MUM’S BIRTH SHOCK!
‘I always give birth on the same date’
When Ashleigh Nightingale’s first child Amber entered the world on May 14, 2008, her family thought it was a little “freaky” given Ashleigh’s mum Jane and brother Craig were also born on the 14th. But not only would Ashleigh’s other children (Hazel, five, and Olive, one) also arrive on the 14th of the month – she also wed her husband Pete Nightingale on the 14th and even her in-laws, Bob and Melissa, got married on the 14th!
Fourteen is also the number of months it’s been since Ashleigh, 32, welcomed Olive, on March 14, 2020, despite her March 1 due date.
“You couldn’t get further away from 14, so we thought,
‘It won’t happen this time’,” laughs Ashleigh. “Then it did and we were like, ‘It can’t be. Another 14?’”
Ashleigh had the same thought back in 2008 when she and her ex, Ayden, welcomed Amber two days early. She and Ayden eventually split, so it wasn’t until she met Pete while playing poker at the Kaipara Tavern that Ashleigh started thinking about babies again.
“I asked him, ‘Would you want to get married again?’ He said, ‘Yeah, with the right person. Would you have more children?’ I said, ‘Yeah, with the right person.’”
Ashleigh’s due date with Hazel, their first child together, was April 16, 2016. Amber stayed up late on April 13, convinced her mum would give birth on the 14th. Just 10 minutes after Amber finally went to bed, Ashleigh’s waters broke. Hazel arrived the next morning. “My brother came to meet her and said, ‘Another 14?’ Nobody could believe it.”
Two years later, Pete proposed to Ashleigh at the Warkworth waterfront on her birthday. The Wellsford-based couple tied the knot on March 14, 2019.
She explains, March was a good time of year for a wedding and the 14th fell on Thursday, which made things cheaper and everyone could take a long weekend.”
Within months of the nuptials, Ashleigh was pregnant again, with a due date of March 1, 2020 – prompting family to predict the baby would arrive on Valentine’s Day. Apart from Ashleigh’s dad Tony, few guessed Olive would arrive two weeks late, on her parents’ first wedding anniversary.
“It got to March 13 and my mother-in-law said, ‘I’m coming to stay. It’s gonna happen
tonight’. At 2am, I woke with contractions. My midwife said, ‘It’s the 14th. Let’s have a baby!’”
Olive arrived the next morning. Interestingly, the birthdays run in ascending age order, with Olive in March,
Hazel in April, Amber in May, Craig in June and Jane in July.
Just days after Olive’s birth, the country entered lockdown, so Ashleigh faced caring for a newborn with the whole family stuck at home. She says “best dad ever”Pete, who owns Nightingale Kitchens, kept Hazel busy making teddy bear and Easter egg cutouts for their
front yard, while Amber did schoolwork.
“It was funny watching everyone on Facebook day-drinking in the sun and wondering, ‘Why am I not enjoying lockdown too?’ Then realising, ‘I have a newborn!’ It was tough at times.”
But not as tough as the moment Olive became ill shortly before her first birthday – amid Auckland’s level 3 lockdown – in late February. Drinking water and urinating excessively, she was tested and diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. “My world came crashing down. I burst into tears,” shares Ashleigh.
Rushed to Starship Hospital with dangerously high blood sugar levels, Olive remains the hospital’s youngest patient currently being treated for the non-genetic condition.
Initially, Olive would bawl anytime a nurse entered the room, knowing needles would follow. She’s admirably adjusting to facing insulin injections four times a day and even holds her
finger out for prick tests now. Since so many factors, including exercise and mood, can affect blood sugar levels, the family bought a continuous glucose monitoring device (CGM), which makes keeping tabs on her health easier. The devices aren’t funded and Olive’s costs $100 every two weeks.
“There are also pumps that produce insulin and eliminate the need for constant injections,” says Ashleigh. “The technology’s amazing, but not all of it is funded. It’s a shame there are things to make patients’ lives easier, but not everybody can access them.”
Ashleigh, who quit working at Olive’s preschool after her diagnosis and is now training to be a lash/brow technician, is planning a fundraiser to help preschoolers access such equipment. And if it involves raffle tickets, you can guess what number her family will choose.
“If 14’s available on a raffle ticket, we always take it,” she tells, adding the clan sometimes return to their car to find they’ve parked in a number 14 spot. “I can’t think of anything I’ve won with 14, though – other than my kids!”
‘I can’t think of anything I’ve won with 14 – other than my kids!’