alas, the infants were not bestowed with their famous names because of Shakespeare. Rather, Juliet’s parents wanted a name that began with ‘J’ because they already have a son named Jason, Clayshulte said.
Romeo’s parents named him after a singer they admire.
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To take the joint photo, Juliet was wheeled into Romeo’s room, accompanied by her grandmother. Mom had just had a C-section, so she wasn’t going anywhere.
“She couldn’t even move her toes yet,” Clayshulte said.
After capturing the sleeping babes swaddled like burritos in their matching hospital blankets, the photographer secured permission to post the images on the internet. So did the hospital.
“I put them on my Facebook page and then my mind was blown,” she said.
Media outlets picked up on the interesting coincidence and by Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of likes appeared on social media.
She is already thinking ahead. She informed the infants’ parents that she would be available to shoot wedding photos, she said.
Watch: Twins Seen Holding Hands in the Womb Still Cuddling After Birth
