SALT LAKE CITY -- Eric and Heather Bailey made dinner reservations for two, but when the family left they departed as three.
The Salt Lake City couple were celebrating their Valentines Day early Tuesday after they learned their baby was due on February 14, but they never made it through the main course.
Mark Eaton, part owner of the Tuscany, knows a thing or two about delivering because he played alongside the Mail Man, Karl Malone, on the Jazz for years. But, even he was surprised to learn that a different kind of delivery took place at his restaurant Tuesday night.
“I asked our hostess if I could actually have this table because I had had them once a few weeks before,” Server Sydney Malmrose said.
Malmrose helped deliver her baby sister when she was just 15, so she felt comfortable talking to the expecting parents, but as she went to grab their food, Heather Bailey got up.
“I had kind of intermittent contractions through the first two-three courses,” Heather Bailey said.
Usually the bread comes out first, but as Malmrose dropped off the main course, little did she know, she’d soon be asked to grab the bun in the oven.
“She was gone for several minutes, and so I started to get concerned, and so I flagged our server Sydney down,” Eric Bailey said.
Malmrose said: “So I was, like, jokingly: ‘Hey, you want me to go check on your wife and make sure she’s not going into labor in the bathroom?’”
And so she did, and when she walked in the restroom, she heard Heather Bailey.
“Was calling from over here, ‘Heather you doing okay?’ And heard some definite labored noises," she said.
It was a shock, but Sydney says she remained calm, having helped deliver once before. She said she rushed to grab Heather’s husband, and told the hostess to grab some towels.
“We rush into the bathroom, and I arrive just in time to basically catch,” Eric Bailey said.
“By the time I'd run downstairs to grab a bag of wash cloths, we came back and the baby was crying, it all happened so fast," hostess Jacie Slaymaker said.
Within ten minutes, the Baileys were welcoming their brand new baby boy, Christopher, into the world.
But they didn’t leave the restaurant without snapping a few photos with the staff. They said the food was good, and the service was fantastic.
“We never ever thought we would say we had a baby inside a restaurant, but yeah, apparently he didn’t want to wait,” Eric Bailey said.
