Kids & Family
2020's 1st Ocean Baby Arrives At Brick's Ocean Medical Center
The baby girl, born to Adriana Kelly and Doug Plaag, arrived five days after her due date to help her family joyfully ring in the New Year.
BRICK, NJ — Juliette Rose Plaag was supposed to arrive a couple of days after Christmas. But the newest resident of Seaside Park had other ideas.
While most folks were toasting the New Year and a new decade, the baby girl was making her debut, arriving at Hackensack Meridian's Ocean Medical Center in Brick as the first baby born in Ocean County in 2020.
Adriana Kelly and her husband, Doug Plaag, welcomed their daughter at 1:19 a.m. on Wednesday, and the little girl checked in at 7 pounds, 9 ounces and was 20-1/4 inches long.
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"We were hoping she would arrive at 1:20 a.m., which would have given her a birthdate of 1:20 on 1-1-20," Plaag said from Kelly's hospital room on Thursday.
The couple, who've been married for nearly four years, live in Seaside Park but both hail from Ocean County. Kelly, a social worker, grew up in Brick. Plaag, a sales representative, is from Toms River.
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The arrival of Juliette Rose is special for many reasons, Plaag said, starting with the fact that her middle name honors his mother, Rose, who died recently.
She's also the first grandchild on either side of the family.
"Unfortunately both of my parents have passed, but there is a whole family of aunts and uncles and more who are excited to meet her," Plaag said.
Kelly's parents are excited to meet their first grandchild as well, he said.
Having their daughter arrive on New Year's was a surprise and a bit of a relief, because she was due to arrive Dec. 27.
"We didn’t want her to arrive on Christmas, because we worried she would get shortchanged," Plaag said.
Kelly and Plaag arrived at the hospital about 3 p.m. on New Year's Eve because she was having contractions, and Juliette arrived a little over 10 hours later after about an hour and a half of Kelly pushing.
The couple has spent a lot of their 10 years together traveling the world, including multiple trips to Asia, Plaag said. But they're ready to settle in with their little girl and see where their new journey through parenthood takes them.
"This will be a change but we’re looking forward to it," he said.
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